Human stories inside broken cases.
Wrongful Conviction follows individual cases through testimony, timelines, and the mechanics of criminal prosecution. Recent episodes move from personal history into contested evidence, witness statements, police conduct, informants, prison survival, and the long fight to be heard.
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Wrongful Conviction is a long-running true crime series centered on people who say the legal system got their cases wrong. It is not built for quick shock. Recent episodes spend time with the human setup before moving into the charge, the theory, and the machinery that followed. Dusty Turner’s episodes examine a case where the distinction between wrongdoing after the fact and murder becomes central. Lance Alford’s story begins with a fatal shooting near Dudley Grange Park in Camden, New Jersey, and a witness statement that later names him. Josh Burns is introduced through the date and place of his arrest story in Brighton, Michigan. Jane Dorotik’s episode turns on circumstantial evidence, family testimony, a physical theory of the crime, and the pressure of being treated as guilty while processing a death. Dr. Marvin Cotton Jr.’s episode focuses on identification, an alibi that undermined the state’s case, and the use of a jailhouse informant. Fred Clay’s episode lingers on prison as a brutal reality, especially for a young person forced to learn how to survive it. Across these stories, the show keeps returning to the same questions. Who got believed. What evidence was ignored. What was promised. What was withheld. How did a weak case become a conviction. The interviews are conversational, but the moral temperature is high. The show gives guests room to speak in full, sometimes messy chronology, then steps in to clarify dates, legal claims, and pressure points. It is compassionate without sounding sentimental. It can be blunt when police or prosecution behavior appears unfair. It also resists treating innocence work as a clean courtroom reversal story. The damage is social, physical, psychological, and familial. Wrongful Conviction is best for listeners who want true crime rooted in legal accountability and lived consequence rather than puzzle-box suspense.
Made for: For true crime listeners drawn to exoneration stories, legal failure, and first-person accounts of prison, family loss, and contested evidence. It suits people who prefer patient interviews over sensational retellings.
What sets it apart: Wrongful Conviction keeps the person at the center while still tracking the legal mechanism that shaped the case. Its strength is the plainspoken movement between memory, evidence, police conduct, and moral outrage.
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 continue to languish, with some even facing execution on death row. Each episode peels back the layers behind the stories of those who have found themselves caught in a legal system gone wrong, with illuminat…
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
First-person testimony and procedural detail show how disputed evidence, informants, and court decisions can sustain a wrongful conviction.
Wrongful Conviction lets accused and imprisoned people describe their cases in their own terms, then tests those accounts against evidence and legal procedure.
An alibi punctures an eyewitness ID, and you hear from someone living with the fallout.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A 48-hour car search becomes the sharpest pressure point in Dusty Turner's murder case.
Dusty Turner's murder case is reconsidered through the story of what followed after he went to authorities: an admission of wrongdoing after the fact, but not, as presented here, murder. The most persuasive material is procedural.
A careful true-crime story that lets the evidence, and its gaps, do the work.
This episode treats Jane and Bob's story as a circumstantial case that gathers force from ordinary family life after a death. It moves from the suspicion around Bob's death to the syringe, the tire tracks, the stains, and the prosecution's attempt to fold those details into one…
A Detroit wrongful-conviction story built around a confident identification, an airtight alibi, and a jailhouse informant.
The episode follows Dr. Marvin Cotton Jr. through a case held together by a confident eyewitness, an alibi that split that certainty open, and a jailhouse informant kept in play by the prosecution.
A spare prison-survival story about keeping your head down and learning the rules.
It stays on prison survival rather than trying to dress it up. The speaker is young, outmatched, and dropped into a violent system where paying attention matters as much as being strong.
A delayed case with heavy family strain and a prosecution that changed hands four times.
This episode keeps its attention on Rafael Madrigal and the toll of a case that took about three years to reach trial. The strongest thread is the strain on his family: his wife trying to keep money coming in, giving up the dream house, and raising three kids while he was away.
A denied post-conviction bid, a recantation, and a case that shows how hard it can be to unwind a conviction.
The review keeps Selma Butler's story anchored in a wrongful-conviction frame, following the November 1995 Chicago murder, the 17-year-old who lived three floors below Angela Young, and the post-conviction fight that has since been denied.
Fast true crime with sharp case logic.
Morning drama, real-life receipts, quick laughs.
Spooky stories with skeptical teeth.
A wrongful-conviction case file in motion.
One grim case, one face mask, one grade.
This episode investigates the 2015 assault of Courtney Tolliver in Ohio, exploring the police suspicion of David Smith and her changing testimony under legal pressure.
Maggie Freleng interviews Selma Butler, who served 25 years for a 1995 murder he didn't commit.
This episode features an interview with Clemente Aguirre about his wrongful conviction story, hosted by Jason Flom and introduced by Ben Bullen.
This episode features a discussion on the legal system's implementation issues and promotes the 'Love Trapped' podcast about women uncovering a con artist.
This episode features Jason Flom and Maggie Freleng discussing the case of Quincy Cross in Graves County, focusing on wrongful conviction issues.
This episode discusses Federico Lobey's experience with police harassment and fabricated charges by St.
This episode introduces the podcast series 'My Mother's Lies,' which re-examines the 2000 murder of 18-year-old Jessica Curran in Mayfield, Kentucky.
This episode introduces a new true crime podcast series called 'My Mother's Lies' that re-examines the murder of Jessica Curran and the case against Quincy Cross through the perspective of Susan Galbraith's son.
Jason Flom interviews Dusty Turner on Wrongful Conviction after Turner’s release from 31 years of wrongful incarceration became news a few weeks earlier.
This episode features an interview with Dusty Turner about his intense Navy SEAL training alongside Billy Joe Brown in 1994-95, covering extreme physical challenges and military experiences.
This episode investigates the 2005 murder of Salvador Martinez in Camden, New Jersey, focusing on witness Carol Laughlin's testimony implicating Lance Alford.
This episode discusses a paternity hoax involving Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd and explores a pattern of similar cases uncovered by internet detectives.
Jane Dortek walks through the years before her husband Bob’s death, when the family had settled outside San Diego and the house had grown quiet after the kids moved out.
Marvin Cotton Jr.
A host talks with a guest about what it takes to survive prison.
The host talks with the guest about a case that took about two and a half years to get to trial.