Maurice Chammah - Profile and Journalist Details

Beats

Biography

Maurice Chammah is a staff writer. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. He was a finalist for a 2014 Livingston Award for a story on the decline of the death penalty, and a 2011-2012 Fulbright fellow in Egypt. He plays the violin and has toured with the band Mother Falcon.

Content

Total articles 528

• Changing US law keeps victims’ families - and people on death row - waiting decades for closure

  By Maurice Chammah| The Guardian Verified Two months ago, Marcia Fulton received a knock on her door in El Paso, Texas, from lawyers for David Wood – a name she knows all too well. Wood is facing execution on 13 March for the 1987 murder of Fulton’s teenage daughter, Desiree Wheatley, along with five other girls and young women. “I promised Desi at her gravesite that I would find out who did this and make them pay,” Fulton told Wood’s lawyers that afternoon. Now, she was making plans to attend the execution.

  By Maurice Chammah · The Guardian

  Mar. 10, 2025

• David Wood Wants DNA Tests That May Delay Execution - Or Prove His Innocence

  By Maurice Chammah| The Marshall Project Verified Two months ago, Marcia Fulton received a knock on her door in El Paso, Texas, from lawyers for David Wood — a name she knows all too well. Wood is facing execution on March 13 for the 1987 murder of Fulton’s teenage daughter, Desiree Wheatley, along with five other girls and young women. “I promised Desi at her gravesite that I would find out who did this and make them pay,” Fulton told Wood’s lawyers that afternoon. Now she was making plans to attend the execution.

  By Maurice Chammah · The Marshall Project

  Mar. 07, 2025

• He Refused to Give False Testimony. Now, Can He Stop a Man's Execution?

  By Maurice Chammah| The Marshall Project Verified Additional reporting by Alvin Melathe On March 13, Texas plans to execute David Wood, who became known in the press as the “Desert Killer” after prosecutors argued he killed six girls and women and buried their bodies on the outskirts of El Paso in 1987. He has maintained his innocence for nearly four decades. But his lawyers struggled to prove it. Their first major break came in 2011, when a DNA test revealed another man’s blood on one of the victims’ clothing.

  By Maurice Chammah · The Marshall Project

  Feb. 25, 2025

As seen in

Company Info

The Marshall Project

The Marshall Project is a nonprofit news organization focused on the U.S. criminal justice system. Founded in 2014 by Neil Barsky, it aims to highlight the need for reform in a system that often perpetuates racial and economic inequities. The organization is named after Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and is dedicated to creating a sense of urgency around these issues. The Marshall Project provides high-quality journalism that exposes injustices within the criminal justice system. It also offers multimedia content, including video series and publications like "The Marshall Project Inside," which reaches incarcerated individuals in over 1,300 prisons and jails. Additionally, it has established a local network in cities such as Cleveland, Jackson, and St. Louis to cover regional criminal justice issues. The organization serves a diverse audience, including legislators, justice system professionals, and families of incarcerated individuals. It has received multiple awards for its impactful reporting and has secured grants to support its initiatives.