Was Alan Beaman wrongfully convicted?
This YouTube video is a production by the group that helped Beaman get out of prison, so it is obviously biased in his favor. But it does make you think.
The funny thing is that this case doesn’t really ring many bells for me. It’s likely the big events happened when I was away at college or working in another part of the state or in Missouri. What little coverage I recall didn’t seem to go beyond the he said/he said your find objective reporting. And no matter how many times “alleged” is inserted into articles, news reports overwhelmingly favor police versions of events.
A question for my readers: Does objective reporting help lead to wrongful convictions? If the press were more quick to call B.S. on prosecutions that lack evidence, perhaps it would dissuade prosecutors. But journalists rely on those within the criminal justice system to feed them the data they need for the daily blotter report. If the local newspaper loses the good will of the cops and prosecutors, their jobs are harder.
I fear the end result is a system that doesn’t work thje way it is supposed to.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
But the police arrested him…only a catch and release prosecutor would exercise independent judgement to evaluate the evidence. After all, there was not enough evidence for an arrest of tyler mccoy according to police so that MUST be true, right? You can’t be both sceptical and in the tank for the men in blue.