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Deeper Learning

Deepen your understanding of wrongful convictions.

A shocking number of people have been impacted by wrongful convictions. By reading, watching, and listening to some of their stories, we can begin to truly recognize the harm that wrongful convictions have caused throughout the country and the world.

  • Just Mercy
    Lawyer Bryan Stevenson takes on the case of Walter McMillian, who is sentenced to die for murder despite evidence proving his innocence. (2019)
  • Brian Banks
    The inspirational true story of Brian Banks, an all-American high school football star who finds his life upended when he’s wrongly convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. (2018)
  • Conviction
    When her older brother Kenny is convicted of murder and sentenced to life in 1983, Betty Anne Waters vows to get the conviction overturned. (2010)
  • The Hurricane
    Wrongfully imprisoned for murder, boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter battles his demons and despair while waging a twenty-year battle to clear his name. An inspirational, powerful true story. (1999)
  • The Central Park Five
    Filmmakers Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon examine a 1989 case of five teenagers who were wrongfully convicted of raping a woman. After they had spent from six to 13 years in prison, a serial rapist confessed to the crime. (2012)
  • Long Shot
    An innocent man is accused of murder, leading his attorney on a wild chase to confirm his alibi using raw footage from a television show. (2017)
  • Southwest of Salem
    After being wrongfully convicted of gang-raping two little girls during the Satanic Panic witch hunt era of the ’80s and ’90s, four Latina lesbians fight against mythology, homophobia, and prosecutorial fervor in their struggle for exoneration. (2016)
  • The Thin Blue Line
    In 1976, Randall Adams was wrongly sentenced to death for the murder of a Dallas policeman. Errol Morris’s stunning documentary exposed the truth of the case and is credited with overturning Adams’s conviction. (1988)
  • The Trials of Darryl Hunt
    “The Trials of Darryl Hunt” is a feature documentary about a brutal rape/murder case and a wrongly convicted man, Darryl Hunt, who spent nearly twenty years in prison for a crime he did not commit. (2006)
  • After Innocence
    Following the stories of seven exonerated prisoners, “After Innocence” documents how DNA evidence led to the release of these wrongfully imprisoned, innocent men. (2005)
  • Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills
    The shocking documentary about three teenagers who were accused of the brutal murders of three second-grade boys. (1996)
  • Rectify
    “Rectify” follows the life of Daniel Holden (Aden Young), who returns to his small hometown in Georgia after serving 19 years on death row. (2013 – 2016)
  • When They See Us
    Five teens in Harlem become trapped in a nightmare when they’re falsely accused of a brutal attack in Central Park. Based on the true story. (2019)
  • The Innocent Man
    This documentary adaptation of John Grisham’s only nonfiction book raised troubling questions about two murder cases in Ada, Oklahoma, in the 1980s. (2018)
  • The Confession Tapes
    This true crime documentary series investigates cases where people convicted of murder claim their confessions were coerced, involuntary, or false. (2016 – ?)
  • Making a Murderer
    Filmed over 13 years, this real-life thriller follows the unprecendented story of two men accused of a grisly crime they may not have committed. (2015 – ?)
  • Wrong Man
    In “Wrong Man,” a series by award-winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger, a team of esteemed experts reinvestigate the cases of three inmates who have been locked up for decades and claim they’re innocent. (2018 – ?)
  • Serial – Season 1

    It’s Baltimore, 1999. Hae Min Lee, a popular high-school senior, disappears after school one day. Six weeks later, detectives arrest her classmate and ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, for her murder. He says he’s innocent.

  • Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom
    Based on the files of the lawyers who freed them, Wrongful Conviction features interviews with men and women who have spent decades in prison for crimes they did not commit – some of them had even been sentenced to death.
  • The Truth About True Crime with Amanda Knox
    Go beyond the sensational headlines and snap judgments of bystanders and tabloids, as host Amanda Knox brings her unique perspective on the justice system to look at some of the most shocking crimes of our lifetimes through a whole new lens.
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