Our 9 Favorite Feature Stories This Week: Paula Deen, The Zimmermans, And A Miscarriage Of Justice

This week for BuzzFeed, Alex Campbell investigates laws that imprison battered women whose partners have killed their children. Read that and these other stories from BuzzFeed and around the web.

1. How The Law Turns Battered Women Into Criminals — BuzzFeed

Photograph by Melanie Buford for The Dallas Morning News

Arlena Lindley’s boyfriend Alonzo Turner beat her for months and murdered her child — so why was she sent to prison for 45 years? A BuzzFeed News Investigation. Read it at BuzzFeed.

2. Before the Law — New Yorker

Photograph by Zach Gross for the New Yorker

In 2010, a Bronx teenager named Kalief Browder was accused of stealing a backpack and then spent three years awaiting a trial, much of it in solitary confinement. Jennifer Gonnerman tells his story, illuminating a how easily a young man's whole life and sanity can be robbed by our broken penal system. Read it at the New Yorker.

3. Zimmerman Family Values — GQ

Illustration by Joe McKendry for GQ

Amanda Robb finds out what it's like to be related to arguably the most loathed man in America: "They were eager for the world to see them as they see themselves: ignored, unmourned victims." Read it at GQ.

4. Prison Bankers Cash In On Captive Customers — The Center for Public Integrity

Colin Owens / The Center for Public Integrity

Daniel Wagner reports on prison bankers like Jpay, which charge high fees just so families can send money to the incarcerated. The result: "Taken together, the costs imposed by JPay, phone companies, prison store operators and corrections agencies make it far more difficult for poor families to escape poverty so long as they have a loved one in the system." Read it at the Center for Public Integrity.

5. Ruth Bader Ginsburg Is An American Hero — The New Republic

AP Photo/Matt Rourke

In a wide ranging interview, Ruth Bader Ginsburg talks about her popularity on Tumblr, Jazzercise — and oh yes, the future of democracy. Read it at The New Republic.

6. A Giant Friendship — ESPN

Photograph by Deanne Fitzmaurice for ESPN The Magazine

A fantastic and heartbreaking story by Steve Fainaru about San Francisco Giants broadcasters Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper. "In recent years, they've become as beloved in San Francisco as the crooked street and are recognized, by many, as the best local broadcasting team in baseball." Read it at ESPN.

7. The Forgotten Story Of Classic Hollywood’s First Asian-American Star — BuzzFeed

Getty Images General Photographic Agency

Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong was a trailblazer despite the openly racist industry in which she worked. Anne Helen Petersen remembers Wong's story and contemplates how much things have changed in this bonus chapter from her new book, Scandals of Classic Hollywood. Read it at BuzzFeed. You can also listen to her on this week's Longform podcast!

8. The Leftovers — Matter

Jamie, Paula, and Bobby Deen (Carlo Allegri / AP) / Via medium.com

Taffy Brodesser-Akner delivers a brilliant take on Paula Deen and her fallen empire. "An investment in Paula Deen conveys a deep understanding of America’s political temperature and where we’re headed: that Paula’s comeback isn’t about forgiveness —  it’s about standing her ground." Read it at Matter.

9. How To Make Carnitas That Will Fix Everything That’s Wrong In Your Sad, Horrible Life — BuzzFeed

Lauren Zaser / BuzzFeed

Nicolás Medina Mora writes passionately about the carnitas of his native Mexico City, and teaches how to make them. Read it at BuzzFeed.

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