New revelations cast doubt on the official story that Billey Joe Johnson accidentally killed himself.
Criminal Justice
Crime and punishment, from the street to the courtroom and prisons
Mississippi Goddam Chapter 6: Mississippi Justice
There have long been concerns about the quality of investigations into suspicious deaths of young Black men in the state, especially when police are involved.
Mississippi Goddam Chapter 5: Star Crossed
Billey Joe Johnson was a Black boy dating a White girl. That made the story behind his death even more complicated.
Mississippi Goddam Chapter 4: The Investigator
When a detective with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation finds out what Reveal has uncovered, he begins to wonder whether Billey Joe Johnson’s case should be reopened.
Mississippi Goddam Chapter 3: The Autopsy
The autopsy of Billey Joe Johnson helped a grand jury conclude that his death was an accident. But an independent review of the autopsy came to a different conclusion.
Mississippi Goddam Chapter 2: The Aftermath
On the morning of Billey Joe Johnson’s death, crime scene tape separates the Johnsons from their son’s body. Their shaky faith in the criminal justice system buckles as authorities fail to follow up on inconsistencies in the official story.
Mississippi Goddam Chapter 1: The Promise
Billey Joe Johnson Jr. was a high school football star headed for the big time. Then, early one morning in 2008, the Black teenager died during a traffic stop with a White deputy. His family’s been searching for answers ever since.
The jail tapes in the dumpster
A murder conviction sent Myon Burrell to prison for life when he was a teenager. An investigative reporter dug into what seemed a hopeless case. What she found helped free him.
Juvenile (in)justice
Wyoming locks up kids at the highest rate in the nation. A mother tells the story of how her daughter’s fight snowballed into incarceration and tragedy.
Pardon me, President Trump
Boxer Charles “Duke” Tanner, among the few to receive clemency from President Donald Trump, returns to his hometown after spending 16 years in prison.