Best 22 Innocence Project Podcasts in the US

Ever feel like the law is stacked against you? It probably is. Broken Law speaks truth to power in discussing how our laws and legal system serve the few at the expense of the many. This is where law meets real life. Hosted by the staff of the American Constitution Society, we reckon with the origins of our legal system, interview people on the frontlines of the progressive legal movement, and chat about necessary legal reforms to restore our democratic legitimacy and improve the lives of all people. more

In 2007, Chris Vaughn was arrested during a funeral for his wife and three children. He would be tried and convicted of their murders. To this day he maintains no memory of what occurred that tragic day 20 years ago. Murder in Illinois follows the complicated circumstances that led to Vaughn's conviction, as well as the forensic evidence his supporters believe proves his innocence- in attempt to answer one question: Who killed the Vaughn family? more

Attorneys Colin Miller and Rabia Chaudry investigate and report on wrongful conviction cases in an effort to exonerate innocent incarcerated defendants. more

Suspect is an investigative series about mislaid justice and the kinds of weighty decisions that detectives, lawyers, and jurors make every day - decisions that, once made, are almost impossible to reverse.Season 3: Five Shots in the Dark follows Leon Benson, who spent 24 years in an Indiana state prison for the 1998 murder of a young man named Kasey Schoen. His conviction hinged on the testimony of two eyewitnesses but what if their memories turned out to be wrong? And what if the people who knew what really happened had never been allowed to speak? Suspect Season 3: Five Shots in the Dark is the story of two victims: one murdered, one sentenced to life. Follow host Matt Shaer and attorney Lara Bazelon as they investigate how the justice system failed both Leon and Kasey, and who the real killer might be. Join this unprecedented look inside the attempt to overturn a wrongful conviction and find out if justice will finally be served.Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of Suspect ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app. more

Turning a Moment Into a Movement exists to transform personal pain into public power. Inspired by the wrongful conviction of Gerard Haycraft, this podcast amplifies the voices of those affected by injustice and the advocates working to dismantle the systems that perpetuate it. Through storytelling, truth-telling, and community-centered conversations, we shine a light on the moments that awaken people to action—and support the movements that demand accountability, equity, and lasting reform. We believe that every story has the power to shift perspectives, and every moment can spark a movement. more

FBI Behavioral Science Unit agents Ray Carr and Jim Fitzgerald bring you true crime like no one else can — because they lived it. Ray Carr is a retired FBI Special Agent and Behavioral Science Unit profiler who built the profile that caught the most successful bank robber in American FBI history. Jim Fitzgerald is a retired FBI Special Agent and forensic linguist who identified the Unabomber through his manifesto, and worked the JonBenét Ramsey investigation and DC Sniper task force. This is not speculation. This is not re-told news. This is what actually happened — from the agents who were in the room. True Crime. Real Behavior. Real Insight. 🎙️ New episodes every week more

The Truth & Justice Podcast is listener driven show, devoted to the pursuit of truth and justice. Host, Bob Ruff, investigates potential wrongful conviction and cold cases using a unique crowdsourcing approach. Bob invites listeners to participate in the investigations, as he breaks down a new case in each season in real time. The podcast is currently in Season 18 'Justice Warriors'. This season is in between long-form investigations. Season 18 features interviews with real people doing real work to affect real change in a broken criminal justice system. Every episode is designed to inform, educate and inspire. more

Rattling the Bars puts the voices of the people most harmed by our system of mass incarceration at the center of our reporting on the fight to end it. The show was founded by the late Black Panther and political prisoner Marshall 'Eddie' Conway, and is now hosted by Charles Hopkins, better known as Mansa Musa, who himself spent 48 years behind bars.Rattling the Bars offers an honest look at the lives of prisoners, returning citizens, their families, and their communities. With Rattling the Bars, by presenting hard data and real-life stories, we examine and seek to shift public opinion around the misconception that incarceration, punishment, and increased policing make cities safer—the truth of which has been disproven by countless studies. The series examines the history and root causes of the current so-called justice system. It showcases individuals and communities nationwide who are grappling with real solutions to problems created by the prison-industrial complex.Help us continue producing Rattling the Bars by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Sign up for our newsletter more

What if you or someone you loved were arrested, convicted and incarcerated for a crime --a crime for which you or that person was innocent?What if the lawyer you hired was incompetent and you were out of funds and out of options?What if years and decades had gone by and you or your loved one were still behind bars?Where would you find help?Wrongful conviction in the United States occurs more often than you might think. In 2022, the National Registry of Exonerations recorded 417 people who were proven innocent. They have tracked cases of innocence since 1989. Since 1973, 200 people were taken off Death Row and freed from prison.The total number of men and women exonerated since 1989 is 3,460. That is just the tip of the iceberg as it is estimated that 4%-6% of the 2 million people doing time are innocent.The desperate help these people need is coming from innocence organizations in most every state in addition to groups like Conviction Integrity Units around the nation. They work pro bono for each client.This podcast will explore causes of wrongful conviction in addition to many other topics related to our criminal justice system. We will continue to interview exonerees, share memoirs they have published, speak to Professors of Law who are also authors of books about false confessions and junk science. We will interview directors of Innocence Projects around the nation in addition to organizations like 'Puppies Behind Bars'.Host Harriet Hendel served on the Board of Directors of the Innocence Project of Florida from 2013~2019, having been active with IPF since 2009. The project is the sponsor of the podcast.Harriet has been teaching classes on topics related to our justice system since 2012 in Florida and New Jersey. Her goal is to shine a light on the miscarriage of justice going on all over our nation with the hope that one day wrongful conviction will be eliminated for good. more

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 continue to languish, with some even facing execution on death row. Each episode peels back the layers behind the stories of those who have found themselves caught in a legal system gone wrong, with illuminating insights from lawyers and leading experts sharing their in-depth knowledge about each case, from prison visits and courtroom battles to reexamined crime scenes and witness interviews. This gripping series reveals the tragedy of injustice…as well as the triumph that is possible when people step up and demand change. more

Our newest podcast, 'The Last 12 Weeks' is out now. Search for it wherever you get your podcasts. Serial Productions makes narrative podcasts that have transformed the medium. Sign up for our newsletter at nytimes.com/serialnewsletter to find out about new shows, get behind the scenes stories, and see photos and videos you can't see on a podcast. To get full access to Serial Productions shows, and to other New York Times podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and Spotify, subscribe at nytimes.com/podcasts. Have a story pitch, a tip, or feedback on our shows? Email us at ****@nytimes.com 'Serial' began in 2014 as a spinoff of the public radio show 'This American Life.' In 2017, we formed Serial Productions when we launched the podcast 'S-Town.' Since then, Serial Productions has produced every season of 'Serial' along with shows like 'Nice White Parents,' 'The Trojan Horse Affair,' 'The Coldest Case in Laramie,' 'The Retrievals' and more. In 2020, we joined the New York Times Company. Our shows have reached many millions of listeners and have won nearly every major journalism award for audio, including the first-ever Peabody Award given to a podcast. more

In the winter of 1960 three women were found brutally murdered in a cave at the Starved Rock State Park. After months of dead ends, a manhunt ensued that ultimately pinned the crime on a 21-year-old dishwasher at the Starved Rock State Park Lodge, Chester Weger. In spite of contradictory physical evidence and under immense pressure from the police, Chester confessed to the crime. He has spent the last 60 years in prison, maintaining his innocence to this day.Join Andy Hale, a civil rights attorney who specializes in investigating wrongful convictions, as he dives deep into parts of the case that have been left out of previous coverage. As Chester Weger's attorney, he is actively investigating the case and has won the right to test DNA from the crime scene for the first time in 60 years. If Chester is innocent, this will become the longest wrongful conviction case in United States history. This limited series podcast will re-examine the story you think you know, provide real-time case updates, including DNA testing, and access to documents and photos previously unreleased to the public, to uncover the truth of what really happened in Starved Rock State Park over half a century ago. more

Examining issues in the death penalty system. Brought to you by the Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment. more

Hear about the changing landscape of criminal justice reform from those most directly impacted. Our discussions range from analysis of the political landscape (local, state and federal), engaging in the promise of abolitionist praxis and of course, elevating the voices of formerly incarcerated people. more

From the outside, 3635 Pitch Pine Crescent looked like the kind of home where nothing bad could happen, the gathering place for every birthday and holiday. Until one spring night when tragedy struck. In less than five years, three people would end up dead in the same house. Each time, the authorities found a way to explain it away. But the family who loved them knew something was wrong.Host Amy Dempsey Raven, an investigative reporter for the Toronto Star, spent more than a decade asking what really happened inside that house.Binge all episodes of What Happened to the Harrisons?, ad-free by subscribing to The Binge. Search and follow The Binge Crimes and The Binge Cases feeds on Apple Podcasts and hit Subscribe, or visit ⁠GetTheBinge.com.From serial killer nurses to psychic scammers The Binge is your home for true crime stories that pull you in and never let go. New episodes drop on the first of every month.Join our free newsletter for behind-the-scenes details at Patreon.com/TheBinge.The Binge Feed your true crime obsession.A Sony Music Entertainment production. Find out more about The Binge and other podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices more

One July night in 1995, Deputy Sheriff William G. Hardy was shot behind the Crown Sterling Suites hotel in Birmingham, Alabama. At the same time as the murder, at least ten people saw Toforest Johnson four miles away, at a popular nightclub called Tee's Place. But detectives zeroed in on him as a main suspect in Deputy Hardy's murder anyway, ultimately resulting in Toforest being tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. For over a quarter century, Toforest has been confined to a 5' by 8' cell on Alabama's death row.In 2019, investigative journalist Beth Shelburne began covering the case, going down a disturbing rabbit hole revealing many unsettling facts that cast grave doubts about Toforest's guilt. The facts she found tear at the very foundation of the American criminal justice system: No eyewitnesses or physical evidence tied Toforest to the murder; the state tried to convict a different man for the same crime; and perhaps most disturbing of all, Toforest's conviction relied on an 'earwitness' a woman who claimed to have eavesdropped on an incriminating phone call, a woman whom prosecutors paid for her testimony, in secret. That payment was not disclosed to the jury, Toforest, or his lawyers until after he had been on death row for 17 years.From the team behind the award-winning hit podcast Bone Valley, Lava for Good's Earwitness is an 8-episode docuseries that asks the question, 'How did an innocent man end up on death row — and why is the state still trying to execute him over the objection of the prosecutor who put him there?' Shelburne's unprecedented access to key players—the lead detective, lead prosecutor, witnesses, jurors, and the earwitness herself— illuminate a story filled with disturbing twists, frustrating ambiguities, and shocking admissions. The story of Toforest Johnson and the state's enthusiasm for the death penalty in the face of such troubling evidentiary flaws brings to light the failings of a criminal justice system run amok.Earwitness is available every Tuesday wherever you get your podcasts. To hear episodes 1 week early and ad free, subscribe to Lava for Good+ on Apple Podcasts. more

Behind every Bone Valley season is a conviction: the right story, told with purpose, humanity, and craft, can have an enormous impact. Award-winning investigative documentaries from the fault lines of America's justice system. Bone Valley Season 6 | The Devil's Quarry II is a ghost story. More than 30 years after 17-year-old Robin Murphy vanished from Carmel, New York, investigative journalist Paul Solotaroff and reporter Kathleen Horan plunge into the cold case that has haunted the community for decades. Robin was last seen with a convicted violent predator who was never charged in her disappearance. Now, as the original case file is reopened, new witnesses emerge, old evidence is reconsidered, and the search for Robin enters its most critical chapter. Can the truth finally be uncovered before time runs out? Or will one of New York's most haunting mysteries remain a ghost story forever? Bone Valley Season 5 | The Devil's Quarry is hosted by Paul Solotaroff, award-winning investigative journalist and longtime contributing editor at Rolling Stone. For Paul, who has been digging at this story for 5 years, the devil has always been a myth, until now. The bones of a twelve-year-old girl are found by a hunter in the woods. A young woman lives inside a real-life horror movie, ignored by everyone she turns to for help. Corrupt cops turn a blind eye to the evil lurking in their midst. The wrong people are convicted of a crime. A drug dealer works tirelessly for justice from jail. Records are hidden. Fingers are pointed. Lives are at stake. In Carmel, NY, the heroes are humble, the power is corrupt, and the devil is real. Bone Valley Season 4 | Earwitness chronicles the case of Toforest Jonhson. In 1995, Deputy Sheriff William G. Hardy was murdered behind a hotel in Birmingham, Alabama. Toforest Johnson was four miles away at the time and no physical evidence linked him to the crime. But he has been on Death Row for 25 years. Bone Valley Season 3 | Graves County is a new story about a new case. Maggie Freleng, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and one of the hosts of Lava For Good's Wrongful Conviction, takes us to a small town in Graves County, Kentucky, where a terrible discovery on the front lawn of a middle school invites a string of amateur and professional investigators to try to solve a murder. In Season 2, Jeremy Gilbert King brings us a story about her actual killer, Jeremy Scott, fighting to prove his guilt. The State of Florida does not believe either man. In Season 1 of Bone Valley, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gilbert King tells a story of a man, Leo Schofield, fighting to prove his innocence in the case of his wife Michelle's murder. Bone Valley is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. more

Beyond Prisons is a podcast on justice, mass incarceration, and prison abolition. Hosted by @phillyprof03 & @bsonenstein more

Hosted by Michael Semanchik, For the Innocent exposes the shocking reality of wrongful convictions through raw, first-person stories from the exonerated. Season 3 returns September 9th featuring powerful accounts from Amanda Knox, JJ Velasquez, Bruce Lisker— three exonerees whose names have become synonymous with injustice— and more. Through their voices, uncover how the justice system failed them, what it took to win back their freedom, and the lifelong impact of being branded guilty while innocent. Plus, hear legal and criminal experts break down the systemic flaws from false confessions and eyewitness misidentifications to flawed forensic science and corrupt police officers. This season uncovers the truth behind America's most haunting wrongful convictions. Season One and Two are now available. more

Hush is an investigative podcast from OPB, uncovering the buried truth about critical stories in the Pacific Northwest.  more

McKinley will be talking about different cases every other Tuesday that involve claims of innocence or proven wrongful convictions. more

This podcast is no longer producing new episodes on this channel. We strongly recommend subscribing to the Convicted podcast feed for more stories of injustice. Click here to listen on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/convicted/id1225081063?mt=2 or visit our website for a link to the new feed in your favorite podcast app. more