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Meet The Panelists

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The Marshall Project

Daphne Duret

Daphne Duret is a staff writer for The Marshall Project. She reports on policing issues across the country. In her previous role, she worked at USA Today, where she served on the investigations team. While at the paper, she was part of the team that received the 2022 Hillman Prize for Newspaper Journalism for their work on “Behind the Blue Wall,” a series that revealed retaliation in police departments across the country against officers who made misconduct claims against their coworkers. She also covered legal issues for The Palm Beach Post and has worked at the St. Louis Post Dispatch and The Miami Herald. She is a graduate of Florida International University and a founding board member of D.I.M.E., a nonprofit organization empowering students in underserved areas. She is based in south Florida.

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Austin American-Statesman

Tony Plohetski

Tony Plohetski joined the Austin American-Statesman in 2000 and is currently an investigative reporter and associate editor of investigations. Since 2013, he has worked in partnership with KVUE, Austin’s ABC affiliate, where he is the station’s senior investigative reporter. Plohetski received the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award last year for his work covering the Uvalde school shooting in May 2022 that killed 19 children and two teachers. He also was the Statesman’s lead reporter for its Uvalde coverage, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for public service. Plohetski’s work in Uvalde made him a national authority, appearing nearly 50 times on national news networks in the first two months after the shooting, including PBS NewsHour, NPR, MSNBC, and CNN. Two years earlier, his series “Lights. Camera. Violence.” in 2020 exposed questionable police actions – seemingly for the sake of entertainment – after a reality television show partnered with an Austin-area sheriff’s office. The work prompted the cancellation of the highly rated national TV show and a new law in Texas banning law enforcement from partnering with television reality shows. It also led to the indictments of two deputies on manslaughter charges in Ambler's death — they were later acquitted — and the indictments of the then-sheriff and an assistant county attorney on evidence tampering charges related to Ambler's death. That case is ongoing. Plohetski also has served as a consultant for ABC’s “20/20.” He is routinely invited to speak to community groups and college journalism classes at the University of Texas and St. Edward’s University in Austin, where he has served as an adjunct professor. He also has been a guest lecturer at Louisiana State University’s Manship School of Mass Communication and the University of Mississippi.

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The Houston Chronicle

Andrea Ball

Andrea Ball is an investigative reporter at the Houston Chronicle. Over the last three decades, she has written about local and statewide issues, including policing, foster care, social services and psychiatric hospitals. Andrea is a passionate advocate of narrative writing. She uses storytelling techniques in as many stories as possible. Before joining the Chronicle in January 2023, Andrea worked as a reporter for USA Today and the Austin American-Statesman. Her work has been recognized by National Headliners, IRE, SPJ/Sigma Delta Chi and Texas APME. She was part of the Austin American-Statesman team named a 2023 Pulitzer finalist for its work on the Uvalde school shooting.

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CBS NY

Walter Smith Randolph

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ProPublica

Dave McSwane

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The Houston Chronicle

Neena Satija

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