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#366 Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions - Ricky Davis
One woman was forced to talk. The other was forced to listen. Both were powerless. Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin tell us about a California man named Ricky…
Wrongful Conviction#365 Jason Flom with Clarence Jones
On August 25, 1998, in Baltimore, MD, 2-month-old Collin began choking after being put down for a nap. Collin’s father, Clarence Jones, rushed Collin to…
Wrongful Conviction#364 Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions - Eric Weakley and Michael Hash
Michael was serving a life sentence until one person came to his rescue: his mom. Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin bring us to Culpeper County, Virginia, to tell…
Wrongful Conviction#363 Guest Host Susan Simpson with Daryl "Lee" Clark
On October 18, 1996, 15-year-old Brian Bowling and his friend, 17-year-old Cain Storey, were in Brian’s bedroom in Silver Creek, GA when a gun went off…
Wrongful Conviction#362 Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions - Chris Tapp
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…
Wrongful Conviction#361 Jason Flom with Audrey Edmunds
On October 16, 1995, in Waunakee, WI, 34-year-old Audrey Edmunds, a stay-at-home mother who often babysat for neighborhood families, was watching a…
Wrongful Conviction#360 Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions - Midnight Crew
In Chicago, old habits die hard. Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin bring us inside one of the worst police abuse scandals in U.S. history. For decades on the…
Wrongful Conviction#359 Guest Host Susan Simpson with Jeff Titus
On November 17, 1990, Doug Estes and Jim Bennett, who were separately out hunting, were found together, shot and killed at the Fulton State Game Area in…
Wrongful Conviction#358 Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions - Dixmoor 5
So their theory is that a wandering necrophiliac comes across the body and defiles it? Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin tell the story of how five Chicago teens…
Wrongful Conviction#357 Jason Flom with Jennifer Del Prete
In December of 2002, a mother dropped off her 3 month old daughter, I.Z., at daycare in Romeoville, IL. Jennifer Del Prete was working at the daycare center…
Wrongful Conviction#356 Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions - Peter Reilly
Why do we tell these stories? Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin tell us the story of Peter Reilly, one of the first modern-day false confessors. In 1973, police…
Wrongful Conviction#355 Guest Host Gilbert King with Juan Roberto Melendez
On September 13, 1983, Delbert Baker was found dead – shot and with his throat slashed – in Auburndale, FL. Witnesses gave the police a lead on two…
Wrongful Conviction#353 Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions - Tommy Ward Pt. 1
He thought the police would recognize this was just a dream, not reality. Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin bring us a story from Ada, OK where a young woman went…
Wrongful Conviction#354 Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions - Tommy Ward Pt. 2
No body, no bones, no motive. Just a decades long nightmare that has not ended. For the final episode of Season 2 Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin take us back…
Wrongful Conviction#352 Jason Flom with Terry Ceasor
On October 3, 2004, in Port Huron, MI, Terry Ceasor was at home alone with his girlfriend Cheryl’s 1 year old son, Brenden. Terry and Brenden had been…
Wrongful Conviction#351 Maggie Freleng with Hank Skinner
On New Year’s Eve in 1993, Hank Skinner fell asleep early on his couch after being rendered comatose from a cocktail of vodka, xanax and codeine. His…
Wrongful Conviction#350 Guest Host Lauren Bright Pacheco with Lamar Johnson
On the evening of October 30, 1994, Marcus Boyd and Greg Elking were sitting on Marcus’s front porch in St. Louis, MO when two men, wearing ski masks and…
Wrongful Conviction#349 Maggie Freleng with Gwen Graham
In 1987, five elderly women passed away at a nursing home in Grand Rapids, MI. Gwen Graham and Cathy Wood both worked at this nursing home, and the pair had…
Wrongful Conviction#348 Jason Flom with Zavion Johnson
In November of 2001, in Sacramento, CA, four month old Nadia was declared brain dead after being rushed to the hospital the day prior. Nadia’s father…
Wrongful Conviction#347 Maggie Freleng with Talalelei "TJ" Edwards
In May 2001, Talalelei “TJ” Edwards, his wife and son were sharing an Anchorage, AK apartment with a woman named Melissa along with Melissa’s…
Wrongful Conviction#346 Maggie Freleng with Amanda Busse
From an extremely young age, Amanda Busse endured severe physical and sexual abuse, not only by her father, but also by her father’s friends, who were…
Wrongful Conviction#345 Maggie Freleng with James Richardson
On June 29, 2009, and into the following morning, James Richardson was out at The Other Place nightclub in Greenville, NC. James and another club goer…
Wrongful Conviction#344 Maggie Freleng with Tami Vance
In March 2000, Tami Vance and Leigh Stubbs completed a 60-day drug rehab program. Once discharged, their friend Kim Williams joined them and they went to…
Wrongful Conviction#343 Jason Flom with Brian Neirynck
In 1999, Brian Neirynck and Roberta Smedley separated and got into a custody battle over their three-year-old son. In June of the following year, Smedley…
Wrongful Conviction#342 Maggie Freleng with Nancy Smith
On May 7, 1993, Margaret Grondin brought her four-year-old daughter to the hospital in Lorain, OH. Grondin claimed her daughter had told her that her school…
Wrongful Conviction#341 Jason Flom with John Giuca Pt.2
On October 12, 2003, Mark Fisher was found shot and killed in a driveway in Brooklyn, NY after spending the night hanging out with a group of his peers…
Wrongful Conviction#340 Jason Flom with John Giuca Pt.1
On October 12, 2003, Mark Fisher was found shot and killed in a driveway in Brooklyn, NY after spending the night hanging out with a group of his peers…
Wrongful Conviction#339 Maggie Freleng with Garland Leon “Butch” Martin
On February 25, 1998, while Garland Leon “Butch” Martin was out on a fencing job, his home burned down. His wife, Marcia, and their two small…
Wrongful Conviction#338 Jason Flom with Dewayne Dunn
On September 3, 2008, in Elkhart, IN, 60-year old Angel Torres was found unconscious and lying face down in a parking lot outside of his apartment complex with…
Wrongful Conviction#337 Maggie Freleng with Amelia Bird
As a child, Amelia’s family members severely abused her. She resorted to drugs and relationships with older men as coping mechanisms. In January of 2006…
Wrongful Conviction#336 Jason Flom with Lerico Kearney
On November 21, 1997, Gene Artis and his sister Yvonne Giles were shot and killed at their apartment in Suffolk, VA. Six-year-old Travone Artis was the only…
Wrongful Conviction#335 Maggie Freleng with Charles Jackson
On April 7, 1991, Joe Travis was found dead from a single gunshot wound to the head in an apartment complex in Cleveland, OH. Witnesses indicated the murder…
Wrongful Conviction#334 Jason Flom with Anthony Sims
This is an updated episode that originally aired on September 21, 2021. On May 18th, 1998, Charlie Winbush told her fiancé, Julius Graves, that a man…
Wrongful Conviction#333 Maggie Freleng with Ashley Jordan
Ashley and Albert Debelbot met in the Army, got married and had their first child together, McKenzy, on May 29, 2008. Days later, Ashley noticed a bump on her…
Wrongful Conviction#332 Jason Flom with Dean Gillispie
On August 20, 1988, 22-year-old twin sisters C.W. and B.W. were kidnapped by a gunman as they got into their car in Dayton, OH. The gunman pointed a handgun at…
Wrongful Conviction#331 Maggie Freleng with Deborah Nicholls
One evening in March, 2003, a fire broke out in Deborah Nicholls' Colorado Springs, CO home, killing her three children. Her husband suffered significant…
Wrongful Conviction#330 Jason Flom with Tysheem Crocker
In October 1997, Skip Clark was killed in York, PA. Police officers decided that the death was gang related, and that two gangs were out for each other after…
Wrongful Conviction#329 Maggie Freleng with Brandon Woodruff
On October 16, 2005, Dennis and Norma Woodruff were found murdered in their Royse City, TX home. Their son Brandon, a freshman in college, had been visiting…
Wrongful Conviction#328 Jason Flom with Keith Cooper
On October 29, 1996, two gunmen broke into Michael Kershner’s apartment in Elkhart, IN and robbed Kershner, his mother and four friends. After fighting…
Wrongful Conviction#327 Maggie Freleng with Hope White
On July 19, 2008, a police officer found the body of Julie Burchett in her parked car in an abandoned pallet mill in Monticello, KY. Hope and her boyfriend…
Wrongful Conviction#326 Jason Flom with Octavius Williams
In 2011, 17 year old Octavius Williams was at a Halloween party hosted by his father and his father’s girlfriend in Cleveland, OH. Toward the end of the…
Wrongful Conviction#325 Maggie Freleng with Johnetta Carr
On October 23, 2005, Planes Adolphe was found in front of his Louisville, KY apartment, robbed and murdered. Police were led to a man named Steve, but Steve…
Wrongful Conviction#324 Jason Flom with Peter Pringle
This is an updated episode that originally aired on February 20, 2017. On July 7th, 1980, three masked robbers robbed the Bank of Ireland at Ballaghaderreen…
Wrongful Conviction#323 Maggie Freleng with Tasha Shelby
On May 30, 1997, Tasha Shelby found her boyfriend's two and half-year-old toddler having a seizure on his bedroom floor. Bryan was pronounced dead at the…
Wrongful Conviction#322 Jason Flom with Barry Beach - Part 2
In June of 1979, a 17 year old girl was found brutally murdered near Fort Peck, Montana. 17 year old Barry Beach was a classmate of hers and learned of her…
Wrongful Conviction#321 Jason Flom with Barry Beach - Part 1
In June of 1979, a 17 year old girl was found brutally murdered near Fort Peck, Montana. 17 year old Barry Beach was a classmate of hers and learned of her…
Wrongful Conviction#320 Jason Flom with Lamonte McIntyre
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…
Wrongful Conviction#319 Jason Flom with Terrence Hobbs
One month apart in 1996, two crimes occurred in Portsmouth, VA. Terrence Hobbs was arrested and convicted for both of them, but he committed neither. In the…
Wrongful Conviction#318 Guest Host Lauren Bright Pacheco with Mark Schand
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…
Wrongful Conviction#317 Jason Flom with Elvis Brooks
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…
Wrongful Conviction#316 Guest Host Laura Nirider with Vincent Ellerbe
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…
Wrongful Conviction#315 Jason Flom with Michael VonAllmen
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…
Wrongful Conviction#314 Guest Host Kemba Smith with Joyce Watkins
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…
Wrongful Conviction#313 Jason Flom with Antwaun Cubie
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…
Wrongful Conviction#312 Guest Host Laura Nirider with Davontae Sanford
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…
Wrongful Conviction#311 Jason Flom with Dennis and Lee Horton
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…
Wrongful Conviction#310 Guest Host Laura Nirider with Herman Williams
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…
Wrongful Conviction#309 Jason Flom with Jace Washington
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…
Wrongful Conviction#308 Guest Host Amanda Knox with Heidi Fero
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…
Wrongful Conviction#307 Jason Flom with John Jerome White
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…