Wrongfully Yours

For nearly 20 years, Harris Bocknek worked in the automotive industry without incident. Then one day, a knock on the door changed everything. When a dealership owner facing financial collapse allegedly shifted blame for millions of dollars in losses, Harris and Fadi Zeto found themselves at the centre of a criminal investigation they never saw coming. In this episode, they share how their lives we...

In this follow up conversation with investigative journalist and defense investigator Dan Grothaus, we move beyond individual wrongful conviction cases and confront the deeper systemic issues that allow them to happen. We talk about prosecutorial culture, weak defenses, poorly investigated cases, and what happens after innocence is finally proven. Perhaps most troubling: in 15 cases where innocenc...

Investigative journalist and defense investigator Dan Grothaus reviewed 15 cases where innocent people were exonerated. In every single one, the courts agreed the conviction was wrong. Yet in none of those cases did the state reopen the investigation to determine who actually committed the crime even when alternate suspects were identified. If the wrong person was convicted, the real perpetrator i...

Sometimes the truth is sitting quietly in the case file, waiting for someone to notice it. Investigative journalist and defense investigator Daniel Grothaus explains how, in several innocence cases, the key witness had already been named in the police reports. The problem? No one ever spoke to them. Not the police, not the prosecutor, and not the defense. In three cases, Grothaus tracked down witn...

What happens when an investigation quietly shifts from asking questions to proving a theory? Investigative journalist and defense investigator Daniel Grothaus explains how careful, line-by-line review of police reports can reveal critical details that never appear in a trial transcript. Sometimes those reports even contain references to undisclosed evidence, including witnesses or lab reports that...

Two new episodes of Wrongfully Yours are now available! Catch a two-episode conversation with investigative journalist turned criminal defense investigator Dan Grothaus. Dan’s experience is so vast, from working on more than 100 capital and murder cases to helping secure six acquittals, nine dismissals, and 15 exonerations, that there was simply too much to fit into one episode. So, we made it two...

Two new episodes of Wrongfully Yours are now available! Catch a two-episode conversation with investigative journalist turned criminal defense investigator Dan Grothaus. Dan’s experience is so vast, from working on more than 100 capital and murder cases to helping secure six acquittals, nine dismissals, and 15 exonerations, that there was simply too much to fit into one episode. So, we made it two...

On the next episode of Wrongfully Yours, investigative journalist turned defense investigator Dan Grothaus shares a case that forced him to confront a difficult truth: innocence is real and police can get it wrong. A 15-year-old nicknamed “Duke” was pressured into telling a grand jury he witnessed a murder. He hadn’t. Officers had mistaken him for someone else, a man known as “LaDuke.” Rather than...

Next up on Wrongfully Yours, investigative journalist turned defense investigator Dan Grothaus recounts the moment an eyewitness changed everything. When he located a woman who had witnessed a grocery store parking lot shooting years earlier, her first question was chilling: “Whatever happened to the boy they had in the courtroom that day? Because he was not the shooter.” She described seeing the...

Some conversations stay with you long after they end. Join us for a special retrospective episode: The Moments That Stayed With Us. Across more than a dozen conversations, exonerees, lawyers, advocates, researchers, justice professionals, and family members shared moments that changed the way we think about wrongful convictions. This episode revisits some of the most powerful insights from those c...

How does someone end up in the “crazy world” of wrongful convictions? In our September 29 episode of Wrongfully Yours, Kelly sits down with Daniel Grothaus to explore how a young journalism student from the University of Missouri found himself reporting from crime scenes in Houston in the early-80s.  While investigating he learned that what he heard from neighbors sometimes didn’t match the offici...

Over the past 14 months, Wrongfully Yours has been privileged to welcome exonerees, family members, lawyers, advocates, researchers, students, and justice professionals who have generously shared their stories and insights into wrongful convictions. This bonus episode is a chance to revisit some of the moments that have stayed with me most, not because they're the "best" moments, bu...

In this follow-up conversation, criminal defense lawyer Humza Hussain returns to Wrongfully Yours to tackle one of the most challenging questions in law: “How can you defend someone you know is guilty?” What starts as a legal debate quickly becomes a profound discussion on empathy, accountability, and the moral weight of innocence. Humza opens up about why his hardest cases are often defending tho...

We like to think the presumption of innocence protects everyone, but in reality, the deck is often stacked against the accused.  Criminal defense lawyer Humza Hussain explains why juries and the system may unconsciously start with a bias toward guilt, and what that means for people fighting for their freedom. Join the conversation and be part of this eye-opening discussion on September 15. Availab...

How do you know someone is truly innocent? Criminal defense lawyer Humza Hussain shares the subtle “tells” that make him trust a client’s innocence. Sometimes it’s not the evidence at first, it’s the person asking, “Do you believe me?”  This September 15, join us on Wrongfully Yours for a fascinating conversation about intuition, trust, and the human side of the justice system. Available wherever...

How do you defend those people? A common question asked of criminal defence lawyers. In our next episode, criminal defense lawyer Humza Hussain opens up about the real challenges of defending clients in the justice system. Surprisingly, it’s not the guilty clients who create the most pressure. It’s the innocent ones.  Humza talks about the weight of responsibility when someone’s freedom, reputatio...

In this powerful and deeply human conversation Kelly speaks with criminal defence lawyer Humza Hussain who fights for those overlooked by the justice system. From courtroom stories to the human impact of wrongful convictions, Humza shows us what it really takes to stand up for justice and the lives behind every case.  Humza shares how his early work with Innocence Canada and on death row in North...

Coming September 1: a powerful conversation about plea deals and the quiet pressure they place on accused people. In this episode, Kelly and criminal defence lawyer Humza Hussain unpack the paradox at the heart of plea bargaining: a system that claims not to punish people for going to trial, while rewarding those who plead guilty and framing innocence as a lack of remorse. Is this about efficiency...

What happens when an innocent person refuses a plea deal no matter how tempting it sounds? In this episode, criminal defence lawyer, Humza Hussain, shares the story of Elrico Fowler, who was offered 10 years to plead guilty to a murder he did not commit. He chose to maintain his innocence, went to trial, and has now spent 30 years in custody in North Carolina. After decades on death row, his sente...

Coming September 1. What do we think we know about people on death row, and what happens when those assumptions are wrong? In this episode, Kelly speaks with criminal defence lawyer Humza Hussain about the lessons that stayed with him from working alongside people sentenced to death. He reflects on the humanity, growth, and intellectual depth he witnessed over decades, and how time, education, and...

Wrongful conviction work is never simple, and it’s never without heartbreak. In this follow-up conversation with civil rights attorney Deborah Francois, we go deeper into the impossible choices her small firm faces when deciding which cases to take on, the emotional toll of telling someone you believe they're innocent but can’t help because of legal or evidentiary barriers, and the staggering...

“I wish that there were no exonerations. I wish we didn’t have to do this.” In this powerful trailer, civil rights lawyer Deborah Francois reminds us that clearing someone’s name doesn’t erase the years stolen, the choices denied, or the trauma endured. Exoneration is not the end of the story. It’s the start of another uphill battle. Check out this trailer. Full episode of Wrongfully Yours out Aug...

“Every exoneration is sweet, but ideally, it shouldn’t have to happen.” – Deborah Francois In our next episode of Wrongfully Yours , Deborah reminds us that an exoneration is not the restoration of justice, but proof that justice was lost long ago. Every overturned conviction represents years stolen, opportunities denied, and lives forever altered. Check out this trailer. Full episode drops August...

How do lawyers decide which wrongful conviction cases to take on? In this clip from our next episode, civil rights lawyer Deborah Francois explains the heartbreaking reality: believing in someone’s innocence isn’t always enough. With limited resources, procedural barriers, and the need for evidence, not every case can move forward…even when the injustice is clear. Full episode of Wrongfully Yours...

In this episode of Wrongfully Yours , Kelly sist down with civil rights attorney Deborah Francois, who has spent her career fighting wrongful convictions and seeking justice for those society has failed. Deborah shares how she first got involved in this work, the heartbreaking realities of exonerations, and the impossible decisions her firm faces when choosing which cases to take on. Together, the...