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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 con ...
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After a short stint in prison, Stephen Carrington was a newlywed father, training to be an EMT and getting his life back on track. But when the police came looking for his brother at the same Brooklyn, NY address, the police mistakenly zeroed in on Stephen as the primary suspect of a felony murder at a Brooklyn lumber store. Stephen was convicted a…
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On June 14, 2007, 32-year-old Chris Vaughn was found limping on the side of the road near Joliet, IL, bleeding from two gunshot wounds. When police arrived on scene, they found the bodies of his wife and three children shot in the car. Chris is unable to recount the events of that early morning, and there are no other witnesses to the crime. Chris …
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In the early 1990s, Calvin Buari was a well-known crack cocaine distributor in the Bronx, NY. In 1992, a disgruntled associate who had recently shot Calvin implicated him in the murder of Elijah and Salhaddin Harris. Calvin was charged with the double murder and six rival drug dealers testified against him at his 1995 murder trial. No physical evid…
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Terrel Barros and his friends thought they were just going out clubbing until a tragic encounter changed all that. Then, authorities compounded that tragedy by sending an innocent man to prison and setting the confessed killer free. Learn more and get involved at: http://www.change.org/freeterrelbarros https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LQPNFwumJQ ht…
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Jerome Curry was arrested in connection with several shootings in the Bronx, NY, on September 20, 1996. When taken in for questioning, Jerome faced verbal and physical abuse from the police and ultimately falsely confessed to the shootings. Despite no physical evidence tying him to the crimes and questionable police tactics, Jerome was sentenced to…
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#466 Lauren Bright Pacheco with Joe Giarratano
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One morning in February 1979, 21-year-old Joe Giarratano woke up to a horrific scene. Two of his housemates had been brutally murdered. Joe had a drop of blood on his shoe and no memory of the previous night due to alcohol and drug use. He was terrified that he had been the one that killed the two women. Overcome with grief and guilt, he turned him…
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On August 16, 1981, shots were fired from a gangway into Piotrowski Park on the southwest side of Chicago, IL. As a result, two people were fatally shot, and another was injured. Initially, the police identified two men as their main suspects, but ultimately dropped those leads. Due to a combination of unethical interrogation techniques and faulty …
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#464 Lauren Bright Pacheco with Jofama Coleman
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In 2003, 20-year-old Jofama Coleman was just getting his life together - he had a stable job, a nice place to live, a girlfriend, and a baby on the way. After a tumultuous childhood, things were finally going well. Then one day the police came to his workplace to question him about a murder in his Los Angeles, CA neighborhood. Due to faulty eyewitn…
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#463 Jason Flom with Ashunte & Willie Smith
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On April 8, 1995, Reggie Lewis’s body was found in a creek behind the Dalebridge Apartments in Warrensville Heights, OH. He had two gunshot wounds to the back of his head. Willie and Ashunte Smith are serving life sentences for his murder based on testimony by their own cousin, William Marshall. Marshall recanted in 2022 and now swears it was actua…
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#462 Lauren Bright Pacheco with Greg Bright
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Greg Bright was wrongfully convicted in New Orleans, LA for the murder of Elliot Porter in 1975. He would spend more than 27 years in Angola, the notorious prison in Louisiana built on a former slave plantation, and in many ways still run like one today. While incarcerated, Greg not only taught himself to read and write, he also learned enough abou…
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On January 24, 2001, a man was fatally shot while being chased from a home in Detroit, MI. Anthony Legion was one of three men who were identified as being in the home at the time of the shooting, but no one claimed to have witnessed it. Due to a combination of questionable police tactics and false testimony from a jailhouse informant, Anthony was …
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#460 Lauren Bright Pacheco with Alan Beaman Pt. 2
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In Part 1, the Beaman family’s lives were torn apart by Alan’s wrongful conviction for the murder of Jennifer Lockmiller. It would take 13 years and the best legal team they could find to finally get Alan out of prison. But the story never ends when a wrongfully convicted person is released. Alan’s wife Gretchen joins the conversation to discuss th…
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On January 14, 2009, sixteen-month-old Benjamin Kingan died after being in daycare at a suburb outside of Chicago, IL. Despite no physical signs of abuse or injury, police took 22-year-old Melissa Calusinski, an employee at the daycare, in for extensive questioning. Melissa repeatedly told officers she had nothing to do with the baby’s death, but a…
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#458 Lauren Bright Pacheco with Alan Beaman Pt. 1
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Alan Beaman was 21 years old when his life was forever altered. Going into his senior year in college, he suddenly found himself ensnared in the Normal, IL murder investigation of his former girlfriend, Jennifer Lockmiller. Despite a total lack of evidence, Alan was arrested just weeks before his graduation. He was ultimately convicted of murder an…
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#457 Jason Flom with Robert Almodovar at the 2024 Innocence Conference
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Shortly before 1 a.m. on September 1, 1994, a car pulled up in front of an apartment building in Chicago, IL and a passenger fired several gunshots at a group of people, killing two and injuring a third. Notorious police detective Reynaldo Guevara was assigned the case and claimed that surviving eyewitnesses identified 19-year-old Roberto Almodovar…
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#456 Lauren Bright Pacheco with Frank Benitez
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On April 28th, 1989, 18-year-old Francisco Benitez was having a normal day. He picked up his paycheck, got a haircut, then went to his friend’s house to watch Beetlejuice on HBO. That same night two teenage boys were shot and killed. An eyewitness said as the shooter ran from the scene, she noticed that he had a fresh haircut. Despite no other simi…
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#455 Jason Flom with Darrell Siggers at the 2024 Innocence Conference
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Shortly before midnight on February 16, 1984, James Montgomery was shot and killed as he walked with two friends on the eastside of Detroit, MI. Montgomery’s friends told police they recognized the gunman as 20-year-old Darrell Siggers who they had seen earlier in the night at a gathering. Despite no physical evidence linking him to the crime, Darr…
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#454 Lauren Bright Pacheco with James Soto
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When he was just 20 years old, an act of violence changed James “Jimmy” Soto’s life forever. Despite no physical evidence and numerous alibi witnesses, Jimmy and his cousin David were convicted of a 1981 double homicide in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago, IL. They would end up serving 42 years in prison, the longest served wrongful convi…
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#453 Jason Flom with Jennifer McMullan at the 2024 Innocence Conference
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On March 6, 2001, two masked men attempted to rob a small restaurant in McHenry, IL. The owner, wielding a butcher knife, and his employee chased the men out of the restaurant, and in the ensuing chase, the owner was shot and killed. Police began to focus on 19-year-old Jennifer McMullan and some of her friends after finding out that they were in t…
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#452 Lauren Bright Pacheco with Miguel Solorio
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In December 1998, 81-year old Mary Bramlett was killed in a drive-by shooting near Whittier, CA. That same night, Miguel Solorio went to the movies with his new girlfriend Silvia Torres then to a party hosted by Miguel’s sister. Despite many alibi witnesses and no physical evidence to tie him to the murder, Miguel was ultimately convicted of the cr…
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In September of 1998, a shooting took place in Cleveland Ohio’s Kinsman neighborhood resulting in one fatality. According to eyewitness testimony, Ricardo Gray was identified as the shooter. The existence of another potential suspect was ignored by the prosecution during trial, and Ricardo was sentenced to 23 years to life in prison. It has now bee…
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#450 Lauren Bright Pacheco with Michelle Morrison
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In 2009, Michelle Morrison was convicted on a felony murder charge along with aggravated assault, criminal attempt to commit armed robbery, and conspiracy over a 2007 shooting that left a man dead. Not only did Michelle not fire the weapon that took the man’s life, but she never even set foot in the house where the shooting occurred. In fact, she d…
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#449 Jason Flom with Frederick Willie Kearse
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On August 6, 1993, Devon “Dog” Brown and Raymondo “Ray” Frazier exited a bodega in Brooklyn, NY, when at least two people fired a slew of bullets from a passing car. Ray was shot in his legs and survived, while Devon was killed. 911 calls came in around 3:03pm describing 2-3 young black men in a Buick Century - a drive by shooting. Primarily on the…
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Introducing: Wrongful Conviction with Lauren Bright Pacheco - Trailer
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Wrongful Conviction with Lauren Bright Pacheco. Ten new, inspiring episodes of Wrongful Conviction, hosted by Lauren Bright Pacheco, that celebrate the potential of human connection to empower ordinary people to overcome extraordinary odds and injustices. Real individuals who unexpectedly became one another’s personal heroes by turning tragedy into…
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On April 28, 2001, two men attacked a woman as she returned home in Cleveland Heights, OH. The men sexually assaulted her and then left with various items, including her cell phone. In the following days, police traced the cell phone to 24-year-old Chris Miller. Chris said that he had just bought the cell phone from someone else, but despite no for…
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