Sometimes judicial systems make mistakes and due to this innocent people are convicted
of crimes they didn't commit, in this video we take a look at some of the
most notorious wrongful conviction cases in history.
Steven Avery This mans case received much attention after
netflix released their feature documentary about him called Making A Murderer.
For those that have watched it you will already know what happens to this man
but for those who haven't seen it, this is his story:
Steven avery from manitowoc, wisconsin served 18 years in prison for a wrongful sexual assault
charge.
before he was charged with this he was involved with quite a bit of legal trouble.
lets take a look at this legal trouble: at the age of 18 he was convicted of burglary
and was sentenced to two years in prison, for this he served 10 months.
Then at age 20 Avery along with a friend were both convicted
of animal cruelty, this was after they poured gasoline over avery's cat and threw it into
a fire.
for this he was sentenced to 9 months in jail.
in 1985 he was charged with assault after he tried to run his cousin off the road at
gun point, he said he done this in order to try and stop her from
spreading rumours about him.
For this he was sentenced to six years he served this concurrently with the sexual assault
charge.
Now for the sexual assault charge, In 1985 steven was convicted of first degree
sexual assault and attempted first degree murder
he allegedly tried to murder a woman called Penny Beernsten.
He served 18 years in prison and the entire time he claimed he was innocent.
in 2002 Averys case was examined by wisconsins innocence project they had managed to prove
that steven was not guilty, they were able to do this as a result in improved D.N.A testing.
He was released from prison a year later as the project were able to gain exoneration
for him due to the D.N.A evidence.
The D.N.A had showed that a man by the name of Gregory Allen had committed the sexual
assault. he was already in prison serving a 60 year
sentence.
There has been many speculation that steven was set up by the manitowoc's police department
and judical system, people believe he was set up because his previous convictions and
because his family name had a bad reputation along with this his cousin that he tried
to run off the road was married to a Manitowoc County sheriff's deputy.
In 2005 steven was arrested for the murder of a woman called Teresa Halbach he was convicted
two years later and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the
possibility of parole.
Teresa was scheduled to meet steven on october 31st 2005, she had also gone missing on the
same day.
a month later, steven was charged with her murder this was after her charred remains
were found on his salvage yard.
Once again people believe he was set up as the jurors on the case had been relatives
of people in the manitowoc police department that were involved in the previous
case.
However people believe he did commit the murder.
Ken Kratz an attorney working on the case had revealed that steven had told his previous
cell mate that once he got out he was going to build a torture
chamber to torture and kill women, there was said to be several diagrams that illustrated
the chamber.
The attorney also said that steven once told his cell mate that fire was the best way to
dispose of a body.
Some people believe that steven did commit the murder but only because his previous lengthy
conviction drove him insane.
Kirk Bloodsworth This man was the first american ever to be
placed on death row.
kirk was a former marine who lived in maryland.
In 1985 he was convicted of sexual assault, rape and first degree murder of a 9 year old
girl.
although 5 eye witnesses placed him at the scene he claimed his innocence the entire
time, in 1992 while in prison Kirk began to read books and study
D.N.A. and how it can be used to clear people of crimes.
In order to try and prove his innocence he pushed to have the evidence against him tested
for D.N.A the only D.N.A evidence linked to the case
was semen on the victims underwear but this evidence was lost.
However after Kirks inquiry the evidence was found
in a paper bag in the judges chambers.
After testing the semen it showed that kirk was not a match.
It had matched a man by the name of kimberly ruffner, during the time of the match he was
serving a 45 year prison sentence for rape, burglary and attempted murder.
a little bonus fact: Kimberly was living in the cell located directly underneath kirks
while they were in prison in 1993 kirk was released after spending almost
9 years in prison this was with two of them being on death row.
As of today he is a program officer for the justice project, this projects goals is to
help combat corruption in law.
There is also a kickstarer funded film being produced about his life.
Alfred Dreyfus this man was a french artillery officer who
was convicted of treason in 1894, his case became one of the most tense political dramas
in french history and is now known as the dreyfus affair.
in 1894 the french army's counter intelligence got information that the german army had been
receiving classified information about artillery parts that the french had
been obtaining.
The only people that knew of this information were high ranking army officials
The french army had come to the conclusion that a spy must of been providing the information
to the germans.
Suspicion came upon alfred and he was arressted for treason on October 15th 1894.
He was stripped of his army rank and was sentenced to life imprisonment, he was also humiliated
as french soldiers placed him in front of spectators,
cut his insignia out his uniform and then broke his sword all while this was happening
spectators were shouting abuse at him calling him a traitor.
two years later in 1896 information broke out that the real traitor was a man by ferdinand
esterhazy after much information was covered up about this by the french
army a major scandal broke.
the press revealed that alfred was innocent.
Ferdinand was found not guilty and quickly fled to england before any further actions
could happen.
Alfred was still not set free and this caused another scandal which insinuated that this
was because of alfreds jewish background.
This lead to the press making claims saying that the french army hated jews.
Due to public outcry alfred got a second trial but once again he was found guilty, however
due to the publics reaction the president of france issued
alfred a pardon and he was released from prison in 1899.
His army rank was reinstated and he received a promotion.
James Bain In 1974 James was convicted of breaking and
entering, kidnapping and rape.
This was after a 9 year old boy stumbled out of a forest naked and gave police bain's first
name and also stated that he had seen a red motorcycle
james had owned a red motorcycle.
After being found guilty due to a unfair trial, He spent the next 35 years in and out of many
different prisons.
During his time he claimed that he was innocent and had asked for D.N.A testing on five occasions
but was denied each time.
in 2009 the innocence project of florida decided to take a look into the case and help james.
After they continued to put pressure on floridas judicial system they finally agreed to D.N.A
testing.
After running the test they proved that James was innocent and after spending 35 years in
prison, he was then released.
He had went into prison at the age of 19 and was released at the age of 54.
Dr. Sam Sheppard Sam sheppard was a doctor born in cleveland
ohio in 1923.
in 1954 he was convicted for the brutal murder of his pregnant wife.
on july 3rd 1954 sam and his wife marilyn were entertaining guests at their home in
ohio.
after sam fell asleep in the living room marilyn escorted the guests out, she then made her
way upstairs to the bedroom and went to sleep alone.
During the early hours marilyn was bludgeoned to death and the entire bedroom was covered
in blood.
The murderers had also taken several items from the home but they were found stashed
in a bag within shrubbery behind the house.
According to Sam he had awoken in the middle of the night and ran upstairs because he heard
his wife screaming.
Once he reached the bedroom he claims he saw a figure then was knocked
unconscious.
At 5:40am he came to and phoned a neighbour begging them to come to his home, the neighbour
went to the house and phoned the police.
After police investigated the crime scene they had come to the conclusion that sam had
murdered his wife.
Although he had a strong defence based on his injuries caused by the intruders he was
still found guilty.
On december 21st 1954 sam was found guilty of second degree murder and was sentenced
to life in prison.
The trial and case were highly publicized in the media.
in 1966 after many years of appeals he finally got a retrial, this was because it was found
out that the original jury had used reports from the media to make their verdict.
Sam was acquitted and was released from prison.
After his release he became a professional wrestler where he used the nickname "the killer"
this probably didn't help his cause.