Firefighters
Behind the Bryan Sheppard Ruling: What the Release Order Says and Doesn’t Say
A federal judge’s decision last week to release a man serving a life sentence in the 1988 deaths of six Kansas City firefighters was, at least for some of the families of those men, a hurtful betrayal by the legal system. For the families of the accused, it was the final arrival of justice long…
Judge Releases Defendant in 1988 Arson Deaths of 6 KC Firefighters
Bryan Sheppard, the youngest of five people sentenced to life in prison for a 1988 explosion that killed six Kansas City firefighters, will be released, possibly in the next few days, a federal judge ruled today. Members of Sheppard’s family, who packed one side of a federal courtroom here this afternoon began sobbing as…
Bryan Sheppard and the Heavily Redacted Elephant in the Courtroom
In 1997 Bryan Sheppard was sentenced to life without parole for the deaths of six Kansas City firefighters. Although he and the other four defendants have always maintained their innocence, they have lost all of their appeals and are considered guilty of the crime in the eyes of the U.S. judicial system. All five were…
Reveal | Trial By Fire
Listen to the podcast here: This podcast is from the Center for Investigative Reporting, which co-produces the “Reveal” radio show and podcast with PRX. “Reveal” features CIR’s reporting, as well as stories from public radio stations and a wide range of media partners, both nonprofit and commercial. For “Trial by Fire,” CIR relied on decades of reporting…
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Coming to the Tipping Point
As a reporter for The Star, Mike McGraw examined the federal prosecution of the 1988 explosion that killed six firefighters in numerous articles. He retired from The Star in 2014 and is now a special projects reporter for Flatland. What finally pried the cell door open last week for Bryan Sheppard, one of the defendants…