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Wrongful Conviction

Wrongful Conviction

Lava for Good Podcasts 579 Episodes Aug 20, 2026

Hosted by criminal justice reform advocate Jason Flom, Pulitzer prize-winning producer Maggie Freleng, and Emmy Award-winning producer 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, while others continue to languish, with some even facing execution on death row. Each episode peels back the layers behind the stories of those caught in a legal system gone wrong, with insights from lawyers and experts. This gripping series reveals the tragedy of injustice and the triumph possible when people step up and demand change.

Episodes

#587 Maggie Freleng with Deborah Nicholls
#587 Maggie Freleng with Deborah Nicholls Aug 20, 2026 2298 One evening in March, 2003, a fire broke out in Deborah Nicholls' Colorado Springs, CO home, killing her three children. Her husband suffered significant burns, but escaped. After a 2-year investigation, it was determined that the fire was not accidental, and that Deborah and her husband started it for the insurance money. The trial was a battle of the experts – one presenting the junk scien
#586 Jason Flom with Ronnie Miller
#586 Jason Flom with Ronnie Miller Aug 13, 2026 2331 Ronald Miller and Lori Johnson of Rockford, IL had a daughter, G.M., in 2010. In 2015, several days after an argument between Johnson and Miller in which Miller threatened to sue Johnson for full custody, Johnson reported Miller to DCFS. Shortly after, she obtained an order of protection which ended all contact between Miller and his daughter. Johnson claimed G.M. had told her that Miller touched
Introducing - The Burden | Bad Cops
Introducing - The Burden | Bad Cops Aug 11, 2026 99 Baltimore, Maryland likes to call itself Charm City. But you have to wonder: Is the nickname ironic?  Consider one of the city's star cops, a sergeant so accomplished that he earned his own nickname, the Golden Boy.  But Golden Boy led a double life. Said one of those who encountered him in the street.  "I was robbed by the Baltimore City Police….with a gun … armed rob
#585 Jason Flom with Keith LaMar
#585 Jason Flom with Keith LaMar Aug 6, 2026 4082 On April 11, 1993, a riot broke out at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, OH, primarily due to tensions between the prisoners and the guards. The riot went on for 11 days resulting in 10 deaths and millions of dollars in damages. 23-year-old prisoner Keith LaMar was a witness to the riot, and although there was no physical evidence linking him to any involvement in the riot, th
#584 Jason Flom with Tysheem Crocker
#584 Jason Flom with Tysheem Crocker Jul 30, 2026 3182 In October 1997, Skip Clark was killed in York, PA. Police officers decided that the death was gang related, and that two gangs were out for each other after having a dispute. Tysheem Crocker was dragged into the conversation. The State argued that he and others plotted to retaliate against their rival gang, and that Skip was caught in the middle. Despite four witnesses testifying that they knew w
#583 Jason Flom with Carl Miller
#583 Jason Flom with Carl Miller Jul 23, 2026 2648 On October 25, 1979, Rabbi David Okunov was robbed and fatally shot while on his way to temple in Brooklyn, New York. Two eyewitnesses described the perpetrator to authorities, and the police's first primary suspect fingered 19-year-old Carl Miller as the gunman. Despite not matching either eyewitness's descriptions, not being picked out of the line-up, and no physical evidence tying him to the cr
#582 Guest Host Conor Hall with Brian Pippitt
#582 Guest Host Conor Hall with Brian Pippitt Jul 16, 2026 3092 Evelyn Malin was the 84-year-old owner of the Dollar Lake Store in tiny Shamrock Township, 130 miles north of Minneapolis. On the morning of February 24, 1998, she was found beaten and strangled to death in the living quarters that were connected to her convenience store. Over a year later, Brian Pippitt was charged with premeditated murder based primarily on the incentivized testimony of two witn
#581 Jason Flom with Pierre Rushing
#581 Jason Flom with Pierre Rushing Jul 9, 2026 2530 On April 15, 2011, Dawone Taylor was murdered in Oakland, CA over a dispute about an allegedly stolen ipod. Pierre Rushing, a promising young musician who never met Mr. Taylor, was later charged and convicted for the murder primarily on the questionable testimony of a struggling drug addict who was unable to accurately describe Pierre’s appearance.  Learn more and get involved:Pamela Pr
#580 Jason Flom with Anthony Apanovitch
#580 Jason Flom with Anthony Apanovitch Jul 2, 2026 2432 On August 23rd, 1984, Mary Anne Flynn was found dead in her Cleveland, OH bedroom. She had been strangled and severely beaten and there was evidence she had been sexually assaulted. There were multiple suspects including a violent ex-boyfriend, an ex-tenant who was an attempted rapist and an exterminator who had a copy of the house key. But investigators focused solely on Tony Apanovitch, a local
#579 Jason Flom with Daniel Holtzclaw
#579 Jason Flom with Daniel Holtzclaw Jun 25, 2026 2739 At 2 AM, on June 18th, 2014, Daniel Holtzclaw finished up his shift as an Oklahoma City police officer and made his way home in his all black cruiser. He saw a car swerving and pulled over 57-year-old daycare provider Jannie Ligons. About 3 hours later, Ms Ligons would claim that Officer Holtzclaw forced her to perform oral sodomy through the fly of his uniform pants from the back seat of his squa
#578 Jason Flom with Charles "Brandon" Martin
#578 Jason Flom with Charles "Brandon" Martin Jun 18, 2026 2459 On October 27, 2008, Jodi Lynne Torok was at her Crofton, MD home talking on the phone with her close friend, Blair Wolfe, when a man, purporting to be a salesman, knocked on her front door. Jodi ended the call to respond to the so-called salesman, but thereafter never called Ms. Wolfe back or answered any of Wolfe's subsequent telephone calls. Growing increasingly concerned, Ms. Wolfe telephoned
#577 Jason Flom with John Giuca
#577 Jason Flom with John Giuca Jun 11, 2026 3601 On October 12, 2003, Mark Fisher was found shot and killed in a driveway in Brooklyn, NY after spending the night hanging out with a group of his peers, including John Giuca and Antonio Russo. Upon interrogation, a few of the people that Mark had been with late the night before led police to believe that John and Antonio were involved in Mark’s murder. Despite no physical evidence and no eye

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