Wrongful Conviction

After a short stint in prison, Steven Carrington was a newlywed father, training to be an EMT and getting his life back on track. But when the police came looking for his brother at the same Brooklyn, NY address, the police mistakenly zeroed in on Steven as the primary suspect of a felony murder at a Brooklyn lumber store. Steven was convicted and sentence to 23 years to life.  Learn more and...

This is an updated episode that originally aired on September 25, 2017. On the afternoon of April 15th, 1994, two men were sitting in a powder-blue Cadillac in the Quindaro neighborhood of Kansas City, KS. A man dressed in black ran up to the passenger side, raised a shotgun and fired four rounds in what looked like a drug-related hit, killing the two passengers Doniel Quinn and Donald Ewing. Lamo...

In July of 1996, Damon Thibodeaux was visiting family, when his 14 year-old step cousin, Crystal, walked to the grocery store and never came back. When Crystal’s mother Dawn began to worry, Damon went looking for her daughter. Soon, neighbors and emergency workers would join the search that ended under the Huey P Long Bridge with a partially nude Crystal strangled to death. However, even bef...

In the fall of 1998, Julius Jones had the whole world ahead of him. He was a freshman who planned to study engineering and was attending the University of Oklahoma on an academic scholarship. The following summer, just three days after his 19th birthday, Julius was awakened and dragged out of bed, barefoot and shirtless, and taken into police custody as a murder suspect. In 2002, he was convicted...

Why do we tell these stories? Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin tell us the last story of season one. It’s about Peter Reilly, one of the first modern-day false confessors. In 1973, police continued to interrogate 18-year-old Peter until he started to believe he was actually guilty of murdering his own mother. But Peter’s friends and neighbors believed in his innocence. Their small-town c...

Am I telling the story the way the story needs to be told? Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin tell us the story of David McCallum, one of two New York teens wrongfully convicted of murder in 1986. Luckily for David, he had incredible allies in his corner - the famous boxer, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, and a district attorney, Ken Thompson, who was dedicated to real justice. Here comes the st...

Conflicting survival instincts and an internet full of misinformation has left many of us in disagreement over what is the best path forward. Once again, Jason Flom taps the wisdom of our wrongfully convicted community, while so many struggle. In the 4th and final interview of our mini series from Wrongful Conviction Podcasts, one of the Central Park. 5, now the Exonerated 5, Dr Yusef Salaam, pull...

How could a layperson see all the problems with this interrogation when the police couldn’t? Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin tell us about Chris Tapp, just 20 when he endured a mind-bending, 25-hour interrogation that transformed him from an innocent man into a confessed murderer. Fortunately for Chris, he found an indomitable champion... in the victim’s mother, Carol Dodge. Carol convi...

Social distancing orders have had us on lockdown for well over a month, leaving many of us struggling with not only isolation and restricted movement, but also the looming economic implications. Jason Flom has been reaching out to our wrongfully convicted community for the kind of advice that only they can give. In the third interview of our mini series from Wrongful Conviction Podcasts, Nick Yarr...

What could make someone confess to the murder of their own mother? Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin take us to The Bronx in 1989. Huwe Burton was sixteen years old and charged with the murder of his own mother. Even as Huwe was bulldozed into a false confession, the real killer was living in the apartment just one floor below. To donate, learn more, or get involved, go to: http://www.law.northwester...

As we move into our 2nd month since COVID 19 was declared a global pandemic, many of us have been isolating for just as long, if not longer. Jason Flom has been reaching out to some experts - our wrongfully convicted community - for advice on how to cope with the dark side of isolation. In the second interview of a new mini series from Wrongful Conviction Podcasts, Jason Flom speaks with Amanda Kn...

Could I have somehow done this and not remembered it? Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin bring us the story of Billy Wayne Cope- a father and husband, a man of faith, and one of many railroaded into a false confession. The interrogation techniques were so potent that Billy even started questioning his own memory. Though DNA evidence pointed to the real killer, prosecutors refused to acknowledge Billy'...

COVID 19 has derailed our normal lives into that of isolation, restricted movement, anxiety, despair, and even the threat of death. Jason Flom knows a lot of people that have an intimate knowledge of all of these things and how to cope with them. In the first interview of a new mini series from Wrongful Conviction Podcasts Jason Flom speaks with Damien Echols, a man who spent 18 years on death row...

How could anyone believe a confession about 1,000 pole-vaulting terrorists all dressed like Ninja Turtles? This week, Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin tell us a story with some of the most outlandish false confessions ever heard. And yet, California native, Hamid Hayat, was wrongfully convicted of terrorism in the years following the horrific 9/11 attacks. Investigators thought Hamid was part of a t...

Laura Nirider talks with Daniel Villegas about what it was like waiting for the jury to announce its verdict, how he prepared his children for the possibility he might not be coming home, and how it feels to finally focus on the future. If you haven't heard his full story, it's right here in the podcast Feed. Just under this bonus episode. And if you've yet to watch Daniel's exoneration video, che...

How can one man save the life of a perfect stranger? The case of Daniel Villegas shows how ordinary people can make an extraordinary difference in the fight against wrongful convictions. Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin tell the story of an unexpected hero who fought for years to turn tragedy into triumph, ending in one of the most dramatic courtroom exonerations ever seen. To donate, learn more, or...

Have you heard about New Zealand's Brendan Dassey? Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin take us across the globe to New Zealand with a story that hits way too close to home: a sixteen-year-old boy confessed to a rape and murder he didn’t commit. His wrongful conviction allowed the real offender, a serial rapist, to assault dozens of other women -- while Teina Pora languished behind bars for 20 yea...

What do police do when a confession starts falling apart? Double down...or fix it up? Sometimes farm life isn’t as tranquil as it seems... Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin take us to small-town Nebraska where two murders shattered a peaceful Easter Sunday. The story of Matt Livers is a major plot-twister: a coerced confession, dirty cops, planted evidence, and a mysterious clue that led police...

While eating a hamburger, this kid spontaneously confesses to killing his sister? Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin take us to Camden, Arkansas, where a twelve-year-old boy is left to fend for himself against police officers who suspect him of murder. The interrogation tape is bad enough – but the worst parts happened off camera. This is the story of Thomas Cogdell. To donate, learn more, or ge...

So their theory is that a wandering necrophiliac comes across the body and defiles it? Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin tell the story of how five Chicago teens were wrongly convicted of the rape and murder of their classmate - and how prosecutors tried to explain away the DNA that proved them innocent. This case happened during the early 1990s, when the media was saturated with misleading stories a...

What can I say I did to get me out of this? Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin use real interrogation audio to tell the shocking story of Robert Davis, a Virginia teenager who in 2003 falsely confessed to a double murder after enduring an interrogation complete with death threats, lies about the evidence, and fact-feeding, only to tell investigators, "I’m lying to you, full front to your face."...

Why would anyone confess to a crime they didn’t commit? Hosts Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin, co-directors at Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Convictions and central figures in the smash hit Netflix docuseries Making a Murderer , introduce themselves, their work, their passion, and the origin story behind their tireless efforts to free the wrongfully convicted. To donate,...

On October 13th, 1997, Julie Rea’s nightmare would begin, when an intruder broke into her home, killed her son Joel, and the authorities would begin a bumbling, tunnel vision investigation to pin the murder on her. With their blinders on, the incompetent investigators would inadvertently destroy or fail to capture vital evidence of the intruder’s presence at the crime scene. They would...

Herman Atkins was a disciplined student athlete who enjoyed refurbishing old cars, growing up in the rigid household of a California highway patrolman. On January 25th, 1986, Herman Atkins was paying an auto mechanic for an engine rebuild when an armed robber stepped to the 2 men, grabbed the cash, and fled on foot. Herman grabbed the mechanic’s gun and chased the robber, firing warning shot...

On December 5th, 1984, the naked body of Theresa Fusco was pulled out of a wooded area in Lynbrook, NY - the 3rd in a string of recent disappearances, putting pressure on police to find the monster among them. The medical examiner determined that a rape lkely occurred and the cause of death was ligature strangulation. Dennis Halstead had been linked to one of the victims, and in a police interview...