Stuck: Wrongful Convictions in Jamaica with Andrew Wildes · The Frequency Network: The Wave

King’s Counsel Andrew Pilgrim: The Case That Forced Barbados to Record Interrogations

·38 min·4 clips

Stuck opens in Barbados with a clear look at the harm a wrongful conviction can leave behind. Andrew Pilgrim joins as a long-time criminal lawyer who has spent more than three decades pushing back against doubtful convictions, especially the ones built on shaky confessions. The discussion centers on convictions built on weak statements and the pressure that can push police toward the wrong answer. One case, Derrick Crawford, shows the problem in a particularly stubborn form. He was arrested for rape even though two victims said he was not the man. The case stayed alive anyway, which is the kind of detail that should unsettle anyone who thinks a charge is the same as proof. Another case, Haynes and Edwards, shows how the legal system can inch toward a better rule. There, the key issue was evidence used to convict that rested on a confession treated as the backbone of the case, even though the man first lied and then gave different versions that were used against him. Pilgrim describes how intense pressure to bring someone to justice can harden a weak case into a wrongful conviction. The conversation also turns to the rare and unsettling possibility of post-conviction exoneration. Pilgrim describes a Barbados case in which a woman was convicted of killing her child, only for the child to later turn up alive after a neighbor had taken her. The episode uses that example to show how a confession can still mislead a court even when the underlying story is false. DNA testing in that case confirmed the child's identity and age, making the error impossible to ignore. The show then widens from individual cases to the broader Caribbean legal landscape. It notes recent judgments from the Caribbean Court of Justice and a Privy Council judgment in the Bahamas that acknowledge the reality of false confessions. That recognition matters because once the law admits the risk, it has to think seriously about safeguards. Through it all, the conversation stays grounded in procedure, evidence, and accountability. It is less interested in outrage than in how the record was made, what was missing, and what should have happened instead. The tone stays grave and practical. Even when the guest gets animated, the focus remains on how justice systems should behave when the wrong person is accused. The result is an episode about one country, one region, and one stubborn legal truth: if the confession is unreliable, the conviction may be too.

As heard by us

A careful look at how a wrongful conviction survives, and what it takes to stop the next one.

The conversation stays on wrongful conviction in Barbados and keeps its eye on the basic problem: what happens when the evidence is wrong but the system keeps moving.

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Why you'd press play

Listen if you want the legal mechanics behind a wrongful conviction, not a slogan.

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