wrongful convictions

Katie Smith, whose murder conviction was based on what’s increasingly seen as junk science, is fighting for her freedom.

A Georgia judge ordered a new trial for Danyel Smith, who was convicted of a crime that may have never occurred.

In Pink Crime: Fighting Against the Criminalization of Motherhood, Pregnancy, and Queer Identity, Valena Beety examines how women and queer people face punishment for their bodily autonomy and gender.

Experts say “investigative hypnosis” creates an unacceptably high risk of false testimony, but Texas courts have refused to hear Flores’s case. Now his life is in the Supreme Court’s hands.

Maria Montalvo was convicted of murder in 1996 after her children’s deaths in a fire, based on testimony from arson experts. In a petition for a new trial, her attorneys argue that the conviction rests on ‘outdated beliefs and junk science.’

James Carver spent 36 years in prison after he was convicted of setting one of the deadliest fires in Massachusetts history. But after reviewing new scientific evidence, a judge set him free.

Despite pleas from state lawmakers, Texas will execute Roberson on Oct. 17 unless Governor Greg Abbott grants a reprieve in his case.

Even though a federal jury found Terence Richardson not guilty of murder, he was sentenced to life in prison. Virginia prosecutors want to keep it that way.

Medical experts testified that Danyel Smith’s child likely died of natural causes, but Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge Ronnie K. Batchelor rejected a motion to overturn his 2003 murder conviction.

Lorenzo Johnson, a former boxer, quoted Muhammad Ali in his fight against his wrongful conviction. After reading Johnson’s writing, one of Ali’s children, Khaila, demands that Pennsylvania’s governor clear Johnson’s name.

Outdated stereotypes and crimes that never occurred create unique challenges for women seeking exoneration.

Lacino Hamilton spent 26 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit before being exonerated in 2020 after DNA evidence cleared him.

Prosecutors in Hennepin County, Minnesota, used jailhouse informants and an unreliable gang expert, and ignored evidence of innocence to send a Black teenager to prison for life.

Advocates say junk science was used to convict Jimenez. DA Margaret Moore has not yet decided whether she will drop charges or retry her.