Tenacious legal intern Diana Holt, comes across the case of African American handyman, Edward Lee Elmore and devotes her life to saving his when he is quickly found guilty in the murder of an elderly white widow and sentenced to death.
Joyce Ride, the mother of Sally Ride, America's first female astronaut, becomes intrigued by the case of former Sacramento law school student, Gloria Killian who has no prior criminal record and was found guilty of a brutal home invasion and murder.
No one listened to 27-year old Army vet Joe D'Ambrosio's pleas of innocence in the 1988 murder of Tony Klann, until Father Neil Kookoothe began investigating and discovered a shocking cover-up.
Detective Marshall Frank attempts to exonerate his fellow cop James Duckett, who is sentenced to death for the rape and murder of an eleven year-old girl.
When petty criminal John Thompson is convicted on capital murder charges, two successful Philadelphia lawyers agree to represent him, but soon discover that their legal rules don't necessarily apply in New Orleans.
In 1987, Kris Maharaj receives the death sentence for a double homicide, but attorney Clive Stafford Smith uncovers powerful evidence that supports an alternative, opening a virtual Pandora's box of the city's lucrative illegal operations.
Evidence emerges causing many to question the guilt of Army sergeant Tim Hennis who is sentenced to death for the murder of the wife and two children of an Air Force captain; a bizarre and unprecedented journey through the American justice system. First, jurors ruled him guilty. Then he was declared innocent. Later, another court's verdict was guilty. The remarkable story of Timothy Hennis and the stabbing deaths of a mother and two small girls is full of shocking legal twists and turns. Experts call it a one-of-kind murder mystery that has yet to be fully solved.
The case of Nathan Dunlop, who was sentenced to death for the 1993 murders of four people at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in Aurora, Colo.
A Texas mother is sentenced to death after being convicted of murdering her two young sons in their Dallas-area home.
In 1986, a fire engulfed the home of newlyweds in Paris, IL, with them inside, but the fire was intended as a cover-up: The couple had been stabbed to death before the arson. Flawed evidence. Conflicting accounts. Leads that were never followed. Recantations. How does a double homicide case become too politically sensitive? And how did an innocent man end up on death row for almost 20 years?
An investigation into the brutal murders of a California family in their home in Chino Hills, CA. A getaway car. A hatchet. A bloodstained shirt. Did Kevin Cooper kill the Ryen family -- or was he framed?
The execution-style killings of a Florida nightclub owner and two aspiring models are caught on camera. All three found dead, side by side, killed execution style. The crime was caught on videotape, but was the wrong man sent to death row?
Two construction workers are brutally attacked in San Antonio. One survives and is able to identify his assailant. Ruben Cantu was a 17 year old from Texas who was executed after being convicted of the brutal murder - a conviction based on a questionable evidence. Did they execute the right man?
Throughout the history of capital punishment in America, states have reviewed and revised execution methods in the interest of finding a more "humane" option. Ohio, Arizona and Oklahoma are among the states where lethal injection executions have gone horribly wrong. What's life like for those executioners who are paid to end the lives of others...especially when it doesn't go according to plan?
After an eleven-year old girl is found suffocated with her own underwear, two step-brothers, ages 15 and 19, confess to the murder. But with IQs each under 60, they maintain their innocence and claim their confessions were coerced. Despite the lack of physical evidence against them, they sit behind bars for 30 years before an outside commission takes notice of their case and uncovers evidence pointing at another suspect.
In 1995, Hank Skinner was sentenced to death for the New Year's Eve triple-homicide of his family; five years later, students from the Northwestern University start to investigate the case.
When 19-year-old Stacey Stites' body is found half-naked by the side of the road, her fiancé, police officer Jimmy Fennell, is cleared as a suspect.
A 4-year-old girl from Philadelphia is found murdered, her body placed in a TV box; years later, a neighbor is arrested for the crime.
Sabrina Butler, a 17-year old African-American woman, arrives at a Mississippi hospital with her baby dead on arrival; nurses and doctors suspect foul play, and Sabrina cannot give straight answers about what happened to her baby.
The details behind true capital murder cases; exploring beliefs of the death penalty and the American justice system.
Clarence "Smitty" Smith, the leader of the notorious biker club the Outlaws, is accused of a quadruple homicide in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; after beating the rap for the homicides, he is sentenced to death for the car bombing of a federal witness.
After a family of six is found brutally murdered in a rural Texas town, a perpetrator confesses to the crime.
A money order salesman is brutally murdered and two teenage brothers and their best friend are arrested; they spend almost four decades behind bars, until a journalist takes notice of the case and uncovers evidence of the men's innocence.
The shooting of a newspaper carrier in rural Mississippi lands Marlon Howell on death row. Convicted on the word of two co-defendants and the identification of an eyewitness with a checkered past, Marlon maintains his innocence.
Nick Yarris's uncanny knowledge of a gruesome kidnapping and murder makes him a prime suspect and eventually lands him on death row. Twenty years and one escape attempt later, new evidence emerges that offers Nick one last hope for freedom.
A man is found dead in his rural Mississippi home, shot four times with his own 9mm pistol. His 19-year-old son names his hospitalized mother, Michelle Byrom, as the mastermind of the murder, claiming she hired the boy's friend to shoot her husband, and promising to pay him from the life insurance payout. Sentenced to death, Michelle spends 14 years awaiting execution - until a determined team of lawyers unearths a dark history of domestic and sexual violence, and a confession that points to an alternate suspect.
After a month-long search, the body of missing nineteen-year-old Melissa Trotter is recovered in a Texas forest. Local police quickly zero in on Larry Swearingen, who was last seen with Melissa just before she disappeared. After physical evidence and the murder weapon tie Larry to the murder, he is convicted and sentenced to death. Twenty years later, Larry maintains his innocence, pointing out flaws in the State's case - including incomplete DNA tests, an alternate suspect, and forensic evidence that suggests Melissa may have been killed after Larry was arrested.
A case that has sentenced a reformed gang member to death unveils the corruption in the criminal justice system.
A Spaniard is sentenced to death for the murder of a young Florida couple. His family appeals to the international media to fight his conviction.
A masked attacker shoots up an apartment in Bucyrus, Ohio, leaving three dead and two young children clinging to life. After witnesses report seeing a "large black man" near the scene, police close in on Kevin Keith, a local drug dealer who was recently busted based on information offered by a snitch. It was the snitch's family that was murdered, leading prosecutors to argue Kevin's motive was revenge. Despite the lack of physical evidence, Kevin has spent 25 years locked up - but a young public defender believes long-hidden case records will shed new light on the Bucyrus murders and clear Kevin's name.
A former trouble-maker sits on Ohio death row for killing an elderly couple, while a desperate team of journalists, attorneys, and former law enforcement make the case of his innocence.
After a Delaware store clerk is murdered, a local drug dealer confesses to the crime..but can what he says on tape be believed?
There's no doubt Terry Williams committed murder - but what drove him to kill?
In August 1985, a quiet Philadelphia neighborhood is shattered by tragedy. A house goes up in flames, with two young boys trapped inside. Police and fire investigators suspect their father, Daniel Dougherty, intentionally set the fire, but they don’t have the evidence to arrest him — until fourteen years later, when Daniel’s ex-wife comes forward to say he confessed to her. In the years since he ended up on death row, Daniel’s case has gone to trial an astonishing three times. Daniel claims the fire science that put him away is deeply flawed — but his own dark past, and lingering mysteries about the fire itself, make this anything but an open and shut case.
After Shreveport pizza delivery man Jarvis Griffin is shot and robbed outside his car, police round up eyewitnesses and tape their interrogations. 16-year-old Corey Williams becomes the prime suspect, and under questioning, police extract his confession. Prosecutor Hugo Holland handles the case for Caddo Parish, the county with the most death penalty convictions per capita in America, and Corey becomes the youngest person on Louisiana death row. But when a dogged team of defenders takes on his case, they learn that that not only is Corey’s confession questionable — but that hidden police interviews with other eyewitnesses point to another suspect.
In May 1992, four young men enter a park in Houston, Texas. Minutes later, one of them is dead from a bullet and a shotgun blast to the head. When police track down one of the surviving drug dealers, he names 17-year-old Nanon Williams as the shooter, and other witnesses back up the story. Nanon becomes one of just over thirty juveniles on death row in America, but he pleads his innocence. As his appeals attorneys reexamine the evidence, they learn that the state made a grave error: the bullet in the victim’s brain didn’t come from Nanon’s gun, but his co-defendant’s — a man who only served four years in prison. Prosecutors stand by the conviction, even as Nanon tries to prove he’s redeemed himself behind bars.
When Tyreese Gamon is shot dead in broad daylight on a street corner, he becomes one of hundreds of murder victims in Philadelphia that year. Tyreese had a target on his back: he was slated to testify in a murder trial. Police follow the evidence to a suspected hitman named Donte Thomas. Despite his checkered past, Donte insists he’s no murderer — yet prosecutors sway a jury to sentence him to death. Years later, Donte’s appeals defender pokes holes in his original trial, including the phone allegedly used to orchestrate the hit and the failure of Donte’s original attorney to present crucial evidence.
When single mother and Phoenix bartender Kim Ancona is found brutally stabbed to death, her passing tears her family apart. Combing the crime scene, police find an intriguing clue: bite marks on Kim’s body that suggest her attacker has crooked teeth. Detectives turn to Ray Krone, a local mailman with a damaged jaw. A renowned prosecutor pushes for a death sentence, but Ray’s family and appeals attorney refuse to give up hope. They win Ray another trial, forcing him to go up against the same bite mark science that put him away the first time. Ultimately, Ray’s freedom depends on the emerging science of DNA — and finding Kim’s true killer.
