Investigative Reporter
Marc Perrusquia is the director of the Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis. He's won numerous national awards for feature writing and investigative reporting.
45 articles by Marc Perrusquia :
Beginning today, the Institute for Public Service Reporting at The University of Memphis, in partnership with The Daily Memphian, reveals the results of its exclusive investigation of “The Mess," the Memphis Police Department's mishandling of 12,000 rape kits.
A retired manager of the Memphis Police Department’s property and evidence room confirms sex crime records destruction in 1990’s purge.
A Memphis police officer's repeated use of a Taser headlines more questions about use of force at MPD and why the agency isn't referring cases for prosecutorial review.
A handcuffed prisoner is pepper sprayed in the face by an MPD officer in another case not referred to prosecutors to consider criminal charges.
TBI report paints a haunting portrait of Brandon Webber, but also poses troubling questions about law enforcement tactics behind his shooting death.
Questions surface as city officials limit access to police brutality files and sidestep requests for comment regarding excessive force.
The manual search through Memphis Police Department's excessive-force investigations is a slow and tedious process. But a recent search uncovered a file on the 2015 police beating of a suspect that reportedly wasn't referred to the Shelby County District Attorney's Office for review of the officers' conduct.
A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Brandon Webber offers a radically different narrative for his officer-involved shooting that stirred wide unrest in Memphis over police use of force.
Memphis City Council member JB Smiley is pushing a resolution to urge Mayor Jim Strickland’s administration to put data, complaints and other information regarding police misconduct and use of force on the city’s website.
In a demand letter to Sheriff Floyd Bonner, the ACLU and others allege that unsanitary conditions and inadequate preventative measures are jeopardizing the health of detainees in the jail.
As Mayor Jim Strickland vows to 'fix' police brutality against African American citizens, his staff puts up roadblocks to accessing records.
Nursing homes are among the hardest hit by the coronavirus - nearly four in ten deaths in Shelby County occurred in those facilities.
“At some point this pandemic will have run its course and we’ll get back to normal. ... Now, the question is when?’’
As Tennessee begins easing coronavirus restrictions today, Memphis leaders continue to grapple with reopening plans. Has Memphis kept pace with peer cities in the region? And how do its coronavirus response and recovery plans fare with its great rival to the East — Nashville – which already has published a plan to reopen gradually over the coming months?
If Memphis hopes to use data that monitors social distancing compliance, it may have to first come to grips with its long history of political oppression, including intrusive surveillance of activists and ethnic minorities.
Social distancing may last another eight weeks or more. And, even then, don't expect Memphis to reopen overnight.
Did we do enough – soon enough – to avert a catastrophe that could overwhelm our local hospitals?
American Civil Liberties Union official says more information is needed from the Shelby County Jail as well as other detention facilities and prisons across Tennessee to not only protect inmates’ health from COVID-19 but that of the larger public too.
As the coronavirus threat heads toward an expected surge later this month that could overwhelm the county’s healthcare system, experts fear the potentially life-threatening outbreak at Carriage Court could be a bellwether for the county’s 58 licensed nursing homes and assisted care facilities, several situated in some of Memphis’ poorest communities.
Nick Cloud is one of nearly 400 people in Shelby County who’ve contracted the coronavirus COVID-19 infection, but his may be a special case. Cloud, an assistant Shelby County Public Defender, has been in and out of the Shelby County Jail meeting with clients.
The Tennessee Department of Health releases the latest numbers: 93 cases of coronavirus confirmed in Shelby County and 615 cases in Tennessee.
The city could close parks if social distancing is not maintained.
Lloyd Kimble, a 55-year-old Navy veteran, is a detective of an entirely different sort, one most people never think about.
An emergency petition filed with the Tennessee Supreme Court seeks the release of numbers of inmates from local jails and prisons as COVID-19 outbreaks begin to appear across the state.
As the number of COVID-19 cases in Shelby County continue to rise, Just City, a nonprofit criminal justice reform organization, is armed with $50,000 from the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization and another $25,000 from an anonymous donor with the intention of bailing out several Shelby County Jail inmates this week who are believed to be vulnerable to the virus.
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