Bio
Radley Balko is a senior writer and investigative reporter for the Huffington Post, where he covers civil liberties and the criminal justice system. He also writes about music and culture in Nashville, Tennessee, where he lives.
Balko is a former senior editor for Reason magazine, where his weekly column and investigative features were finalists for and won a number of journalism awards. His聽聽on expert witness fraud in a Louisiana death penalty case won the Western Publication Association鈥檚 鈥淢aggie Award鈥 for reporting. In 2011 The Week named Balko a finalist for 鈥淥pinion Columnist of the Year," and the L.A. Press Club named him Journalist of the Year for small publications, as well as Journalist of the Year overall.
Balko's work has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court (Hudson v. Michigan), and cited and excerpted by the Mississippi State Supreme Court (Mississippi v. Edmonds). His reporting on the聽, in which Maye mistakenly killed a police officer in a mistaken drug raid, helped Maye get off death row and win a new trial. Maye was聽聽in July 2011. His聽聽on controversial Mississippi medical examiner Steven Hayne helped win a new trial and an acquittal for a 13-year-old murder suspect Tyler Edmonds, and eventually to Hayne's termination. Balko's research and reporting on the criminal justice system has been profiled in the聽New York Times,聽The Atlantic,聽The Economist, and the Showtime program,聽Penn & Teller's Bullshit!.
Featured work
Jul 10, 2013
Senator Ervin, 鈥淣o-Knock鈥 Warrants, and the Fight to Stop Cops from Smashing into Homes the Way Burglars Do
Jul 9, 2013
Too Many Cops Are Told They鈥檙e Soldiers Fighting a War. How Did We Get Here?