Wrongful Conviction

Maggie Freleng first brought us the story of Gwen Graham of 2023. Gwen has now spent more than 37 years in a Michigan prison for murders they’ve has always maintained never even happened. At the time this episode was produced, Gwen identified as a woman, they now identify as a trans man.

Gwen was convicted in 1989 of killing five elderly patients at the nursing home where they worked. The case rested largely on the testimony of their former girlfriend, Cathy Wood, who claimed she and Gwen had smothered patients as part of a so-called lovers’ pact. Despite the lack of physical evidence of smothering, Gwen was sentenced to life without parole. Meanwhile, Cathy took a plea deal, testified against Gwen, and was released on parole in 2020. Gwen remains incarcerated.

And the prison where Gwen is being held — Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility, Michigan’s only prison for women — is now facing serious scrutiny of its own. Toxic mold has been making prisoners sick, and several women have died from receiving substandard medical care. The problem has grown dire; incarcerated women and their families have joined forces with elected officials, advocates and even former guards to bring the horrific conditions to the public’s attention. The issue has now reached federal court.

So as Gwen continues to fight for their freedom, their story is also a window into what it means to grow old inside the prison system. Especially in a prison like Huron Valley.
Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freleng is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.
​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The last time Terrel Barros’s story was featured on the show, there had been a major breakthrough. After spending 11 years in prison for a murder he has always maintained he didn’t commit, Terrel’s conviction was vacated in 2023, and he was released on bail into the arms of his mother. But the State of Rhode Island appealed that decision.

Now, we have another update with some very good news. In July 2026, the Rhode Island Supreme Court affirmed the decision that overturned Terrel’s conviction.

At the center of the case was powerful new evidence: the cousin of Stephen Bodden, the man Terrel has always said was the actual shooter, testified that Bodden confessed to her multiple times. On the night of the shooting, Bodden himself had told police, “It’s me. It’s all me. It’s all mine.” The lower court found the new witness credible and concluded that her testimony could have changed the verdict.

The Rhode Island Supreme Court agreed that this newly discovered evidence justified overturning Terrel’s conviction and upheld the ruling granting him post-conviction relief. The case now goes back to Superior Court, and the state still has to decide whether it will try Terrel again.

So Terrel’s fight isn’t completely over. But after more than a decade behind bars and years fighting to prove what he has said from the beginning, one of the biggest obstacles standing between Terrel and his freedom has finally fallen.
Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.
​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s episode is an update on the story of Kristine Bunch that was originally recorded in 2020. Kristine spent 17 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of setting the fire that killed her three-year-old son, Anthony. It was a conviction built on junk fire science and evidence that was later shown to be false and misleading.

Since getting out, Kristine has devoted an extraordinary amount of her life to making sure other innocent people don’t suffer the way she did. She’s advocated for compensation for exonerees, helped train law enforcement, supported people coming home from prison, and worked alongside innocence organizations around the country. And now she’s taking that work even further.

In a remarkable full-circle moment, Kristine was named the first-ever Director of the Indiana Innocence Project — an organization she helped create. She can never get her son or the years she lost to her wrongful conviction back, but she has turned that loss into a life’s work of trying to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to someone else.
Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.
​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s episode is a look back at the story of Greg Bright, as originally told to Lauren Bright Pacheco. Greg spent 27 and a half years in Angola for a murder he didn’t commit. He was a young man when he went in, and nearly 50 when he finally walked free in 2003. But Greg’s story is also a reminder that exoneration doesn’t give you those years back. And right now in Louisiana, Greg is at the center of a fight over what the state owes innocent people after taking decades of their lives.

Louisiana caps compensation for wrongful imprisonment at $400,000. Greg has now hit that cap, and his payments have stopped — even though he spent nearly three decades wrongfully incarcerated and lost some of the most important earning years of his life. Earlier this year, Louisiana lawmakers unanimously passed a bill that would have raised the cap to $600,000 and extended compensation from 10 years to 15. Governor Jeff Landry vetoed it. Think about that. The state takes 27 and a half years from an innocent man, acknowledges that he was wrongfully convicted, and then decides there’s a limit on how much of that lost time it’s willing to compensate him for. Greg is now 70 years old and has said he may have to sell the home he bought after his release just to cover his living expenses.

Greg’s story matters just as much today as it did when we first told it, because getting out of prison is not the end of a wrongful conviction. For people like Greg, rebuilding a life after decades taken away can be another fight entirely.
Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.

Never Fight a Shark in WaterThe Jaguar Man by Lara Naughton
​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jeffrey Deskovic’s first Wrongful Conviction episode was originally published in 2017, and his story is one we’ve returned to many times over the years — not only because of the 16 years he lost in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, but because of what he chose to do with his life after he was finally exonerated.

Jeffrey’s story also has an extraordinary connection to two cases we’ve recently revisited on this show: Andrew Krivak and Anthony DiPippo. The same polygraph operator who helped extract a false confession from Jeffrey when he was just 16 years old was later involved in the interrogation that produced Andy Krivak’s false confession. And years later, Jeffrey and the Deskovic Foundation helped fight to free Andy — Jeffrey even put up his own home as collateral for Andy’s bail.

If you’ve been listening to Bone Valley: The Devil’s Quarry, Jeffrey’s story provides important context for the cases of Anthony DiPippo and Andy Krivak — and for how wrongful convictions like these happen in the first place.

Also, be sure to check out 16 Years, a film by Jia Rizvi about Jeffrey’s wrongful conviction and the work he’s done since.
Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.
​​We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.