Wrongful Conviction

Brian Ferguson was a 20-year-old college student in West Virginia when he was accused in 2002 of fatally shooting a fellow classmate. Brian was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole, and he remained in prison until a committed team of pro bono lawyers won his release and exoneration for the crime in 2013. After his release, Brian returned to Washington, D.C. and soon discovered a gap in services for people reentering society after incarceration. In response to these challenges, he developed Start Line, which he describes as a kind of Yelp for returning citizens. Brian Ferguson enrolled at Georgetown University after meeting government professor Marc Howard, who launched the university’s Prisons and Justice Initiative, which addresses pressing policy and moral issues surrounding prison reform and mass incarceration through programs and events. Professor Howard joins Brian in this episode. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1994, Angel Gonzalez was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison for the rape and kidnapping of a woman in Waukegan, IL. On the night of the crime, Angel had been visiting his fiancé’s sister, who lived in the same apartment building as the victim. The victim’s boyfriend saw Angel leaving the parking lot that night, and she misidentified his car as the car that the assailants had been driving earlier in the evening. The police pulled Angel over and brought him in handcuffs to the victim, who was in the backseat of the squad car. From still inside the dark car, the victim identified Angel as one of her attackers, even though he didn’t match her original description of either perpetrator. Angel Gonzalez is Mexican and had only been in the United States for a little more than a year at the time, and he spoke very limited English. During the interrogation process, he wrote a statement in Spanish, which was then translated and read in English by Detective Lou Marquez. These two statements were later revealed to be completely different. Angel signed a statement prepared in English by Detective Marquez, which, combined with the victim’s misidentification, was enough to sentence him to 40 years in jail, despite his having four alibi witnesses testify in his defense. The Innocence Project conducted DNA testing in 2001 that identified one male DNA profile that didn’t match Angel. In 2012, the Innocence Project again conducted DNA testing, this time yielding two distinct male profiles that both excluded Angel as an assailant. On March 10th, 2015, Angel Gonzalez was finally exonerated after serving 20 years in prison. In this episode, he is joined by Vanessa Potkin, Director of Post-Conviction Litigation at the Innocence Project. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1981, a woman was brutally beaten, raped, robbed, and forced into the trunk of her car on the roof of a parking garage in Chicago. Two employees recognized her car as it was leaving the garage and attempted to stop the assailant from driving away, but the perpetrator escaped on foot, leaving the victim locked in the trunk. Based only on a composite drawing and description of the assailant, both of which were created based on the memory of the parking garage employees, a Chicago Police Department officer accused Jerry Miller of the crime, claiming that he had seen Jerry looking in a parked car’s window some days prior. The two garage employees both identified Jerry in a lineup, but the victim said that she couldn’t positively identify her assailant because he had threatened to kill her if she didn’t keep her eyes closed. Jerry and his father both testified that they were watching a pay-per-view boxing match at the time of the crime, but despite his alibi and the total lack of physical evidence connecting him to the crime, in 1982 Jerry Miller was convicted of rape, kidnapping, and robbery. It wasn’t until 2005, when the Innocence Project took on Jerry’s case, that the victim’s clothes were subjected to DNA testing, yielding a profile that excluded him. In 2007, Jerry Miller was exonerated, having spent 25 years in prison for a rape that he didn’t commit. He is joined by Maurice Possley, Senior Researcher at the National Registry of Exonerations and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and *New York Times *bestselling author who has written about, investigated and consulted on issues involving criminal justice for more than 30 years. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the spring of 1992, Robert Jones was arrested for a series of attacks that occurred in the French Quarter of New Orleans, which included the murder of a British tourist, the kidnapping and rape of a woman, and the robbery of her fiancé and friend. He was arrested because the rape victim identified his photo, and she and her fiancé identified him in a lineup. Robert had been attending his son’s birthday party at the time of the rape, and the other victims of the crime spree had declined to identify him as their assailant, but despite his alibi and the lack of evidence linking him to any of the other crimes, he was charged with the rape and a role in the murder. Lester Jones (no relation) was later arrested and charged for the crime spree after police found him in possession of the gun used in the murder, stolen property from the other crimes, and the car used in all of the crimes. Robert, however, remained in jail after Lester’s arrest. At trial, the prosecutor argued that Robert and Lester were friends, without any evidence to connect them. Robert was sentenced to life in prison. He requested DNA testing for his case, but all of the evidence was either lost or destroyed. In 2015, after 23 years behind bars the Innocence Project New Orleans was able to get Robert released from Louisiana’s State Penitentiary, Angola on the basis of prosecutorial misconduct and missing evidence, and he was completely exonerated on January 26th, 2017, his 44th birthday. In this episode, Robert is joined by the Director of IPNO, Emily Maw. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1993, Jerome Morgan was only 17 when he was wrongfully convicted for the murder of Clarence Landry III, who had been shot to death at a sweet 16 party at the Howard Johnson Hotel in New Orleans. Jerome was in the ballroom when the police arrived. Despite clear evidence that he could not have been the gunman, he was prosecuted based upon the coerced testimony of two teenage witnesses, one of whom had previously told the police it was definitely not Jerome Morgan. Innocence Project New Orleans (IPNO) investigated Jerome’s case for years, uncovering clear evidence in the police files that it was impossible for Jerome to have been the perpetrator. IPNO presented this evidence in court over a period of several years and got Jerome Morgan’s conviction thrown out because, as every judge agreed, the State should have turned over the exculpatory evidence to Jerome’s trial lawyer. Jerome Morgan was released from prison in 2014 and exonerated on May 27th, 2016. In this episode, he is joined by one of his attorneys at IPNO, Kristin Wenstrom. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Daniel Tapia was arrested on April 12th, 2003 for second-degree murder in the Calliope housing projects in New Orleans where he lived. He was accused of being the getaway driver and master mind in this murder. The only witness was a police officer who made conflicting statements and even was recorded stating that he was in pursuit of three black males who committed this crime. Despite being Caucasian, Daniel was arrested less than 10 minutes after the shooting occurred, along with three black males. He was wrongfully convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in 2005. Prior to his transfer to a state correctional facility, he barely survived Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding while he was locked up in Orleans Parish Prison. His conviction was overturned by a judge, reinstated by the higher court, and eventually overturned for good. Daniel Tapia was released in 2017 after serving 12 years and is now the Lead Mentor at Rising Foundation—an organization which provides pathways to self-sufficiency for formerly incarcerated people with an aim to stop the cycle of incarceration in low income communities in Louisiana—where he is able to pursue his passion of guiding other men and women in changing themselves, their communities, and the circumstances around them. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In November 1995, a hunter found the remains of 12-year-old Josette Wright in a wooded area of Putnam County, NY. She was reported to have been hog-tied with her hands and feet tied together behind her back, and her underwear had been shoved down her throat. Dominic Neglia, who was being investigated for drug charges, claimed that 18-year-old Anthony DiPippo and his friends were responsible for the rape and murder of Wright. Three of the accused teenagers testified against Anthony and Andrew Krivak, claiming that they were in Anthony’s van when he and Krivak raped and strangled the victim. Anthony denied his involvement with the crime, but in 1997 he was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. In 2011, Anthony was ordered a new trial after it was discovered that his lawyer had also previously represented Howard Gombert, who a witness had reported seeing the victim get into a car driven by Gombert on the day she was last seen. Several other women came forward saying that they had also been sexually molested by Gombert in a similar fashion, with their limbs bound and with clothing stuffed in their mouths. These women were not allowed to testify in Anthony’s new trial, nor was Joseph Santoro, who was incarcerated with Gombert and had heard him talk about raping Wright, along with another young girl. Anthony DiPippo was again convicted in 2012, even though two of the three teenagers who had testified against him had recanted their testimonies, claiming that detectives had threated to charge them with the murder if they didn’t implicate Anthony DiPippo and Andrew Krivak. In 2016, Anthony was again ordered a new trial, and this time the testimonies of Santoro and the other women who had been assaulted by Gombert were admitted. Additionally, Dominic Neglia recanted his initial accusation against him. On October 11th, 2016, Anthony DiPippo was acquitted and released after serving 19 years in prison. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On September 1, 1990, Thomas Peters and James Coleman were shot while shooting craps outside a liquor store on the west side of Chicago, IL at about 1:30 am. The men were taken to a hospital, where Peters died and Coleman was treated and released for a gunshot wound in the back. Day and a codefendant were arrested eight days later after a nephew of Peters and witness to the crime, told police they were the shooters. Despite several other witnesses willing to attest to Day’s innocence, both he and his codefendant were found guilty and sentenced to concurrent prison terms of 60 years for murder and 25 years for attempted murder. In this episode, Antoine Day is joined by Laura Caldwell, a former civil trial attorney who is now the director of Life After Innocence. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Johnny Hincapie was convicted as part of a gang that murdered 22-year-old tourist Brian Watkins, even though he himself was not charged with the act and neither the victim’s family nor the other attackers identified him as a perpetrator. In 1990, Brian Watkins and his family were attacked on a New York City subway platform by a group of 6 to 8 teenagers when they were in town for the U.S. Open, resulting in the death of Watkins as he tried to defend his parents. Johnny was only 18 years old at the time, and he did not have a lawyer present during his interrogation. He falsely confessed to the crime, after being tortured by police who threatened to kill him. After spending 25 years in prison, Johnny’s conviction was overturned based on the statements of several witnesses who testified that he was in fact not a part of the group of attackers. He was formally exonerated in January 2017. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This special edition of Wrongful Conviction was recorded at the 2017 Innocence Network Conference in San Diego, CA, where 170 exonerees and 750 members of the innocence movement gathered to honor newly freed people and learn about the latest developments in freeing the wrongfully convicted. Part Two features interviews with Kristine Bunch and Obie Anthony. Kristine Bunch was 22 years old and pregnant when she was charged with setting a fire that claimed the life of her three-year-old son, Anthony, on June 30, 1995, in a trailer home they shared in Decatur County, IN. She was sentenced to concurrent prison terms of 60 years for murder and 50 years for arson and languished behind bars for more than 17 years until her exoneration in 2012. Obie Anthony was 19 years old when he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in 1995. There was no physical evidence connecting him to the murder, and prosecutors relied on the testimony of John Jones, a convicted killer and pimp who ran a house of prostitution near the scene of the crime. He was exonerated in 2011 after serving 17 years in prison. Obie Anthony is the founder and president of Exonerated Nation, a non-profit organization that offers exonerees a variety of support services so that they may successfully transition to life outside of prison and reintegrate back into society. His activism was instrumental in the passage of California AB 672 in October 2015, now known as Obie’s Law, which requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the DMV to provide up to one year of transitional services including job training, housing assistance, and mental health services to all eligible exonerees released from state prison. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This special edition of Wrongful Conviction was recorded at the 2017 Innocence Network Conference in San Diego, CA, where 170 exonerees and 750 members of the innocence movement gathered to honor newly freed people and learn about the latest developments in freeing the wrongfully convicted. Part One features interviews with Innocence Project Executive Director Maddy DeLone and exonerees Floyd Bledsoe and Cornelius Dupree. Floyd Bledsoe was exonerated in 2015 after 15 years in prison for a murder his brother committed. Since his release, Floyd has been a fierce advocate for mandatory recording of interrogations among other reforms in Kansas. Cornelius Dupree was exonerated in 2011, after spending more than 30 years in prison for a rape and robbery he didn’t commit. Cornelius serves as the ambassador to all of the new exonerees at the Innocence Network Conferences. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1995, 20-year-old Elizabeth Ramirez and three of her friends —Cassandra Rivera, Kristie Mayhugh, and Anna Vasquez — were indicted on charges of sexually molesting Ms. Ramirez’s 7-year-old and 9-year-old nieces in San Antonio, TX. Before charges were filed, police learned that all four women were gay and had recently come out to their families. The allegations came in the wake of more than a decade of national hysteria over claims of satanic ritual abuse of children. All four women cooperated with authorities but vehemently denied they molested the girls. In both trials, prosecutors won convictions by discounting the many inconsistencies in the little girls’ testimonies and argued that the inconsistencies were outweighed by the testimony of a pediatrician. Prosecutors portrayed Elizabeth Ramirez as the ringleader and tried her first. She was convicted in 1997 of aggravated sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child and sentenced to 37½ years in prison. The remaining women were tried together in 1998 and were each convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and two counts of indecency with a child. All three were sentenced to 15 years in prison on the aggravated sexual assault charges and 10 years for the indecency charges. The convictions began to unravel many years later when one of Elizabeth’s two nieces, now in her twenties, stepped forward to say she had lied. Members of her family coached her, she told authorities, to make up a story because of their anger about Elizabeth's sexuality. Soon after, the pediatrician used by the prosecution recanted her testimony based on new scientific evidence that showed her original findings regarding the girls' injuries were medically inaccurate. With the new evidence, the Innocence Project of Texas filed for post-conviction relief to have the verdicts overturned. A Bexar County District Court allowed Kristie Mayhugh, Cassandra Rivera, and Elizabeth Ramirez to be released from prison in 2013 while the court considered their request to have their verdicts overturned. Anna Vasquez had just been released on parole. They were finally exonerated in 2016 after serving a combined total of 62 years in prison. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On January 18, 1991, six teenage boys were standing on a curb talking in front of a house in the Los Angeles, CA suburb of Lynwood. Donald Sarpy, the father of one of the boys, stepped onto the driveway to call his son inside when a car drove by and two shots were fired, killing Sarpy. 16-year-old Francisco “Franky” Carrillo Jr. became a suspect in the case after he was mistakenly identified by the police as the shooter in separate case. On the night of the Sarpy shooting, the police showed one of the eyewitnesses a picture of Carrillo. That witness later identified Carrillo as the shooter and told the five other witnesses to identify Carrillo as the shooter. There was no physical evidence linking Carrillo to the crime. However, all the eyewitnesses identified Carrillo as the shooter and testified to the identification. Franky was convicted of murder, attempted murder and sentenced to life in prison. Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tony Wright endured two trials and 25 years in prison before a jury found him not guilty for the rape, sodomy and murder of Louise Talley, a 77-year-old woman in Philadelphia. Tony, who was only 20 years old when he was arrested in 1993, signed a confession after being beaten and threatened by the interrogating detectives. He was sentenced to life in prison—he narrowly escaped the death penalty after the jury voted against it 7 to 5. Later DNA testing of the rape kit not only excluded Tony as a suspect, but also identified Ronnie Byrd as the real assailant. On August 23, 2016, Tony Wright was exonerated, and he became the 344th DNA exoneree in the nation. He is joined by co-founder of the Innocence Project, Peter Neufeld. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At 16 years old, Jason Baldwin along with Damien Echols and Jessie Misskelley – known as the West Memphis Three – was convicted in 1994 of killing three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, AK. There was no DNA linking the WM3 to the crime, and some of the DNA found at the crime scene even seemed to implicate the stepfather of one of the victims. The case gained national attention soon after the teenagers' arrests when word was leaked that the murders were committed as part of a satanic ritual. A key prosecution witness in the second trial was a self-proclaimed cult expert who stated that the murders bore "trappings" of the occult. This testimony, combined with testimony about books Damien Echols read and some of his writings, plus evidence that he and Jason Baldwin liked heavy-metal music and several black t-shirts were found in Jason’s closet, helped to convict the two teenagers. Jason received life without parole; Echols was sentenced to death, and Misskelley was sentenced to 40 years. After serving more than 17 years in prison, all three of the WM3 took the Alford Plea, which meant that the state of Arkansas admitted no wrongdoing. After being released, Jason Baldwin executive produced the 2014 film about his tragic saga, Devil’s Knot. He is joined by the co-founder of the Innocence Project, Barry Scheck. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kirk Bloodsworth, an honorably discharged former Marine, was the first person sentenced to death and subsequently exonerated by DNA testing. He was 22 years old in 1984 when he was arrested for the rape and murder of nine-year-old Dawn Hamilton and sentenced to death in Baltimore County, MD. Kirk was arrested based on an anonymous call telling police that he was seen with the victim that day and an identification made by a witness from a police sketch shown on television. The description of the perpetrator was a 6 ft, 5 in tall white man with curly blond hair, a bushy mustache, skinny, and tan. Kirk was 6 ft, had red hair, and was well over 200 pounds. Though there was no physical evidence connecting him to the crime, Kirk Bloodsworth was convicted based on the testimony of five witnesses who placed him either with the victim or near the scene of the crime. The Maryland Court of Appeals overturned his conviction in 1986, finding that the prosecution had illegally withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense, and he was then retried, convicted again, and sentenced to two life terms. In the early 1990s, Kirk learned about DNA testing and the opportunities it could provide to prove his innocence. The prosecution finally agreed to DNA testing for Kirk’s case in 1992. The victim’s shorts and underwear, a stick found at the scene, and an autopsy slide were compared against DNA from the victim and Kirk. The DNA lab determined that testing on the panties excluded Kirk, and he was released from prison in June 1993 and pardoned in December 1993. Kirk Bloodsworth had spent almost nine years in prison, two of those years facing execution. He is now a published author and was instrumental in Maryland’s abolishment of the death penalty. The introduction of the Innocence Protection Act of 2003 established the Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing Program, a program that helps states defray the costs of post-conviction DNA testing. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On November 16, 1983, a 28-year-old woman was attacked and sexually assaulted by an unknown male as she was walking home from work in Lowell, MA. The following evening, a 23-year-old woman was attacked less than one hundred yards away from the site of the first assault. Even though no biological evidence could link him to any of the crimes, Dennis Maher, who was a sergeant in the United States Army at the time, was arrested and charged with both attacks, as well as an unsolved rape from the previous summer. He was convicted based on eyewitness misidentifications made by the victims, all of whom identified him in photographic lineups. Dennis Maher is joined by attorney Alex Spiro and New England Innocence Project Director of Communications Hannah Riley. Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jon-Adrian “J.J.” Velazquez was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life for the 1998 shooting death of Albert Ward, a retired police officer who owned and operated an illegal gambling spot in Harlem. Ward was shot and killed in the course of a robbery. Following the robbery, witnesses provided a description of the gunman as “a light-skinned black male with dreadlocks,” which prompted the search for “Mustafa,” a known drug dealer who fit the description. After learning that he was being sought by the police, J.J. attempted to vindicate himself of the allegations by voluntarily subjecting himself to a lineup. Out of nine eyewitnesses present at the scene of the crime, three identified him at the lineup. Despite being a light-skinned Latino who had never had dreadlocks and despite providing phone records which corroborated his alibi and showed that he was talking to his mother during the time of the crime, J.J. Velazquez was sentenced to 25 years to life even though there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime. Since then, two of the witnesses have recanted, and the other eyewitness has expressed serious doubts. J.J. and his alibi witness have both taken lie detector tests and have passed them. He is currently in his 21st year, and Jason Flom interviews him from inside the walls of Sing Sing Correctional Facility for this special edition of Wrongful Conviction. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everton Wagstaffe was wrongfully convicted of the rape, kidnapping and murder of 16-year-old Jennifer Negron in 1993. Everton’s conviction was based primarily on the testimony of Brunilda Capella, a 25-year-old, drug-addicted sex worker who claimed that she had seen Everton pull the victim into a Buick Skylark driven by Reginald Connor. It was later revealed, however, that the car had been parked at a church during the time that Capella claimed she had witnessed the kidnapping. The owner of the car testified that she had told the police this fact prior to Everton’s conviction, but the police didn’t write any reports of the interview. It was also revealed that Capella had been regularly providing information to the police at that time—remarkably, she testified for the prosecution in 20 cases. The Innocence Project consulted on the case and aided in testing foreign hairs found on the victim’s body for DNA, which revealed that the hairs had not come from Everton or Reginald Connor. The ruling to dismiss their charges, however, was primarily based on a revelation that prosecutors had buried evidence that Everton himself uncovered that police had targeted him before even speaking with the informant who provided critical testimony against the two men. In 2014, his conviction was ultimately vacated after serving 23 years in prison. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Peter Pringle was wrongfully convicted of an armed robbery and the murder of two police officers during a bank raid in Ireland in 1980. He was the last person sentenced to death in Ireland, and just days before a noose was to be tied around his neck, Peter learned that Ireland’s president had commuted his sentence to 40 years without parole. Peter then immersed himself in legal texts and effectively became a jailhouse lawyer. He discovered that the confession used by the prosecution was written down in a police officer’s notebook prior to his interrogation about the killings. Serving as his own counsel, he eventually convinced the Court of Criminal Appeal to quash his conviction in 1995. Today, Peter is a human rights and anti-death penalty activist and together he and his wife, Sunny Jacobs, also a death row exoneree, run the Sunny Center in Ireland where they provide counseling to other exonerees. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sedrick Courtney was wrongfully convicted of robbery with a firearm and first-degree burglary in Tulsa, OK. On April 6, 1995, two armed men wearing ski masks broke into an apartment in Sedrick’s building complex and brutally beat a female victim, blindfolded her, and forced her to lie on the floor as they ransacked her home. The victim suffered traumatic brain injury because of the attack, but she positively identified Sedrick Courtney as one of the assailants, claiming she recognized his voice. The second assailant was never identified. Even though his sister and cousins corroborated his alibi, Sedrick was sentenced to 30 years and served 15 years before the Innocence Project was able to conduct DNA testing on hairs from the crime scene, proving that none of the hairs from the ski masks matched him. He was exonerated on July 19, 2012. In this episode, Sedrick Courtney appears with his wife, Tina, whom he met in prison when she was working as one of the guards. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this special episode, Jason Flom talks to Amanda Knox, Jarrett Adams and Jeff Deskovic about what it's like for an innocent person who is forced to spend the holidays in prison. Amanda Knox was convicted of the murder of a 21-year-old British exchange student, Meredith Kercher, who died from knife wounds in the apartment she shared with Amanda in Perugia, Italy in 2007. Amanda and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were both found guilty of killing Kercher, receiving 26- and 25-year prison sentences, respectively. Their convictions were subsequently overturned in 2011 and Amanda was released from prison after serving four years. In early 2014, the Italian Supreme Court ruled that they should both stand trial again and she and Sollecito were re-convicted. Finally, in March 2015, the Italian Supreme Court overturned both murder convictions, ending their eight-year ordeal. Jarrett Adams was 17 years old when he was wrongfully convicted of sexually assaulting a young woman at UW-Whitewater in 1998. He was sentenced to 28 years in prison and spent close to a decade incarcerated before his conviction was reversed with the help of the Wisconsin Innocence Project on the basis that trial counsel had been ineffective for failing to present the testimony of a critical witness. Jarrett graduated from Loyola Law School in May 2015 and is currently practicing law in New York and advocating for criminal justice reform. Jeffrey Deskovic was a 16-year-old high school sophomore when he was wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of a high school classmate in 1991. Although hair and semen samples taken from the scene did not match Jeff’s DNA, he aroused the suspicion of detectives by weeping openly at the victim’s funeral. After six hours of intense interrogation, Jeff confessed to the crime, though he later contended in a lawsuit that police investigators had fed him the details of the killing and promised him that if he admitted guilt, he would not go to prison but would instead get psychiatric treatment. With the help of The Innocence Project, Jeff Deskovic was exonerated and released in 2006 after DNA analysis linked convict Stephen Cunningham to the crime and Cunningham confessed. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael Morton's nightmare began in 1986, when his wife Christine was bludgeoned to death in their bed in Austin, TX. Despite any evidence pointing to his guilt and tremendous evidence showing his innocence, he quickly became the prime suspect. At his trial, Williamson County District attorney Ken Anderson painted a picture of him as a violent, sexually depraved murderer who showed no remorse for his crime and he was sentenced to life in prison. Evidence was withheld that may have cleared him, including statements from his child. Finally, after 25 years, a blue bandana found at the scene was tested for DNA evidence. The test not only proved the innocence of Michael Morton, it yielded a hit on a known felon who has since been charged with the murder of Christine Morton, along with the murder of another young woman two years later. After spending nearly 25 years in prison for the murder of his wife, Michael was released on October 4, 2011, and officially exonerated in December 2011. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In September 1986, 34-year-old Douglas Dilosa was found bound with rope in his Jefferson Parish, LA home. His wife was found strangled upstairs. Dilosa, who is white, told police that he was awakened by a noise, and when he went downstairs to investigate, he was beaten and bound by two black men. Police suspected that Dilosa, who was in financial trouble, had murdered his wife for the insurance money. A jury convicted Dilosa of second-degree murder and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  To learn more and get involved, visit: https://www.first72plus.org/ Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Richard Rosario was convicted of a murder that took place in the Bronx on June 19, 1996, based on the testimony of two witnesses who had picked his picture out of a book of police photos. There was no other evidence linking him to the crime, and Richard did not know the victim or the witnesses. On June 30, 1996, after he heard that the authorities were looking for him, he got on a Greyhound bus in Florida, arrived in New York the next day, and voluntarily contacted the police. He named more than a dozen people in Florida who he said would vouch for him including a pastor and a sheriff’s deputy. But the police did not follow up, and prosecutors charged him with murder based on the statements of the two eyewitnesses. Richard was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life. When Richard challenged his conviction in state court in 2004, seven more witnesses appeared to say he had been in Florida around the time of the murder. He was released in 2016 after serving 20 years when the Bronx District Attorney’s office concluded that Richard did not receive a fair trial. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Keith Allen Harward, a Navy veteran, was wrongfully convicted of a 1982 rape and murder in Newport News, VA and served 33 years in prison. The assailant had broken into a home, killed a man and brutally raped his wife. Keith was convicted primarily on the testimony of two forensic dentists who said that his teeth matched marks on the victim's body, and he was convicted of capital murder. The Innocence Project performed DNA testing on the rape kit and numerous other pieces of crime scene evidence, and the testing excluded Keith and identified Jerry Crotty as the perpetrator. After the Virginia Supreme Court granted a writ of actual innocence, Keith Allen Harward walked out of prison on April 8, 2016 after wrongly serving more than 33 years of a life sentence. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Marty Tankleff had just turned 17 when he was arrested for murdering his parents, Seymour and Arlene Tankleff in September 1988. Based on an unsigned “confession" extracted from him following many long hours of interrogation by notorious Suffolk County detective K. James McCready, Marty was convicted and sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. After serving 17 years, Marty's conviction was vacated by the New York State Appellate Division, Second Department, in December of 2007. On July 22, 2008, a judge signed off on a motion by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to dismiss all charges against Marty. Marty recently passed the bar exam and is pursuing a career as an attorney, advocating criminal justice reform and wrongful convictions. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Derrick Hamilton was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1991 and served over two decades in prison after he was framed by the disgraced Detective Louis Scarcella. During an initial stint in prison in his teens for a separate wrongful conviction, Derrick began studying in the prison’s law library, eventually earning a reputation as one of the most highly skilled jailhouse lawyers in the country. When he wasn’t fighting to prove his own innocence, Derrick worked pro bono on the cases of his fellow inmates, and he formed the Actual Innocence Team with other jailhouse lawyers serving time. He was released on parole in 2011 and finally cleared his name in 2014. Today, he continues to work as a paralegal on wrongful conviction cases. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1976, Sonia “Sunny” Jacobs was sentenced to death for the murders of Florida Highway Patrol officer Phillip Black and Donald Irwin, a visiting Canadian constable. The officers were killed during a traffic stop where Sunny was traveling with her boyfriend, Jesse Tafero, and her two children, Eric, nine, and Christina, 10 months, in a car driven by Walter Rhodes. After officers approached the vehicle, Rhodes fired shots at them, a gun battle ensued, and chaos erupted. Sunny and Jesse were arrested, and both of their children were taken away by the state. Rhodes negotiated a plea bargain with the state, claiming Jesse and Sunny had pulled the triggers, in exchange for a life sentence. In 1990, Jesse was executed by the state of Florida in horrific circumstances. Sunny spent five years in isolation on Florida’s death row and a total of 17 years in a maximum-security prison before her conviction was overturned. Sunny was freed in 1992 when she was 45 years old. In this episode, Jason talks with Sunny, her current husband, exoneree Peter Pringle, and her daughter Christina, who as a child was also a victim of this tragic injustice. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  On August 4, 1991, at a nightclub in New York NY, some teenagers began taunting each other and words escalated to punches. When the teenagers came out of the club prepared for a fight, a man shot and killed16-year-old Raymond Blount. Police showed mug shots of several men to a group of Blount’s friends who initially identified a former classmate nicknamed “Wool Lou”  as the shooter. After some deliberation, some of the witnesses identified 21-year-old Fernando Bermudez as the shooter. One of the witnesses later made a deal with the prosecution to identify Fernando Bermudez as the gunman in return for not being charged in the case. Fernando, who passed a polygraph examination and presented alibi witnesses in his defense, was charged and convicted with second-degree murder. He was sentenced to 23 years to life in prison.  Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Guests Barry Scheck (Co-Founder of The Innocence Project), exoneree Barry Gibbs and Vanessa Potkin (Director of Post-Conviction Litigation for The Innocence Project) detail the unfathomable odyssey of Barry Gibbs in the bizarre case of The Mafia Cops. Barry was wrongfully convicted of a 1986 second-degree murder in NYC. His conviction was based on misconduct by a NYPD detective, who was later convicted of arranging and committing several murders and cover-ups on behalf of an organized crime family. Barry was incarcerated for 19 years before new evidence led to his release and subsequent exoneration in 2005. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. ​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.