Standards
Say what the record says.
The narrator reports and never performs. The words follow the same rules as the pictures. These are the rules.
In brief
What are the editorial standards of Pattern of Errors?
Pattern of Errors covers adjudicated cases only, names victims before the people who killed them, uses investigator language and lists every source in full. It shows no faces and no crime scenes. A confession that was never tried is labeled every time. Corrections are dated and public.
The rules
Victims first.
Name the people who died, with care, before the man who killed them.
No. 02Most were young people in parked cars.
What the court found.
Adjudicated cases only. A confession that was never tried is labeled every time.
No. 06Keyes · confessed, died before trial
Investigator language.
Plain verbs. No adjective the record can’t carry. Never a killer’s words as a hook.
No. 03Concealment is not intelligence.
Names said flat.
Legal names in titles. A name a killer gave himself never becomes a title.
No. 02The parking ticket only picked the date.
Sources in view.
Every claim carries its source: in the frame, in the description, and in full on its page here.
No. 03Source: King County plea statement, 2003.
The family test.
Could the victim’s family watch it and feel the point was the system, not the man?
No. 03Brains did not keep him free. Indifference did.
Sourcing
Primary records first.
Court opinions and filings, plea statements, official inquiries and agency reports come before anything written about them.
Then a second source.
A fact is checked against a second published source. An encyclopedia entry is never the record.
Citations in full.
A page prints every source it rests on. A citation carries a link only after the page behind the link has been opened and checked.
Counts stay attributed.
A number belongs to whoever counted it. An inquiry’s estimate, an agency’s confirmed total and a court’s counts are kept apart and named.
Imagery
No faces.
No killers, no victims, no crime scenes.
Places, documents and objects carry the story,
each with an exhibit number, a date and a source.
No gore tropes.
No blood, weapons, nooses or outlines, and no horror type.
Nothing invented.
No generated or re-staged people, places or evidence.
Corrections
When a page states something the record does not support, the page is corrected and the correction is logged with its date. The corrections log is public.
Standing line
Educational analysis. Adjudicated cases only. Victims named with respect.
Questions
What does “adjudicated” mean here?
- A court or an official inquiry has ruled: a conviction, a guilty plea or a formal finding. An arrest, a charge, a theory or a confession alone is not an adjudication.
Does Pattern of Errors name suspects?
- It never names a living person who has not been charged, and it repeats no theory about who an unidentified offender is. An open case is described as open.
How is a confession that was never tried handled?
- It is labeled every time it appears. Israel Keyes confessed in custody and died before trial, and every mention of him says so.
Why are there no photographs of killers or victims?
- The subject is the system, and a face moves the subject to the man. The series shows no faces and no crime scenes. A place, a document or an object may appear as a numbered exhibit with its date and source.
What happens when the record changes?
- The page changes and the change is logged with its date. A page rests on an adjudicated outcome. If that outcome is vacated, the page is withdrawn and the withdrawal is logged.