Sentencing bias series a finalist for national awards

The Herald-Tribune’s “Bias on the Bench” investigation is a finalist for two national journalism awards.

The December series is up for the American Society of News Editors’ Batten Medal, which honors achievement in public service journalism, and for the organization’s Dori J. Maynard Award for Diversity in Journalism.

The newspaper’s competitors in the first category are the Boston Globe and Houston Chronicle. For the diversity award, the other finalists are the Tampa Bay Times and Washington Post.

The Herald-Tribune’s series, which has sparked proposed state legislation, found judges throughout Florida sentence black defendants to harsher punishments than whites charged with the same crimes under similar circumstances.

“The finalists for the 2017 ASNE Awards represent the absolute best in American journalism,” ASNE president Mizell Stewart III, vice president of news operations for Gannett and the USA TODAY Network, said in a statement on Tuesday. “One thing that stood out for the judges was that many of the finalists represent innovative reporting partnerships that are local, national and even global. News organizations are becoming more creative at delivering real, trustworthy information to readers locally and around the world.”

The ASNE contest drew more than 350 entries.

“Bias on the Bench” was also a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, administered by the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. The Goldsmith was won by Mother Jones. Other finalists included The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal.