Wrongful Conviction With Jason Flom

Sedrick Courtney was wrongfully convicted of robbery with a firearm and first-degree burglary in Tulsa, OK. On April 6, 1995, two armed men wearing ski masks broke into an apartment in Sedrick’s building complex and brutally beat a female victim, blindfolded her, and forced her to lie on the floor as they ransacked her home. The victim suffered traumatic brain injury because of the attack, but she positively identified Sedrick Courtney as one of the assailants, claiming she recognized his voice. The second assailant was never identified. Even though his sister and cousins corroborated his alibi, Sedrick was sentenced to 30 years and served 15 years before the Innocence Project was able to conduct DNA testing on hairs from the crime scene, proving that none of the hairs from the ski masks matched him. He was exonerated on July 19, 2012. In this episode, Sedrick Courtney appears with his wife, Tina, whom he met in prison when she was working as one of the guards. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-j

In this special episode, Jason Flom talks to Amanda Knox, Jarrett Adams and Jeff Deskovic about what it's like for an innocent person who is forced to spend the holidays in prison. Amanda Knox was convicted of the murder of a 21-year-old British exchange student, Meredith Kercher, who died from knife wounds in the apartment she shared with Amanda in Perugia, Italy in 2007. Amanda and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were both found guilty of killing Kercher, receiving 26- and 25-year prison sentences, respectively. Their convictions were subsequently overturned in 2011 and Amanda was released from prison after serving four years. In early 2014, the Italian Supreme Court ruled that they should both stand trial again and she and Sollecito were re-convicted. Finally, in March 2015, the Italian Supreme Court overturned both murder convictions, ending their eight-year ordeal. Jarrett Adams was 17 years old when he was wrongfully convicted of sexually assaulting a young woman at UW-Whitewater in 1998. He was

Michael Morton's nightmare began in 1986, when his wife Christine was bludgeoned to death in their bed in Austin, TX. Despite any evidence pointing to his guilt and tremendous evidence showing his innocence, he quickly became the prime suspect. At his trial, Williamson County District attorney Ken Anderson painted a picture of him as a violent, sexually depraved murderer who showed no remorse for his crime and he was sentenced to life in prison. Evidence was withheld that may have cleared him, including statements from his child. Finally, after 25 years, a blue bandana found at the scene was tested for DNA evidence. The test not only proved the innocence of Michael Morton, it yielded a hit on a known felon who has since been charged with the murder of Christine Morton, along with the murder of another young woman two years later. After spending nearly 25 years in prison for the murder of his wife, Michael was released on October 4, 2011, and officially exonerated in December 2011. https://www.wrongfulconvicti

In September 1986, 34-year-old Douglas Dilosa was found bound with rope in his Jefferson Parish, LA home. His wife was found strangled upstairs. Dilosa, who is white, told police that he was awakened by a noise, and when he went downstairs to investigate, he was beaten and bound by two black men. Police suspected that Dilosa, who was in financial trouble, had murdered his wife for the insurance money. A jury convicted Dilosa of second-degree murder and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  To learn more and get involved, visit: https://www.first72plus.org/ Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Richard Rosario was convicted of a murder that took place in the Bronx on June 19, 1996, based on the testimony of two witnesses who had picked his picture out of a book of police photos. There was no other evidence linking him to the crime, and Richard did not know the victim or the witnesses. On June 30, 1996, after he heard that the authorities were looking for him, he got on a Greyhound bus in Florida, arrived in New York the next day, and voluntarily contacted the police. He named more than a dozen people in Florida who he said would vouch for him including a pastor and a sheriff’s deputy. But the police did not follow up, and prosecutors charged him with murder based on the statements of the two eyewitnesses. Richard was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life. When Richard challenged his conviction in state court in 2004, seven more witnesses appeared to say he had been in Florida around the time of the murder. He was released in 2016 after serving 20 years when the Bronx District Attorney’s office

Keith Allen Harward, a Navy veteran, was wrongfully convicted of a 1982 rape and murder in Newport News, VA and served 33 years in prison. The assailant had broken into a home, killed a man and brutally raped his wife. Keith was convicted primarily on the testimony of two forensic dentists who said that his teeth matched marks on the victim's body, and he was convicted of capital murder. The Innocence Project performed DNA testing on the rape kit and numerous other pieces of crime scene evidence, and the testing excluded Keith and identified Jerry Crotty as the perpetrator. After the Virginia Supreme Court granted a writ of actual innocence, Keith Allen Harward walked out of prison on April 8, 2016 after wrongly serving more than 33 years of a life sentence. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava For Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Marty Tankleff had just turned 17 when he was arrested for murdering his parents, Seymour and Arlene Tankleff in September 1988. Based on an unsigned “confession" extracted from him following many long hours of interrogation by notorious Suffolk County detective K. James McCready, Marty was convicted and sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. After serving 17 years, Marty's conviction was vacated by the New York State Appellate Division, Second Department, in December of 2007. On July 22, 2008, a judge signed off on a motion by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to dismiss all charges against Marty. Marty recently passed the bar exam and is pursuing a career as an attorney, advocating criminal justice reform and wrongful convictions. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava For Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Derrick Hamilton was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1991 and served over two decades in prison after he was framed by the disgraced Detective Louis Scarcella. During an initial stint in prison in his teens for a separate wrongful conviction, Derrick began studying in the prison’s law library, eventually earning a reputation as one of the most highly skilled jailhouse lawyers in the country. When he wasn’t fighting to prove his own innocence, Derrick worked pro bono on the cases of his fellow inmates, and he formed the Actual Innocence Team with other jailhouse lawyers serving time. He was released on parole in 2011 and finally cleared his name in 2014. Today, he continues to work as a paralegal on wrongful conviction cases. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava For Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1976, Sonia “Sunny” Jacobs was sentenced to death for the murders of Florida Highway Patrol officer Phillip Black and Donald Irwin, a visiting Canadian constable. The officers were killed during a traffic stop where Sunny was traveling with her boyfriend, Jesse Tafero, and her two children, Eric, nine, and Christina, 10 months, in a car driven by Walter Rhodes. After officers approached the vehicle, Rhodes fired shots at them, a gun battle ensued, and chaos erupted. Sunny and Jesse were arrested, and both of their children were taken away by the state. Rhodes negotiated a plea bargain with the state, claiming Jesse and Sunny had pulled the triggers, in exchange for a life sentence. In 1990, Jesse was executed by the state of Florida in horrific circumstances. Sunny spent five years in isolation on Florida’s death row and a total of 17 years in a maximum-security prison before her conviction was overturned. Sunny was freed in 1992 when she was 45 years old. In this episode, Jason talks with Sunny, her curre

Fernando Bermudez served over 18 years in New York State maximum security prisons after he was wrongfully convicted of murder in the shooting death of Raymond Blount in 1991. Fernando was proven innocent in late 2009 with help from a team of pro bono attorneys. Fernando was the first Latin-American male in New York state history to be exonerated on “actual innocence” grounds in a non-DNA case. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava For Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Guests Barry Scheck (Co-Founder of The Innocence Project), exoneree Barry Gibbs and Vanessa Potkin (Director of Post-Conviction Litigation for The Innocence Project) detail the unfathomable odyssey of Barry Gibbs in the bizarre case of The Mafia Cops. Barry was wrongfully convicted of a 1986 second-degree murder in NYC. His conviction was based on misconduct by a NYPD detective, who was later convicted of arranging and committing several murders and cover-ups on behalf of an organized crime family. Barry was incarcerated for 19 years before new evidence led to his release and subsequent exoneration in 2005. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava For Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.