These three pieces by English 480 students explore, in very different ways, the moral and mental-health challenges posed by the climate crisis.

A Mental Health Crisis is Burning Across the American West
By Jacob Stern ‘19

Fire, Fire Everywhere
By Nancy Walecki ‘21

How Far Would You Go To Stop Climate Change?
By Jack McCordick ‘22

Felony murder is a legal doctrine that empowers prosecutors to charge people for murder even if everyone agrees they had no intention of killing anyone. For decades, felony murder has been a black box—no one knows how many people around the country are incarcerated, often for life, under these laws. We spent more than 1000 collaborative hours unearthing and analyzing more than 10,000 cases. In 18 states, we were able to collect data complete enough to analyze a variety of factors across age, race, gender, and more.

Felony Murder Reporting Project
A YIRL Collaboration

Sentenced to Life for an Accident Miles Away
By Sarah Stillman

Five states have recently passed laws allowing prosecutors to look back at old cases and reduce sentences they believe to be extreme. But for these resentencing laws to facilitate meaningful decarceration, prosecutors outside liberal cities have to use them. This piece investigates the early progress of resentencing and explores the practical and ideological concerns that hold back some prosecutors.

Prosecutors in These States Can Review Sentences They Deem Extreme. Few Do.
By Matt Nadel ‘21 and Charlie Lee ‘20

A growing group of laborers is trailing hurricanes and wildfires the way farmworkers follow crops, contracting for big disaster-recovery firms, and facing exploitation, injury, and death. The Yale Investigative Reporting Lab created an original database to document this little-known toll of the climate crisis, and to hold disaster-recovery firms and the government to account for workers’ safety.

The Migrant Workers Who Follow Climate Disasters
By Sarah Stillman