Reasonable Doubt
James Allen is serving three life sentences for murder. No one ever said he killed anyone.
James Allen is serving three life sentences for murder. No one ever said he killed anyone.
Maya Dukmasova Chicago Reader Aug 2021 1h35min Permalink
Two men with the same name. A murder, a manhunt, and a chilling question: Did a Florida court hand down a life sentence because of a mistaken identity?
Tristram Korten GQ Aug 2021 30min Permalink
On Feb. 5, 2019, Maya Moore made an announcement on The Players' Tribune that would upend the WNBA: She would be sitting out the 2019 season to focus on "the people in my family, as well as on investing my time in some ministry dreams that have been stirring in my heart for many years." It was a stunning declaration. This was Maya Moore, in her prime.
Katie Barnes ESPN Jun 2020 25min Permalink
Richard Phillips survived the longest wrongful prison sentence in American history by writing poetry and painting with watercolors. But on a cold day in the prison yard, he carried a knife and thought about revenge.
Thomas Lake CNN Apr 2020 35min Permalink
Two men were sent to prison for killing a French tourist in Manhattan in 1987. Can they overturn their convictions?
Jennifer Gonnerman New Yorker Feb 2020 20min Permalink
Tonya Crowder still dreams that she and her fiance, Roosevelt Myles—who’s been in prison for decades fighting what he says is a wrongful conviction—will one day build a life together somewhere “nice, quiet, and simple.”
Mari Cohen Chicago Reader Nov 2019 25min Permalink
The decades-long saga of Michael Morton, who was wrongfully convicted of killing his wife.
Pamela Colloff Texas Monthly Dec 2012 1h50min Permalink
How prosecutors used bloodstain-pattern analysis to convict an innocent woman of murdering her son.
Pamela Colloff ProPublica Dec 2018 20min Permalink
Barry Jones has spent the last 22 years on death row for the murder of a 4-year-old girl. Prosecutors have fought against reopening his case even as the basis for his conviction has fallen apart.
Liliana Segura The Intercept Oct 2017 50min Permalink
A case in Baltimore — in which two men were convicted of the same murder and cleared by DNA 20 years later — shows how far prosecutors will go to preserve a conviction.
Megan Rose ProPublica Sep 2017 30min Permalink
DNA evidence exonerated six convicted killers. So why do some of them recall the crime so clearly?
Rachel Aviv New Yorker Jun 2017 35min Permalink
Fred Steese served more than 20 years in prison for the murder of a Vegas circus performer even though evidence proved he didn’t do it. When the truth came to light, he was offered a confounding deal: he could go free, but only if he agreed to remain a convicted killer.
Megan Rose ProPublica May 2017 35min Permalink
Three killings, three young accused killers, and the two homicide detectives that link them.
Marc Bookman Slate May 2017 20min Permalink
The long legal saga of Kerry Max Cook, who for almost 40 years fought to clear his name after being convicted of murder.
Michael Hall Texas Monthly Mar 2017 50min Permalink
When the prosecutor in a 1924 trial focused on the murder of a priest backed the suspect–and everything that followed.
Ken Armstrong The Marshall Project Dec 2016 25min Permalink
We like to believe that the blame for wrongful convictions falls on individuals: the racist prosecutor, the crooked cop. It doesn’t always work that way.
Stephanie Clifford New Yorker Oct 2016 25min Permalink
Thirty-three years ago, a Chicago man was sentenced to death for murder. In 1999, another man confessed to the crime. Today, they are both free.
Matthew Shaer The Atavist Magazine Sep 2015 1h Permalink
Being exonerated for a crime you didn’t commit is a hard-won triumph. But how can the state make up for what you’ve lost while in prison?
Ariel Levy New Yorker Apr 2015 35min Permalink
After DNA test cleared Clarence Harrison of a crime he didn’t commit, he was released from prison and awarded $1 million. But the redemption story he tells publicly hides a more complicated reality.
Albert Samaha Buzzfeed Mar 2015 25min Permalink
The story of Tyrone Hood, who served 21 years for a murder he didn’t commit, and the Chicago criminal justice apparatus that allowed a serial killer to go free.
Nicholas Schmidle New Yorker Jul 2014 40min Permalink
In 2004, Cameron Todd Willingham was executed for starting a fire that killed his three daughters. The case hinged on the testimony of a jailhouse informant named Johnny E. Webb. Today, Webb says he lied.
Maurice Possley The Marshall Project Aug 2014 20min Permalink
“The case of Lisl Auman, who first wrote me from prison three years ago, is so rotten and wrong and shameful that I feel dirty just for knowing about it, and so should you.”
Hunter S. Thompson Vanity Fair Jun 2004 35min Permalink
The story of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter’s exoneration.
William Nack Sports Illustrated Apr 1992 1h10min Permalink
How a series of lies and an incompetent lawyer led to a Florida woman’s wrongful conviction.
Terrence McCoy New Times Broward-Palm Beach Sep 2013 20min Permalink
A case of mistaken identity and the incarceration of an innocent man.
Benjamin Weiser New York Times Magazine Aug 2000 30min Permalink