As a reporter for the Clarion-Ledger, Mitchell spent three decades investigating civil rights cases that had gone cold. In 2018, he founded the MississippiCenter for Investigative Reporting, the mission of which is “to improve lives, bring reform, expose injustices, give a voice to the voiceless, shine the spotlight on fraud, corruption and wrongdoing, and highlight the unseen champions of what is right.”

Mitchell’s investigations have helped put four Klansmen and a serial killer behind bars. His stories have also helped free two people from death row, exposed injustices and corruption, prompting investigations and reforms as well as the firings of boards and officials. He is a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a longtime member of Investigative Reporters & Editors, and a winner of more than 30 other national awards, including a $500,000 MacArthur “genius” grant.

His memoir for Simon & Schuster, Race Against Time, details how some of the nation’s most notorious murderers came to be punished decades later. The New York Times made it an Editors’ Pick, and NPR selected it as a Best Book of the Year.

After working for three decades for the statewide Clarion-Ledger, Mitchell founded the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit that gives voice to the voiceless and raises up the next generation of investigative reporters. The stories of MCIR have already led to two separate Justice Department investigations and can be found at www.MississippiCIR.org.

In addition to his writing, Mitchell is an inspiring speaker. He regularly shares his stories of justice and redemption, speaking at the Kennedy Center, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and colleges and universities across the United States.