Edith Brady-Lunny is a veteran journalist with more than 30 years experience writing for newspapers and magazines. For more than three decades, she has covered the criminal justice system in Illinois, including the court proceedings for the Amanda Hamm and Maurice LaGrone Jr. cases referenced in "The Unforgiven: The untold story of one woman's search for love and justice". Her career as a journalist began at The DeWitt County Observer as a reporter in Clinton, Ill., a weekly publication she later owned. Her work as an investigative reporter has been recognized with awards from The American Civil Liberties Union, The Associated Press, the Illinois Press Association and the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors. Edith's reporting on mental health issues in the criminal justice system was recognized by Mental Health America with a national media award. Edith is a reporting fellow with the John Jay College Center on Media, Crime and Justice in New York. Her fellowship projects have included investigative reporting on juvenile justice, mental health and prison-related issues. Positions with the Clinton (Ill.) Daily Journal, San Clemente (Calif.) Sun Post and the Midland (Mich.) Daily News preceded Edith's position with The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Ill.) as courts and legal affairs reporter. Her current assignments take her to county, state and federal courtrooms where she covers everything from drug and murder cases to the impacts of overcrowded prisons. Her work has appeared in Orange Coast Magazine and Orange County Illustrated. In addition to her work as a journalist, Edith was appointed media coordinator for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit extended media program. She is responsible for overseeing media coverage of court cases with cameras, video and recording devices, She has assisted state media organizations with educational efforts for the extended media program. In 2014, Edith and Pantagraph Photo Editor David Proeber produced an hour-long documentary on community mental health and its intersection with the criminal justice system. "Shortchanged: Unjailing the Mentally Ill" was presented to audiences in central Illinois. Edith and her husband Calvin live in central Illinois. They have two children and two grandchildren. They also are foster parents of a daughter and three foster grandchildren who live in Chicago. Her website is www.edithbradylunny.com/
Steve Vogel is a veteran print and broadcast journalist, columnist and talk show host who covered every minute of the original trial described in Reasonable Doubt.
He invites you to visit his web page at www.stevevogelauthor.com.
With a B.A. from Illinois Wesleyan University and a master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, his career has spanned print and broadcast news, radio programming, corporate communications and newspaper column writing. His work has appeared in publications ranging from The Congressional Record to Corvette Magazine.
He claims his journalism career began with production of a neighborhood newspaper (circulation was in the low single digits--he lived on a farm with very few neighbors). While in high school, he covered sports and wrote a weekly column for The Minonk (Ill.) News-Dispatch and worked part-time in the sports department of the Bloomington, Ill., Pantagraph during his years at IWU. (His undergraduate degree is in political science with a minor in economics.) His graduate school education was interrupted by service in the U.S. Army, including a year in Europe where he was assigned to the American Forces Radio Network.
After finishing grad school, Steve resumed his broadcasting work with WJBC Radio in Bloomington, where he did a daily talk show and headed the station's award-winning news department while also doing commentaries on the Voice of America. He later headed the media relations department of a Fortune 25 company and served the company's chairman and CEO as a communications assistant. He retired from that position in 2012 and returned to his print journalism roots by writing an opinion page column for The Pantagraph. He is the recipient of numerous journalism awards,including a Champion-Tuck Award for economics reporting from Dartmouth College, from the Freedom Foundation, the National Headliners Club and the Associated Press. He was also a semi-finalist in NASA's First Journalist in Space competition.
Steve lives near Bloomington with Mary, his wife of 45 years. They have three children and three grandchildren. He loves music, and likes to read almost as much as he likes to write. He says other writing projects are in the pipeline.