https://www.maraleveritt.com/testimonials daily 0.75 2020-04-29 https://www.maraleveritt.com/testimonials/fe8tnka6yrbncbjyxvywxl2wql4ka6 monthly 0.5 2020-04-29 https://www.maraleveritt.com/testimonials/uxacwiaaevcukq77p4dder62of53nk monthly 0.5 2020-04-29 https://www.maraleveritt.com/testimonials/testimonial-3 monthly 0.5 2020-04-29 https://www.maraleveritt.com/testimonials/testimonial-4 monthly 0.5 2020-04-29 https://www.maraleveritt.com/testimonials/testimonial-5 monthly 0.5 2020-04-29 https://www.maraleveritt.com/testimonials/testimonial-6 monthly 0.5 2020-04-29 https://www.maraleveritt.com/devils-knot-praise daily 0.75 2023-05-10 https://www.maraleveritt.com/devils-knot-praise/0b7vdmmfuf68jyax25164dkjpprobh monthly 0.5 2023-05-10 https://www.maraleveritt.com/devils-knot-praise/i4yfchb6strorut72kmz6zoljfzo63 monthly 0.5 2020-05-08 https://www.maraleveritt.com/devils-knot-praise/jjc2vffz88p6ozpsigposlspivj5q9 monthly 0.5 2020-05-08 https://www.maraleveritt.com/devils-knot-praise/pi7hr58yhsg0i1jirwpaedvwnn9c4a monthly 0.5 2020-05-08 https://www.maraleveritt.com/devils-knot-praise/rwh69x9q9lqgr0quvuaxee9adxj874 monthly 0.5 2020-05-08 https://www.maraleveritt.com/devils-knot-praise/89tiw90izlvrykvre1vlpb9z4qrdic monthly 0.5 2020-05-08 https://www.maraleveritt.com/boys-on-the-tracks-praise daily 0.75 2020-04-29 https://www.maraleveritt.com/boys-on-the-tracks-praise/27oboh70vxhlepimuh89r37vk2s939 monthly 0.5 2023-05-10 https://www.maraleveritt.com/boys-on-the-tracks-praise/wjqs8rlu1rhqudftr9cdgfsp0sobdt monthly 0.5 2023-05-10 https://www.maraleveritt.com/boys-on-the-tracks-praise/24kegr5b4e3t1gmvpkzfkdbp7zle2c monthly 0.5 2023-05-10 https://www.maraleveritt.com/boys-on-the-tracks-praise/vuym8fbnfdlwh9gkuk8tsyoialdre7 monthly 0.5 2023-05-10 https://www.maraleveritt.com/dark-spell-praise daily 0.75 2020-05-08 https://www.maraleveritt.com/dark-spell-praise/k0ertmauz31f5s6s49h6ug1r0opjmo monthly 0.5 2020-05-08 https://www.maraleveritt.com/dark-spell-praise/4btukn9jyn4sq0atz00s6ljm14unc4 monthly 0.5 2020-05-08 https://www.maraleveritt.com/dark-spell-praise/vdwwzsxzbr4at4xiwkl92h91xzfco3 monthly 0.5 2020-05-08 https://www.maraleveritt.com/dark-spell-praise/7htqb3q74am9tu2bcl5v8je4qvxy27 monthly 0.5 2020-05-08 https://www.maraleveritt.com/dark-spell-praise/h64xz5r4awcmrbzx8mi27c45s1mi28 monthly 0.5 2020-05-08 https://www.maraleveritt.com/dark-spell-praise/8s5hzyg4paa6uobtxj6fp5b9qqsgag monthly 0.5 2020-05-08 https://www.maraleveritt.com/mara daily 1.0 2025-04-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ea88c3d047c74457dd95914/1588878565164-WX2YDDXYAEUFZ2FT09Z0/Mara+Ph.D.+5-17-14.jpg Mara - Recognition Winner of two Worthen Prizes, a Laman Fellowship, and Arkansas’s esteemed Porter Prize, Leveritt was inducted into the Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame and received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ea88c3d047c74457dd95914/10a6fd2e-f081-49bf-b532-623bb5fa75cc/Crow+Vector.png Mara https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ea88c3d047c74457dd95914/4d47260a-7c50-41c2-b9d8-d03d18d0dfeb/Mara+Leveritt+Site.jpg Mara Mara Leveritt has covered crime, police, courts, and prisons in Arkansas for more than 30 years. In 1991 she broke the story of how plasma drawn from Arkansas prisoners was being sold on the international market, despite officials' awareness that inmates affected with HIV and Hepatitis C were not being screened from the program. By the time it ended in 1994, thousands of hemophiliacs around the world--especially in Canada, Europe and Japan--had been infected by plasma traced to Arkansas prisons. This powerful 2025 BBC radio documentary illustrates how the tragedy devastated individual lives--and how the British government finally responded. No US officials have ever acknowledged responsibility. The program ended in 1994, but by then, more than 1,000 Canadians who suffered from hemophilia were infected with HIV from plasma traced to Arkansas prisons. Another 20,000 Canadians were infected with hepatitis C. In 1995, Leveritt left newspaper reporting to dive more deeply into some other disturbing cases she’d covered. All remain unresolved. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ea88c3d047c74457dd95914/1588175298427-FW9X2A4J5IK8LNL2EFGS/mara+with+ch.+7.jpg Mara - MARA LEVERITT Investigative Reporter https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ea88c3d047c74457dd95914/ce6fc641-db81-4d73-b4b9-2c909480c76e/Devils+Knot+Cover.jpg Mara - Devil’s Knot “In the best tradition of crime journalism…” “The best blow-by-blow account” “A riveting portrait” MORE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ea88c3d047c74457dd95914/72764ae5-2634-4b5a-ae69-9ba624337f74/All+Quiet+at+Mena+Cover.jpg Mara - All Quiet at Mena “Definitive…” “An Arkansas must read” “Informative and shocking” MORE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ea88c3d047c74457dd95914/59d8d7d1-8c81-488f-a6de-fa0a7fff71c3/BOTT.jpg Mara - The Boys On The Tracks “…Authentically shocking” “Exhilarating, eye-opening, thought-provoking…” “A true-crime thriller” MORE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ea88c3d047c74457dd95914/e86ee8a0-40e0-4c17-b4bd-554438ec1675/DarkSpellCover.jpg Mara - Dark Spell “Incredible” “An amazing job” “An uncomfortable but gripping journey” MORE https://www.maraleveritt.com/mara-leveritt daily 0.75 2023-04-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ea88c3d047c74457dd95914/1626382757424-HLEWJ2C6YZFQOIQECT1L/alex-dukhanov-ZxZQk7777R4-unsplash.jpg Mara Leveritt https://www.maraleveritt.com/mena-praise daily 0.75 2023-05-10 https://www.maraleveritt.com/mena-praise/arkansas-times monthly 0.5 2023-05-10 https://www.maraleveritt.com/mena-praise/arkansas-state-library-distinguished-book-of-2022 monthly 0.5 2023-05-10 https://www.maraleveritt.com/devils-knot-2 daily 0.75 2021-02-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ea88c3d047c74457dd95914/1588176282730-OHZWF6DHJT1YEK6DSH4U/DevilsKnotCover.jpg Devil's Knot https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ea88c3d047c74457dd95914/1588176499792-JC8ABI926O2TYKPX7WBU/blue%2Bgreen%2Bbackground.jpg Devil's Knot https://www.maraleveritt.com/the-boys-on-the-tracks-2 daily 0.75 2020-05-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ea88c3d047c74457dd95914/1588180440438-3FYVH3NNLRQAJA315L66/BoysOnTheTracksCover.jpg The Boys on the Tracks https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ea88c3d047c74457dd95914/1588176499792-JC8ABI926O2TYKPX7WBU/blue%2Bgreen%2Bbackground.jpg The Boys on the Tracks https://www.maraleveritt.com/dark-spell-2 daily 0.75 2020-05-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ea88c3d047c74457dd95914/1588180793952-HY3RP01WY7YYXSZ8E1PE/DarkSpellCover.jpg Dark Spell https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ea88c3d047c74457dd95914/1588176499792-JC8ABI926O2TYKPX7WBU/blue%2Bgreen%2Bbackground.jpg Dark Spell https://www.maraleveritt.com/videos daily 0.75 2020-04-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ea88c3d047c74457dd95914/1588181813298-KAZY4LXSTMWJ0MEPEQX0/blue%2Bgreen%2Bbackground.jpg Videos https://www.maraleveritt.com/links daily 0.75 2023-05-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ea88c3d047c74457dd95914/1588184192948-U98P2S7B9EXS0001H3ZZ/UsefulLinks.jpg links https://www.maraleveritt.com/questions-and-answers daily 0.75 2023-05-11 https://www.maraleveritt.com/privacy-policy daily 0.75 2021-07-16 https://www.maraleveritt.com/all-quiet-at-mena daily 0.75 2025-04-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ea88c3d047c74457dd95914/1626382987713-ZZ0FG8J1WYRL4EDLUZBT/All+Quiet+at+Mena+Cover.jpg All Quiet at Mena - All Quiet at Mena All Quiet at Mena is Mara Leveritt’s personal account of the obstacles faced by investigators reporting on one of the most secretive episodes in America’s long war on drugs. Starting with the crash that killed Emile Camp, a co-pilot of the notorious cocaine smuggler Barry Seal, she explores how a money laundering investigation prompted by Seal’s move to Arkansas collided with Reagan-era politics, leaving the drug war’s touted objectives—and law enforcement itself—in the wreckage. Seal’s presence at Mena forced investigators in Arkansas to confront an array of questions that grew increasingly uncomfortable during the four years his planes were there. Among them: --Why were DEA agents not revealing what they knew about the smuggler? --Why were witnesses in a money laundering case who had agreed to appear before a grand jury never called to testify; --And why, after Seal became an informant, were members of his organization—including those who’d serviced and harbored his planes at Mena—not prosecuted? Drawing on extensive interviews with state and federal investigators, access to hundreds of FBI records, and her reporter’s familiarity with Arkansas, Leveritt exposes the secrecy that thwarted investigations into the activities of his associates at Mena. https://www.maraleveritt.com/boys-on-the-tracks daily 0.75 2023-05-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ea88c3d047c74457dd95914/1626383486242-0K5S0UTP3V7IQP78YH3B/BoysOnTheTracksCover.jpeg Boys on the Tracks - The Boys on the Tracks Two Arkansas teenagers are run over by a train. The state medical examiner rules they smoked themselves into “a marijuana-induced stupor” before lying down, side by side on the tracks. He rules the deaths accidental. Case closed. Except that when the parents of one get the bodies exhumed, new autopsies point to murder. That launches the mom of one of the boys on a journey that will lead her into a dark world of drugs and political corruption. In an opinion written in 2001, a U.S. Court of Appeals observed that “The record in this case reads like a John Grisham novel.” Sadly, this story is not fiction. https://www.maraleveritt.com/devils-knot daily 0.75 2023-05-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ea88c3d047c74457dd95914/ba1f9d3b-d5b6-4aa8-b6ba-1d3e9245740f/DevilsKnotCover-1.jpg Devils Knot - Devil’s Knot Devil’s Knot details how for weeks in 1993, after the murders of three eight-year-old boys, police in West Memphis, Arkansas seemed stymied. Then suddenly, detectives charged three teenagers—alleged members of a satanic cult—with the killings. Despite the witch-hunt atmosphere of the trials and a case that included stunning investigative blunders, a confession riddled with errors, and an absence of physical evidence linking any of the accused to the crime, the teenagers were convicted. Jurors sentenced Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley to life in prison and Damien Echols, the accused ringleader, to death. The guilty verdicts were popular in their home state—even upheld on appeal—and all three remained in prison until their unprecedented release in August 2011. With close-up views of its key participants, Devil’s Knot unravels the many tangles of this endlessly shocking case, one which will shape the American legal landscape for years to come. https://www.maraleveritt.com/dark-spell daily 0.75 2023-05-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ea88c3d047c74457dd95914/1626383838890-C6JMAIMFTLVRAKFMXG8Q/DarkSpellCover.jpeg Dark Spell - Dark Spell For many who’ve heard of the West Memphis Three–especially through Devil’s Knot and/or the feature film based on that book–the story of their trials ended when the court handed down their sentences. For the teenagers, though, that moment marked the start of yet another story, one more dangerous than the first. Jason Baldwin was sixteen, the youngest of the three teenagers when he heard himself sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. Dark Spell is the account of what it was like to be taken in handcuffs and shackles into Arkansas’s adult prison system, where inmates and guards alike saw him as a Satanic child killer. Many of those who sent him there did not expect him to survive. Prison officials shared the same, realistic fear. More than once, death hovered perilously near. But Jason survived, day by day and year by year, in one of the harshest environments on American soil. This would be a hard story to bear, save that it is brightened and transformed by Jason’s insight and upbeat persona. I’ve always appreciated what Colin Firth,* who met Jason while filming Devil’s Knot, said about him and the “decency of doubt.” Dark Spell illuminates the many ways America’s justice system, once having gone wrong, can fight to sustain that wrong. It celebrates the countless ordinary heroes who rose up, using art and new technology, to challenge trials they perceived as mockeries of justice. At its heart, Dark Spell walks readers into prison with an innocent teenager and reveals how he managed to forge a life of honor by not abandoning his personal integrity, demanding education, and discovering that there’s peace to be found in kicking Hacky Sack.