A true crime series on strength, justice, and the will to survive.
After spending years in prison, a growing number of wrongfully convicted felons are getting their second chance in court and being found Not Guilty.
THE INNOCENT delves into the journeys of the recently exonerated, their wrongful convictions, their families, and their varied paths to freedom.
Whether through improper forensic science, eyewitness misidentification, false confessions, misconduct, or simply bad representation, every year countless cases emerge of those who have been wrongfully accused and convicted of a crime. THE INNOCENT details through interviews, testimony, and reenactments, a human portrayal of altered liftetimes. Producers will paint a portrait of both incarceration and of freedom, and challenges that exonerees face while in prison and in their new lives.
THE INNOCENT is a 1/2 hour documentary-style television series that features harrowing stories of survival by men and women who were wrongly convicted of crimes they did not commit.
As of January 2016 over 300 people have been exonerated and walked free, the longest wrongfully accused spending 40 years languishing in jail. As the pace of exonerations has grown across the country, wrongful convictions have revealed disturbing fissures in our criminal justice system. Together, these cases show us how the system is broken – and how urgently it needs to be fixed.
Each episode will feature stories told by those who have experienced first-hand what it’s like to be wrongfully convicted. We will follow their journey from arrest, to the first step out of the confines of incarceration, to the everyday freedoms they now enjoy.
Potential Profiles
William Dillon
A case based largely on the testimony of four key witnesses - an admitted perjurer,
a fraudulent dog scent expert, a snitch whose charges were dropped in return for his testimony, and a half-blind eyewitness led to the wrongful conviction of Bill Dillon. Testing of a shirt left behind by the killer would eventually free Dillon, 27 years later.
Roy Brown
By using Freedom of Information laws to request copies of his own court documents, Brown solved his own case after spending 15 years wrongfully incarcerated.
Julie Baumer
Julie rushed her newborn son to the hospital after he wasn’t able to keep food down. There the doctor’s were convinced she had abused her child, and as a result Julie was arrested and eventually sentenced to 15 years in jail. A nun and the MI Innocence Project helped overturn her conviction after more than 4 years in jail.
Lewis Fogle
Hypnosis and testimony from 3 jailhouse informants led to the wrongful conviction of Fogle for the rape and murder of a 15 year old girl. He and his family maintained his innocence and with help from the Innocence Project proved it after 34 years in jail.
Clarence Elkins
Elkins was proven innocent and released from prison after he collected a cigarette butt from the man he believed to be the actual perpetrator, and DNA tests proved him right. He spent 6.5 years in jail for a crime he didn’t commit.
Ray Krone
With prosecution relying on shoddy bite mark evidence to prove his guilt, Krone spent more than a decade in prison, some of it on death row, before DNA testing cleared his name. He was the 12th death row inmate whose innocence has been proven through post-conviction DNA testing.
Richard Alexander
After a case of mistaken identity, advanced DNA testing helped prove that Alexander was not the perpetrator in a string of sexual assaults in South Bend, Indiana. Alexander was cleared after spending 5.5 years in jail.
Derrick Williams
Despite many friends and family members testifying he was at a family BBQ at the time of the crime, Williams was identified by a woman as her rapist, and convicted of assault and grand theft auto. It would take years, and following a shoddily-held chain of evidence, to clear Williams' name - with him walking free after 18 years served.
Overview
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