ROANOKE (WSLS 10) - WSLS 10 is known for some of the best investigative journalism in southwest Virginia - and now in the country. The panel of judges for the RTDNA Edward R. Murrow awards announced Wednesday WSLS 10 Reporter Ananda Rochita and WSLS 10 Photojournalist Jeff Perzan were selected as winners of the national Edward R. Murrow award in the Hard News category for their story on the history of sterilization laws in Virginia.
During the two-part investigative piece, Rochita and Perzan demonstrated the toll forced sterilization had on victims labeled "unfit or mentally deficient for society" as part of a fast-spreading eugenics movement in the early- to mid- 1900s. They spoke with victims whose reproductive capabilities were removed by doctors at the the Central Virginia Training Center in Madison Heights.
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An estimated 8,000 people were sterilized in Virginia, but only a few were still alive at the time of Rochita and Perzan's investigation.
Sisters Sadie and Janet Ingram were victims of forced sterilization as children taken to the center from their foster home by social workers. The pair eventually underwent surgery at the center, and find out later in life what had been done.
Another victim Rochita and Perzan profiled, Lewis Reynolds, was sterilized because doctors said he suffered from epilepsy. What doctors called epilepsy was actually a temporary case of seizures Reynolds suffered after being hit in the head with a rock. He went on to serve 30 years in the U.S. Marine Corps.
After the stories aired on WSLS 10, state lawmakers began to make progress toward granting compensation to living victims of Virginia's sterilization laws. In February, 2015, Delegate Ben Cline of Rockbridge County announced a proposal to create the Justice for Victims of Sterilization Compensation Fund, which would give each victim $25,000.
Virginia lawmakers later agreed to compensate victims and the Virginia General Assembly budgeted $400,000 for the fund. Virginia was the second state to approve compensation for victims. North Carolina approved $50,000 in compensation in 2013.
The Virginia law became a model for similar legislation passed around the country and the world, including Nazi Germany.
Rochita and Perzan will accept the award at the Edward R. Murrow Awards Gala at Gotham Hall in New York City October 12.