Wrongful Conviction Podcasts

On September 2, 1986, a Springfield, MA drug deal turned into an armed robbery, which turned into the death of an innocent bystander named Victoria Seymour. Six men, all of whom were later determined to have been involved in the robbery, identified Mark Schand as the one responsible for Seymour’s death. Despite the lack of physical evidence, and the fact that he was 30 miles away the entire evenin...

On July 1, 1977, the Welcome Inn bar in New Orleans, LA was robbed by two armed men and a bar patron, Cecil Lloyd, was killed. Weeks after the crime, 19 year old Elvis Brooks became a suspect when he was identified in a photo array by three strangers who had been inside the bar at the time of the robbery. But during the crime, the robbers touched two beer cans inside the bar and left them on the c...

Just past 1am on November 26, 1995, 50 year old Harry Kaufman was working the token booth at a subway station in Brooklyn, NY, when multiple men set the booth on fire, causing explosions, an eruption of flames, and ultimately, Kaufman’s death. Hefty rewards were offered for information, and police received many tips from multiple informants. Ultimately, they honed in on James Irons, Thomas Malik a...

On October 10, 1982, a 22-year-old woman was abducted at gunpoint outside a tavern in Louisville, KY and taken to a nearby park where she was beaten, raped and robbed. The victim described her assailant as about 5’ 11” tall, weighing more than 200 pounds and with blue eyes and curly dark brown hair. Michael VonAllmen, despite having brown eyes, was picked out of a photo lineup and charged with the...

In the summer of 1987, Joyce Watkins received a call from her sister asking for help caring for their 4 year old great niece who lived in Georgia. Joyce agreed to come pick up the little girl and bring her to her home in Nashville, TN. Joyce noticed almost immediately that the girl was acting strangely and suffering from abnormal vaginal bleeding.  Joyce took her to the hospital and learned that t...

On June 1, 1996, Kevin Jackson and Antwaun Cubie accompanied Jeremy Bruder to buy a set of rims for his Jeep. When they arrived, Kevin and Jeremy went to make the purchase while Antwaun waited in the car while on the phone with his girlfriend. Several gunshots rang out and Jeremy was shot multiple times. He died the next day. Kevin and Antwaun were both taken in for questioning at which point Kevi...

On September 17, 2007, two men broke into a home in Detroit, MI and fatally shot four people. 14 year old Davontae Sanford, who lived nearby, went outside in his pajamas to see the commotion. Police approached Davontae and brought him back to the station where he was interrogated for two days without a parent or guardian present. The questioning ended when Davontae falsely confessed. Despite someo...

Brothers, Dennis and Lee Horton, were having a pleasant Memorial Day in 1993 until they decided to visit their father in North Philadelphia and ran into a childhood friend, Robert Leaf. Unbeknownst to the Hortons, Robert Leaf had committed an armed robbery turned homicide earlier that day. Shortly after Robert joined the brothers in their car, police pulled them over. All three were arrested and t...

In 1993, Herman Williams, a decorated member of the US Navy, was stationed in Waukegan, IL where he lived with his ex-wife, Penny, and their two children. On September 26, Penny’s deceased body was found in a shallow pond and Herman immediately became the sole suspect. Based on faulty forensic science as well as prosecutorial and questionable police conduct, Herman was sentenced to life in prison...

On April 29, 2007, six undocumented immigrants from El Salvador were living in a trailer in Slidell, LA when they were robbed at gunpoint. The robbery went awry and Jose Carlos Matinez-Carpio was shot and killed. Two men were arrested for the killing and one of the men, Edric Cooper, implicated Jace Washington in an effort to earn leniency from the state. Jace had no prior criminal record, and no...

On January 7, 2002, Heidi Fero was taking care of 15 month old Brynn and her 4.5 year old brother, Kaed, along with her own two similarly aged children. That evening, Heidi called the children’s father, reporting that Kaed physically hurt Brynn by pushing her head against the wall. Within hours, Brynn was unresponsive and Heidi called 911. Brynn survived, but she will forever require a caregiver f...

Early on the morning of August 11, 1979, an intruder broke into a Manchester, GA home to find a 74-year-old woman asleep on her couch. The man beat and sexually assaulted the woman and then demanded all her money. She gave the attacker cash from her purse and then he left through the back door.  The victim was taken to a local hospital for treatment, but no rape kit was collected due to the extent...

In March of 1987, a female University of Alabama student was returning to her apartment in Tuscaloosa, AL, when she was attacked by a masked man who raped her and stole her car keys and bank card. The woman’s abandoned car was later located, and a witness reported seeing a man emerge from it some time earlier. This witness’s singular identification of 23 year old Jeffrey Holemon, who had been in j...

On July 10, 1994, Wendell Scott Simpson was found dead in his car on Kilmer Street in Dayton, OH. Shortly after police arrived, they encountered 16 year old Raymond Allen Warren who also lived on Kilmer street. Warren told the police that he and his friends Antonio Johnson and Chante Hunt saw Simpson looking to buy drugs earlier that day. Police later questioned Johnson and Hunt who were both pres...

On August 18, 1974, a 19 year old woman was found raped and beaten to death in Tampa, FL. Police focused on 18 year old Robert DuBoise who allegedly “caused problems” in the area. Dr. Richard Souviron, a forensic odontologist, matched Robert’s teeth to a supposed bite mark on the victim’s cheek using bite mark analysis techniques that have since been discredited. Based on the supposed dental match...

On March 18, 1997, two men exited a minivan and walked into the lobby of a bank in St. Louis, MO wearing ski masks and armed with semi-automatic rifles. Shots were fired and a security guard, Richard Heflin, was shot and fatally wounded. Billie Allen, aged 19, was arrested at about 2am the next morning and taken to police headquarters where he remained in an interrogation room, handcuffed to a tab...

On August 20, 1991, 24-year-old Tae Jung Ho was robbed and shot to death while walking with a friend in Philadelphia, PA. A coincidence involving a rental car and license plate number led to Chester Hollman III being stopped by police and arrested. Chester was convicted of second-degree murder and robbery and sentenced to life without parole. In 1991, Jimmy was only 21 years old when he was wrongf...

On February 27, 1992, Bernard Jiminez, along with his wife, Kimberly Belinsky, and three children were robbed at gunpoint in a neighborhood in Gary, Indiana. Bernard and the gunman struggled and Bernard was fatally shot. Belinsky selected 23-year-old Willie “Timmy” Donald out of a photo lineup believing he was the gunman. Another woman who was robbed in her home that same day selected Donald as we...

In April 1989, a drive-by shooting in San Francisco, CA, left at least 11 people injured, and 2 people dead. Despite the lack of physical or forensic evidence, Caramad Conley was convicted of conspiracy to commit first degree murder, two counts of first degree murder, and eleven counts of attempted murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole on the strength of one man’s testimon...

On October 9th, 1990 at 12:10am, police responded to shots being fired at a housing project in Brooklyn, New York. They ended up arresting 23 year old Terence Rice, a man who lived next door to the scene and who was making a call at a payphone in the midst of the chaos. They claimed that Terence was shooting at them, as well as at other things and people, from an apartment window two stories up. C...

On December 9, 2001, Michael Peterson, an acclaimed novelist and one-time mayoral candidate, found his wife Kathleen dead at the bottom of their staircase in Raleigh-Durham, NC. Primarily due to the junk science of blood splatter analysis, Peterson was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  David and Sonya are a criminal defense duo who...

On April 10, 2002, Victor Vulcain was shot and killed in broad daylight in front of 201 Linden Blvd. Brooklyn, NY. There were several witnesses, each of whom provided a version of events to police that stood in conflict with the other witnesses; not even their descriptions of the shooter matched. No murder weapon was ever recovered, and no DNA evidence connected Gary to the murder. Yet and still,...

On June 7, 1988, joggers discovered the body of 35 year old Robert Mejia on a running trail in the woods behind his apartment complex in Pontiac, MI. Mejia had been stabbed to death. Primarily due to the junk science of bite mark evidence, Gilbert Poole was convicted of first-degree murder, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  With 20 years of expertise in criminal j...

On February 6, 1996, three men dressed in black fled in a white car after robbing and murdering George Bryant and Oscar Bridges at Bryant’s home in Kansas City, MO. Bryant’s 4 year old daughter was present and survived unharmed. Bryant’s daughter told police she was watching TV when men came to the house in a white car. Her father let them in and while they were in the kitchen, she heard a gunshot...

On January 10, 1998, a 60-year-old woman was robbed and sexually assaulted in her home in Violet, LA. Upon his arrest, Ulysses Pierre implicated his cousin, Jarvis Ballard, in the crime. After severe abuse from detectives, Ballard produced a confession and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for aggravated rape. Patrick was wrongfully convicted for a 1993 murder in Ro...