Wrongful Convictions: Justice System Failures
For every guilty person convicted, there may be an innocent person in prison. These cases expose how the system fails. For a current case raising questions about wrongful accusation, see our coverage of the Karen Read case.
Explore our complete True Crime collection →
Famous Wrongful Conviction Cases
- Cause: Coercive interrogation, rush to judgment
- Documentary: When They See Us (Ava DuVernay)
- Cause: Satanic panic, poor defense, circumstantial evidence
- Documentary: Paradise Lost trilogy
Steven Avery
Served 18 years for rape he didn't commit. Exonerated by DNA in 2003. Then charged with murder in 2005—the subject of Making a Murderer. Still imprisoned; case ongoing.
Anthony Ray Hinton
Spent 30 years on Alabama's death row for two murders. Freed in 2015 when new ballistics analysis proved the gun couldn't have fired the bullets.
How Wrongful Convictions Happen
- Coercive interrogation techniques
- Mental exhaustion
- Psychological manipulation
- Especially vulnerable: Juveniles, mentally disabled
- Memory is unreliable
- Cross-racial identification especially flawed
- Leading lineup procedures
- Bite mark analysis (now discredited)
- Hair microscopy (now discredited)
- Blood spatter (often overstated)
- Withholding exculpatory evidence
- Pressure to close cases
- Tunnel vision
The Innocence Project
- Freed 230+ innocent people
- Proven the need for reform
- Changed interrogation practices
- Highlighted DNA's power