The Marshall Project recently earned awards and recognition from three leading industry organizations: the Institute for Nonprofit News, the Online News Association, and NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists. These honors highlight the organization’s editorial excellence, innovative multimedia and digital work, and its continued commitment to shining a light on the U.S. justice system.
“We’re deeply honored to receive these awards, which reflect the breadth, depth and talent of our extraordinary staff,” said Geraldine Sealey, acting Editor-in-Chief of The Marshall Project. “We’re grateful to the judges, as well as to our media partners and collaborators.”
The awards include:
Institute for Nonprofit News (INN)
Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism 2025 Nonprofit News Award
- Large Newsroom Category for “The Hardest Case for Mercy” by Joe Sexton. The reporting focused on the work of people who make the case for mercy in death penalty cases — in this case, the defense team of Nikolas Cruz, who fatally shot 17 people and wounded 17 others at a high school in Parkland, Florida, in 2018.
- 2025 Journalism Collaboration of the Year for “Unsolved,” a joint investigation by The Marshall Project, St. Louis Public Radio and APM Reports exploring why St. Louis has more than 1,000 unsolved homicides, the impact on families and the complexities that police face.
Online News Association (ONA):
- Online Journalism Award for Excellence in Social Media Engagement (Medium Newsroom) for a package that included an Instagram carousel by Kristin Bausch on Shoshana Walter’s reporting exploring the complications parents face with faulty drug testing at delivery; a YouTube Short of Walter and Chris Vazquez discussing how that testing causes parents to lose their children, and other related social pieces on Reddit, TikTok and Instagram. The five posts were seen more than 1.5 million times and spurred more than 1,000 comments combined. This is the first time that ONA has honored The Marshall Project in this important category, which was added in 2022.
- Excellence in Collaboration and Partnerships for “Unsolved.” Journalists who worked on the project included Alysia Santo, Katie Park and Anna Flagg of The Marshall Project, Rachel Lippmann and Brian Munoz from St. Louis Public Radio, and Tom Scheck and Jennifer Lu from APM Reports.
- Digital Video Storytelling, Social Media (Small/Medium Newsroom) for the “Criminal Justice 101” social video series, by summer intern Katrina Pham and Chris Vazquez. They broke down several terms and concepts in the three submitted videos and discussed charges, jail vs. prison, and parole on YouTube Shorts. The videos were also cross-posted to TikTok and Instagram Reels.
- Topical Reporting: Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Identity (Medium Newsroom) for “The Many Dangers Facing Transgender People in Prison,” which was a combination of The Marshall Project’s reporting in 2024. In “What Being Trans in Prison Is Really Like,” we gathered voices of people across the country: a trans man in Georgia, and trans women in Texas, Tennessee and Florida. The project’s team included Beth Schwartzapfel, Bo-Won Keum, Aithne Feay, Park, Chris Cortez, Akiba Solomon, Tom Meagher and Ashley Dye. That was followed by Schwartzapfel’s coverage of a transgender woman who had sued the federal Bureau of Prisons over 100 times during her almost 20 years in federal prison. The pieces “3 Things to Know About Prison Violence Against Transgender People,” and “New Florida Prison Policy on Trans Health Care ‘Like Conversion Therapy,’” which were published in partnership with the Tampa Bay Times, were part of this submission.
NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists:
- Excellence in Multimedia Award in NLGJA’s Excellence in Journalism Awards for 2025 for “What Being Trans in Prison Is Really Like.” The project’s team included Beth Schwartzapfel, Bo-Won Keum, Aithne Feay, Katie Park, Chris Cortez, Akiba Solomon, Tom Meagher and Ashley Dye.
These recognitions underscore The Marshall Project’s continued leadership in criminal justice journalism. Founded in 2014, the nonprofit newsroom has won two Pulitzer Prizes, been named a Peabody finalist, and published thousands of stories in partnership with local and national media outlets across the country.
The Marshall Project’s journalism is made possible primarily through philanthropic support. If you’d like to help sustain this work, you can contribute here: Support The Marshall Project.
