Pete Shellem is an investigative reporter concentrating on crime, courts and legal affairs for The Patriot-News.
Since 1998, he has written about the suspect convictions of Patty Carbone, Steven Crawford and Barry Laughman. All were serving life sentences for murder before Mr. Shellem investigated their cases. Today, all three are free. Most recently, in the case of Laughman, Mr. Shellem located the DNA that had been presumed by investigators and lawyers in the case to have been lost. He tracked it to a professor in Germany.
Between 1994 and 1996, Mr. Shellem headed a series of stories about justice being sold for campaign contributions in the office of then-Pennsylvania Attorney General Ernie Preate Jr. The investigation resurrected a stalled federal probe. Mr. Preate, facing potential racketeering charges, eventually resigned and pleaded guilty to mail-fraud charges.
