Wrongful Conviction Podcasts

On April 25, 1990, a 10 year old girl was allegedly abducted from her backyard in Columbus, OH. She said that a man grabbed her, pulled her over a fence, tied a sock around her eyes and put her in his car. He then drove to a nearby abandoned house, took her inside and sexually assaulted her on a couch. Afterward, the man took the girl in his car to a convenience store and went inside. While he was...

Author Gilbert King receives a message from a Florida judge who claims that there is an innocent man in prison, wrongly convicted of murdering his wife back in 1987. King and researcher Kelsey Decker meet Leo Schofield in prison and learn about the disappearance of 18 year-old Michelle Schofield.  Bone Valley is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. See omnystu...

On July 4, 2002, two men shot and killed 36-year-old Tony Cox outside a restaurant in Chicago, IL. Suspecting the murder was gang-related, police arrested Eric Blackmon. After claiming Blackmon was selected from a lineup by eyewitnesses, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to 60 years in prison. Guest Host Patrick Pursley was wrongfully convicted for a 1993 murder in Rockford, IL, for which h...

On October 25 1986, a 25 year old woman was attacked as she walked to a bus stop in Decatur, GA. The assailant approached her, hit her in the face, and sexually assaulted her. He stole her wristwatch, money, and broke two of her front teeth.  Police were led to Clarence Harrison because he lived near the site of the assault and neighbors told police that they heard someone at his house had a watch...

In 1987, 21-year-old guitarist Leo Schofield was pursuing his rockstar dreams when his teenage wife Michelle was found dead in a phosphate mining pit in Lakeland, Florida. Two years later, Leo was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the murder he has always denied. Fifteen years after Leo’s conviction, previously unidentified fingerprints from Michelle’s car matched Jeremy Scott—a troubl...

On January 13, 1994, two men hijacked the car of three travelers at a gas station in Chicago, IL, killing Reginald Wilson and Felicia Lewis. Carl Williams was implicated in the crime by the two hijackers and eventually produced a confession after hours of abuse and coercion from detectives. Williams was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Patri...

In 1987, 18-year-old Michelle Schofield was found dead in a phosphate pit in Florida. Two years later, her husband Leo was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Fifteen years later, previously unidentified fingerprints matched Jeremy Scott--a violent teenager who lived nearby. Jeremy has since confessed to Michelle’s murder. Yet Leo Schofield remains behind bars. In Bone Valley, a groundbreak...

On November 28, 2002, 94-year-old Helen Sailor spent Thanksgiving with her family before returning to her apartment at a high rise building for the elderly and disabled in Elkhart, Indiana. The next day, a health care provider found her strangled to death in her apartment. One of the detectives assigned to the case had a theory about another high rise resident, Lana Canen, and a string of previous...

Lava For Good is proud to launch a new guest-hosted series in our Wrongful Conviction Podcast feed. Every week starting September 12, we will debut a special episode featuring a unique guest. These hosts range from the formerly incarcerated and leading criminal justice advocates to award-winning journalists and progressive influencers.  Guest Hosts include: Amanda Knox Beth Shelburne David Rudolf...

On February 12th, 1990, a tragic accident occurred in which it is believed that Kathy Middleton mishandled a gun in her left hand, accidentally shooting herself one time in the head. The state turned this tragedy into a homicide investigation, sending her husband Ken Middleton to prison for life plus 200 years. In 2004, Ken had an opportunity to present to his motion trial court evidence of ineffe...

In early May of 1977, Keith Laborde and his 14 year old twin cousins, Karen and Sharon Sanders, allegedly picked up a hitchhiking black man at a gas station in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana. About 2 weeks later, when asked about a scratch on his neck, Keith Laborde and the twins told a story about this armed hitchhiker who allegedly forced Laborde into the trunk and raped both girls. Despite not mat...

James King has been sitting in prison for almost 25 years for a rape that he adamantly maintains he did not commit. His conviction strongly relied on the inconsistent and contradictory word of a then 13-year old girl who was allegedly hiding her inappropriate relationship with a neighbor twice her age. Despite the lack of material evidence, changed testimonies for the prosecution, and the credible...

When Tammy Poole and her husband Michael Poole argued, Tammy says that Michael would threaten to commit suicide. Then on April 22, 2007, in their hometown of Chatsworth, GA, a rifle took Michael’s life. While Tammy adamantly claims that her husband tragically shot himself in front of her, a single declaration from a pathologist led investigators to theorize that Tammy actually pulled the trigger....

At about 9:40 AM on March 19th, 2010, John Jones awoke to find his daughter Jada unresponsive and called 9-1-1. She was rushed to the hospital where she remained until July 16th, 2010 when she was removed from life support and passed away. Based on the junk science of shaken baby syndrome, John was convicted of murdering his daughter and sentenced to 15 years to life. Greg Glod, Criminal Justice F...

In October 2007, 42 year old Rhoni Reuter was shot and killed in her Chicago, IL apartment. She was 7 months pregnant by her boyfriend, Shaun Gayle. Gayle, a Chicago Bears 1985 Super Bowl winner, allegedly had 17 other girlfriends at the time. Marni Yang was one of them, and police began looking into her and her son as suspects. In an attempt to protect her son, Marni confessed to the crime. While...

In 1977, Arthur Samson was shot in the stomach and stabbed approximately 100 times inside his New Orleans, LA antique store. The store was ransacked, and the safe was missing about $2,000. A month later police stopped 2 men and Bobbie Jean Johnson for a traffic violation in a stolen car. At the time Johnson was not a suspect, but police were on the lookout for a .32 caliber revolver. They found on...

In the evening of April 21, 1990, two masked gunmen shot and killed 27 year old Michael Wilson while he was walking with a friend on a Washington D.C. street. The Wilson murder went unsolved for years until police offered deals to jailhouse informants which included reduced jail time, cash payments and free housing in exchange for their testimony in over 3 dozen cases that included the Michael Wil...

On June 28, 1997, 25-year-old member of the Lil Watts gang, Antonio Alarcon, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Hawthorne, California, by a rival gang, Lawndale 13. In exchange for release on unrelated charges, Santo “Payaso” Alvarez deflected attention for the Alarcon shooting toward fellow Lawndale 13 members Eduardo Dumbrique and John Klene, when he knew who the actual shooter was. Witness Da...

In May of 1992, Sylvia Boykin and Bernetta Pope were struggling with substance addiction. Pope owed Boykin money who, in turn, owed money to two younger men. So Boykin and the men went to the house where Pope stayed in Philadelphia, PA to collect the drug debt. Boykin went inside alone but when she returned empty handed, the men went in with guns. An argument ensued, shots were fired, and Pope was...

On October 3, 1993, 21-year-old Marvin McCloud was leaving an after-hours club in Anderson, Indiana, when he was shot and killed in his car by two gunmen, Romeo Lee and Khaidi Harvell, who drove off in Romeo's half brother Walter Goudy's car. Months later,  Walter Goudy went to that after-hours club in the same car, and the police brought him in for a one-person show up in which a passenger in the...

On the morning of July 30, 2002, Karen Boes left her Zeeland, Michigan home to meet a friend and go shopping while her 14 year old daughter Robin was home in her bedroom. Less than an hour after leaving home, she received a call that her house was on fire. Robin was killed in the fire, and the fire was declared an arson homicide largely based on the junk science of ‘fire damage patterns’ as determ...

On May 31, 1985, Julie Bonds McCrory was found beaten to death in her home in Andalusia, Alabama. Julie’s husband, Charles McCrory, quickly became the main suspect. Forensic Dentist, Dr. Richard Souviron, testified that an alleged bite mark on Julie’s body was made by Charles. Regardless of Charles’ alibi and another similar crime committed by a more compelling suspect, the prosecution built their...

In the late night of May 19, 2005, a Molotov cocktail was thrown into a Detroit, MI home, killing two children – a 20 month old girl and a 10 year old boy. One of the victims’ siblings led police to 19 year old Kenneth Nixon. Despite very inconsistent eyewitness testimony from the child, Nixon was convicted with the help of a prosecutor’s deal with a jailhouse informant and some unscrupulous prose...

2 year old Nicki Bowman had a history of respiratory issues that were raging in late January 2002 for which she was prescribed a drug that is now known to cause fatal respiratory depression in children. On January 31, 2002, her father, Robert Roberson, awoke to her cry and found Nicki on the floor at their home in Palestine, Texas, and after a while, they again both fell asleep. Robert later awoke...

Suave The Sentence (Episode #1) “The very last word she said was ‘You can become a voice for the voiceless.’ And I was just like, ‘Damn, why am I letting this lady mess up my high?’” We meet Suave, a man who has been serving a life sentence at a Pennsylvania maximum-security prison since he was a teenager. And we learn about his decades-long relationship as a source with journalist Maria Hinojosa....