Shows / Wrongful Conviction
Wrongful Conviction
Hosted by celebrated criminal justice reform advocate and founding board member of the Innocence Project Jason Flom, Pulitzer prize-winning podcast host and producer Maggie Freleng, and Emmy Award-winning writer, producer and podcast host Lauren Bright Pacheco, Wrongful Conviction features intimate conversations with men and women who have spent years in prison for crimes they maintain they did not commit. Some have been fully exonerated and reunited with family and friends while others…
Episodes
Wrongful Conviction#486 Maggie Freleng with James Degorski
On January 8, 1993, seven employees at a Brown’s Chicken and Pasta in Palatine, IL. were brutally murdered. With no solid physical evidence, police…
Wrongful Conviction#485 Jason Flom with Lamont Hunter
January 18, 2006, 3-year-old Trustin Blue tumbled down his basement stairs in Cincinnati, OH, became unresponsive, and later brain dead. Trustin had been under…
Wrongful Conviction#484 Maggie Freleng with Ben Spencer
On the evening of March 22, 1987 a businessman and father were robbed and killed in Dallas, TX. Just a few days later, 22-year-old Benjamine Spencer, a…
Wrongful Conviction#483 Guest Host Conor Hall with Arvel Marshall
On the night of July 15, 2008, 22-year-old Moustapha Oumaria was shot and killed while hanging out with three friends outside his Crown Heights, NY home. The…
Wrongful Conviction#482 Maggie Freleng with Eddie Ramirez
In the winter of 1995, Joyce Dennis was killed during her closing shift at a laundromat in North Philadelphia, PA. Police then rounded up a group of teenagers…
Wrongful Conviction#481 Jason Flom with Chris Turner
On the morning of December 9th, 1984, 19-year-old Christopher Turner woke up to the police breaking into his bedroom with guns drawn. He was arrested for the…
Wrongful Conviction#480 Maggie Freleng with Marty Levingston
On December 28, 2007, a young man was shot and killed outside an apartment complex in Cincinnati, Ohio. Ten days later, an eyewitness identified Marty…
Wrongful Conviction#479 Jason Flom with Eric Brown
On August 25, 1994, a woman found her boyfriend shot dead in his Louisiana apartment. His stolen car was found across from 16-year-old Eric Brown’s…
Wrongful Conviction#478 Maggie Freleng with Tonia Miller
Shortly after 18-year-old Tonia Miller brought her newborn home in Calhoun County, MI in 2001, she noticed something was off. Her baby wouldn’t eat much…
Wrongful Conviction#477 Jason Flom with Roosevelt Myles
Shortly before 3 a.m. on November 16, 1992, 16-year-old Shaharain Brandon was shot and killed in Chicago, IL. An eyewitness who was with Shaharain at the time…
Wrongful Conviction#476 Maggie Freleng with Marvin Haynes
In 2004, Marvin Haynes was a pretty average 16-year-old — watching Nickelodeon, chasing trends and girls, just having a good time. “I just couldn't…
Wrongful Conviction#475 Jason Flom with Leslie Vass
One morning in February of 1975, 17-year-old high school basketball star Leslie Vass was running an errand for his mother at the local pharmacy in Baltimore…
Wrongful Conviction#474 Maggie Freleng with Andre Causey
On August 11, 1991, the body of a young woman was found outside an apartment building in Austin, TX. A bystander reported a black man rubbernecking at the…
Wrongful Conviction#473 Jason Flom with Robert Roberson
On January 31, 2002, Robert Roberson was awakened at his home in Palestine, TX by a cry and went to find his two year old daughter, Nikki Curtis, on the floor…
Wrongful Conviction#472 Jason Flom with Kevin Dykes
In June 1986, Kevin Dykes witnessed the attempted murder of 2 people and the actual murder of a 3rd person in his neighborhood in Compton, CA. Kevin decided to…
Wrongful Conviction#471 Jason Flom with Stephen Carrington
After a short stint in prison, Stephen Carrington was a newlywed father, training to be an EMT and getting his life back on track. But when the police came…
Wrongful Conviction#470 Jason Flom with Chris Vaughn
On June 14, 2007, 32-year-old Chris Vaughn was found limping on the side of the road near Joliet, IL, bleeding from two gunshot wounds. When police arrived on…
Wrongful Conviction#469 Jason Flom with Calvin Buari
In the early 1990s, Calvin Buari was a well-known crack cocaine distributor in the Bronx, NY. In 1992, a disgruntled associate who had recently shot Calvin…
Wrongful Conviction#468 Jason Flom with Terrel Barros
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…
Wrongful Conviction#467 Jason Flom with Jerome Curry
Jerome Curry was arrested in connection with several shootings in the Bronx, NY, on September 20, 1996. When taken in for questioning, Jerome faced verbal and…
Wrongful Conviction#466 Lauren Bright Pacheco with Joe Giarratano
One morning in February 1979, 21-year-old Joe Giarratano woke up to a horrific scene. Two of his housemates had been brutally murdered. Joe had a drop of blood…
Wrongful Conviction#465 Jason Flom with David Ayala
On August 16, 1981, shots were fired from a gangway into Piotrowski Park on the southwest side of Chicago, IL. As a result, two people were fatally shot, and…
Wrongful Conviction#464 Lauren Bright Pacheco with Jofama Coleman
In 2003, 20-year-old Jofama Coleman was just getting his life together - he had a stable job, a nice place to live, a girlfriend, and a baby on the way. After…
Wrongful Conviction#463 Jason Flom with Ashunte & Willie Smith
On April 8, 1995, Reggie Lewis’s body was found in a creek behind the Dalebridge Apartments in Warrensville Heights, OH. He had two gunshot wounds to the…
Wrongful Conviction#462 Lauren Bright Pacheco with Greg Bright
Greg Bright was wrongfully convicted in New Orleans, LA for the murder of Elliot Porter in 1975. He would spend more than 27 years in Angola, the notorious…
Wrongful Conviction#461 Jason Flom with Anthony Legion
On January 24, 2001, a man was fatally shot while being chased from a home in Detroit, MI. Anthony Legion was one of three men who were identified as being in…
Wrongful Conviction#460 Lauren Bright Pacheco with Alan Beaman - Part 2
In Part 1, the Beaman family’s lives were torn apart by Alan’s wrongful conviction for the murder of Jennifer Lockmiller. It would take 13 years…
Wrongful Conviction#459 Jason Flom with Melissa Calusinski
On January 14, 2009, sixteen-month-old Benjamin Kingan died after being in daycare at a suburb outside of Chicago, IL. Despite no physical signs of abuse or…
Wrongful Conviction#458 Lauren Bright Pacheco with Alan Beaman - Part 1
Alan Beaman was 21 years old when his life was forever altered. Going into his senior year in college, he suddenly found himself ensnared in the Normal, IL…
Wrongful Conviction#457 Jason Flom with Robert Almodovar at the 2024 Innocence Conference
Shortly before 1 a.m. on September 1, 1994, a car pulled up in front of an apartment building in Chicago, IL and a passenger fired several gunshots at a group…
Wrongful Conviction#456 Lauren Bright Pacheco with Frank Benitez
On April 28th, 1989, 18-year-old Francisco Benitez was having a normal day. He picked up his paycheck, got a haircut, then went to his friend’s house to…
Wrongful Conviction#455 Jason Flom with Darrell Siggers at the 2024 Innocence Conference
Shortly before midnight on February 16, 1984, James Montgomery was shot and killed as he walked with two friends on the eastside of Detroit, MI…
Wrongful Conviction#454 Lauren Bright Pacheco with James Soto
When he was just 20 years old, an act of violence changed James “Jimmy” Soto’s life forever. Despite no physical evidence and numerous alibi…
Wrongful Conviction#453 Jason Flom with Jennifer McMullan at the 2024 Innocence Conference
On March 6, 2001, two masked men attempted to rob a small restaurant in McHenry, IL. The owner, wielding a butcher knife, and his employee chased the men out…
Wrongful Conviction#452 Lauren Bright Pacheco with Miguel Solorio
In December 1998, 81-year old Mary Bramlett was killed in a drive-by shooting near Whittier, CA. That same night, Miguel Solorio went to the movies with his…
Wrongful Conviction#451 Jason Flom with Ricardo Gray
In September of 1998, a shooting took place in Cleveland Ohio’s Kinsman neighborhood resulting in one fatality. According to eyewitness testimony…
Wrongful Conviction#450 Lauren Bright Pacheco with Michelle Morrison
In 2009, Michelle Morrison was convicted on a felony murder charge along with aggravated assault, criminal attempt to commit armed robbery, and conspiracy over…
Wrongful Conviction#449 Jason Flom with Frederick Willie Kearse
On August 6, 1993, Devon “Dog” Brown and Raymondo “Ray” Frazier exited a bodega in Brooklyn, NY, when at least two people fired a slew…
Wrongful Conviction#448 Jason Flom with Chris Miller
On April 28, 2001, two men attacked a woman as she returned home in Cleveland Heights, OH. The men sexually assaulted her and then left with various items…
Wrongful Conviction#447 Jason Flom with Darien Harris
On the evening of June 7, 2011, police responded to a shooting at a gas station in Chicago, IL, and found one victim dead and another wounded. Relying on…
Wrongful Conviction#446 Jason Flom with Dan Carnevale
A fire erupted in the basement of an apartment building in Pittsburgh, PA, on January 17, 1993, killing three people. Arson officials believed the fire was set…
Wrongful Conviction#445 Jason Flom with Donte West
On March 8, 2016, Officer Nicholas Blake became suspicious of two vehicles traveling together on Interstate 70 toward Manhattan, KS due to their appearance and…
Wrongful Conviction#444 Jason Flom with Rafael Martinez
Authorities believe Rafael Martinez, his brothers Lorenzo Martinez, Daniel Martinez and Isidoro Medina-DeLeon killed Jose ‘Chino’ Jiminez because…
Wrongful Conviction#443 Jason Flom with Mario Casciaro
On December 21, 2002, 17-year-old Brian Carrick, a stock boy at Val’s Foods, a grocery store in Johnsburg, IL, was reported missing by his mother. Police…
Wrongful Conviction#442 Maggie Freleng with Amer Zada
In the early morning hours of June 15, 1979, 17-year-old Amer Zada’s truck stalled out near the waterfront in Nyack, NY. While he waited for a ride, Amer…
Wrongful Conviction#441 Jason Flom with Jeremy Puckett
On March 14, 1998, Anthony Galati was found murdered along the side of a road in Rancho Cordova, CA. The case went cold until October 1999, when Israel Septs…
Wrongful Conviction#440 Maggie Freleng with Cassandra Black Elk
On the morning of February 19th, 2022, Cassandra Black Elk awoke to find her three-week-old daughter StarLight lifeless beside her. Police insisted the baby…
Wrongful Conviction#439 Jason Flom with Glynn Simmons
Two gunmen robbed a liquor store in Edmond, OK, on December 30, 1974. The gunmen fatally shot an employee and left an eyewitness injured. At this time, police…
Wrongful Conviction#438 Maggie Freleng with Catina Curley
On March 30th, 2005, police were called to a home in New Orleans, LA. There, they found Renaldo Curley dead of a single gunshot wound. His estranged wife…
Wrongful Conviction#437 Jason Flom with James Kluppleberg
In the early morning hours of March 24,1984, a fire erupted on the first floor of an apartment building in Chicago, IL. The fire destroyed the building and…
Wrongful Conviction#436 Maggie Freleng with Evaristo Salas
Jose Arreola was shot to death inside a pickup truck on November 14, 1995, in Sunnyside, WA. Five months later, a police informant identified a local teenager…
Wrongful Conviction#435 Jason Flom with Chris Smith
In 2007, a man wearing a wig and sunglasses entered a Bell Wireless store on the west side of Cincinnati, OH brandishing a gun. He ordered the patrons to the…
Wrongful Conviction#434 Maggie Freleng with Kim Hoover
On November 29, 2002, a 7-month-old baby enrolled in Kim Hoover's Columbus, Ohio home day care began to struggle to breathe. After being taken to the hospital…
Wrongful Conviction#433 Jason Flom with Carl Miller
On October 25, 1979, Rabbi David Okunov was robbed and fatally shot while on his way to temple in Brooklyn, New York. Two eyewitnesses described the…
Wrongful Conviction#432 Maggie Freleng with Eron Shelman
One day in May of 1992, 19-year-old Eron Shelman was driving around Detroit, MI with three of his buddies. Eron was at the wheel with his friend Antonio Knight…
Wrongful Conviction#431 Jason Flom with Tyrone Clark
On Saturday, June 23, 1973, a man attacked Anne Kane outside of her apartment in Boston, MA. The man forced her inside, beat her, robbed her, raped her, and…
Wrongful Conviction#430 Maggie Freleng with Lorinda Swain
“When I tell people that I was sentenced 25 to 50 years, they automatically assume that I was accused of murder,” says Lorinda Swain. “And I…
Wrongful Conviction#429 Jason Flom with Greg Brown
A house in Pittsburgh, PA, went up in flames on February 14, 1995, killing three firefighters while they were trying to put out the fire. A week later, a…
Wrongful Conviction#428 Maggie Freleng with Gary Williams
In February of 1999, 86-year-old Rosemary “Mama Rose” Williams arrived at a hospital in Queens NY, claiming that she’d been raped at…
Wrongful Conviction#427 Jason Flom with Lamont Hunter
January 18, 2006, 3-year-old Trustin Blue tumbled down his basement stairs in Cincinnati, OH, became unresponsive, and later brain dead. Trustin had been under…