The Indiana Capital Chronicle took home seven awards from the Society of Professional Journalists’ annual Indiana chapter banquet Friday evening — including a top recognition for Senior Reporter Casey Smith, who was honored as the Journalist of the Year.
SPJ board members cited Smith’s accomplishments as an education writer while announcing the award, as well as her investigative work into Jamey Noel, a disgraced former sheriff now serving time in prison for misusing public funds for private gain.
Judges also recognized Smith as likely being the first reporter to witness a state execution. Smith earned the trust of Joseph Corcoran’s defense team and was invited as part of Corcoran’s personal guest list.
That work earned Smith — and ICC Editor-in-Chief Niki Kelly — a first-place nod in the criminal justice category. Kelly has covered Corcoran’s case since the beginning, when she was a courts reporter with the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.
Smith also won a second-place finish for her environmental reporting on a 2024 bill seeking to exempt certain products from being defined as toxic PFAs “forever chemicals.”
The ICC’s four-person team won five other awards on Friday, including first place for best journalism website and third place for the publication’s daily newsletter, Fast Break.
Senior Reporter Whitney Downard nabbed a first-place win for her personality profile of Abbey Hall, a Hoosier who traveled to Illinois for an abortion after learning her daughter would be born with a detrimental birth defect. Downard also won second place in the Medical and Science Reporting category for her story about transportation troubles for adult day care recipients following a transition to managed care.
To see a full list of nominees, visit SPJ’s website. Winners were simultaneously announced on SPJ’s X account.