Wrongful Conviction

In the spring of 1985, a rapist with a very specific M.O. was on the loose along a stretch of Roswell Road between the city of Atlanta and Fulton County. Somehow it did not matter to the less than scrupulous district attorney when the attacks continued after a composite sketch nabbed the wrong man. Learn more and get involved at: https://nacdl.org/ https://www.georgiainnocenceproject.org/ https://...

Josh Dubin speaks with Vanessa Antoun, Senior Resource Counsel at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) to learn about Hair Microscopy Evidence. Even when examined under a microscope, the similarities that can be observed between two hairs are open to wide interpretation, there are no definitive traits that can prove with any scientific certainty that a suspect’s hair...

In the early morning hours of June 30th, 1995, 21 year old mother Kristine Bunch awoke in a carbon monoxide haze to the decimation of her entire world - only for junk science and the false testimony of an actual scientist to make matters worse. Learn more and get involved at: https://www.justis4justus.org/ https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/podcast/s11e16-wrongful-conviction-junk-science-ar...

At the tail end of the 1980’s, Randal Padgett was living an idyllic rural life of farm and family, when admittedly he made his biggest mistake that began with a skinny dipping joke. Learn more and get involved at: https://www.questforjusticethebook.com/ https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction  is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in asso...

Josh Dubin sits down with Barry Scheck, Co-Founder of the Innocence Project to discuss Arson Evidence. Built on a foundation of conjecture and best guesses that were never adequately tested and confirmed according to any valid scientific principles, what Arson Evidence experts and prosecutors have been telling juries for decades, that one can definitively determine that a fire was intentionally se...

On January 24th, 2004, a party at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple devolved into violence, resulting in one man’s death. Before the violence erupted, an overserved young man left the party into the care of his new girlfriend - only to become the murder suspect on the word of his jilted ex. Learn more and get involved at: https://www.change.org/p/brooklyn-district-attorney-eric-gonzalez-free-james...

Josh Dubin, civil rights and criminal defense attorney, and Innocence Ambassador to the Innocence Project in New York explores bloodstain pattern evidence with Pamela Colloff, senior reporter at ProPublica and staff writer at The New York Times Magazine. Bloodstain pattern experts falsely claim that they can identify the culprit of violent crimes by examining the shape and distribution of bloodsta...

In the summer of 2007, Jamal Trulove was an aspiring rapper from San Francisco’s Sunnydale projects. He had hoped that scoring himself a role on a reality television show would help his music career. Instead, his appearance on television would help police pin a July 27 murder on him. Over 30 witnesses, including Jamal himself, would not snitch, but someone had to go down for it. His most mom...

Introducing Josh Dubin, civil rights and criminal defense attorney, and Innocence Ambassador to the Innocence Project in New York. On the debut episode of Wrongful Conviction: Junk Science, Josh explores bite mark evidence. Like other forms of junk science used in criminal trials, bite mark evidence does not benefit crime victims or their loved ones. So why is it treated like credible science? It...

On the night of April 25th, 1976, a wealthy, 54 year old widow was burglarized and raped in Concord, North Carolina. What happened next paints a stark picture of American policing and race relations that arguably remains unchanged to this day. Learn more and get involved at: https://www.change.org/p/demand-nc-governor-to-commute-ronnie-long-s-sentence-immediately https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodc...

In 1996, Hulon Howard was allowing competing crack dealers to operate out of the front porch and basement of his home in West Philadelphia. He and his girlfriend, Lena Laws, enjoyed the fringe benefits until the usual trappings of the drug trade claimed Mr Howard’s life along with the freedom of a man with an unfortunate nickname. Learn more and get involved at: https://tlewisfoundation.com/...

On May 5th, 1985, a group of friends were bar hopping around Clearwater, Florida, when they ran into their drug dealer’s 14 year old daughter, Shelly Boggio. She tagged along for a night of fun that tragically ended in her death and an innocent man spending over 3 decades on Florida’s death row. We are joined by James Dailey’s attorney, Josh Dubin, who has had a hand in freeing m...

On April 15th, 2011, an Oakland, CA drug dealer lost his iPod, and an addict lost his life. 5 weeks later, the questionable word of another addict derailed the promising musical career of a young man whom he had never met. Learn more and get involved at: https://www.change.org/p/department-of-justice-justice-for-pierre-rushing-wrongfully-convicted/u/25484884 https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.c...

This is an updated episode that originally aired on August 13, 2018. Since his release in April 2018 and the ultimate end to his legal troubles in August 2019, Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill is using his voice to fight on behalf of those entangled in the many trappings of the criminal legal system. He is joined by his friend, e-commerce billionaire, and co-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers, Michael R...

Terrel Barros and his friends thought they were just going out clubbing until a tragic encounter changed all that. Then, authorities compounded that tragedy by sending an innocent man to prison and setting the confessed killer free. Learn more and get involved at: http://www.change.org/freeterrelbarros https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LQPNFwumJQ https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason...

Tim Howard and Brian Day were best friends with drug habits to match. Brian did some deals to support his habit, ending up in debt to some nasty characters. When Brian and Shannon Day are murdered, and their 7 month old boy, Trevor, is left for dead in a duffel bag, authorities get a case of tunnel vision for the Day’s only black friend. Learn more and get involved at: http://www.proclaimjus...

On Thursday June 11, 2020, justice advocate and philanthropist Jason Flom moderated a forum on Facebook Live with four extraordinary leaders in civil rights, justice, and advocacy: Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors; prison industry expert Bianca Tylek; Drug Policy Alliance executive director Kassandra Frederique; and civil rights lawyer and author Alec Karakatsanis. The goal of this e...

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...