Illinois Innocence Project

Today is both and the 40-year anniversary of one of the most tragic cases you'll come across. Tim Cole was a U.S. Army veteran and a student at University when authorities wrongly decided he was responsible of a sexual assault of another student. He was convicted on this date in 1986 and sentenced to 25 years in prison, and it was in prison where he died after suffering an asthma attack 13 years later.

It wasn't until another 10 years had passed that Texas authorities tested evidence from the crime, confirming that another man, Jerry Wayne Johnson, was the actual perpetrator in the Texas Tech sexual assault. Tim Cole became the first person in state history to be posthumously , and today a statue in his honor reminding all of his case stands outside the Texas Tech College of Law.

Wrongful conviction of Texas Tech student Tim Cole hits 40-year anniversary The family of Tim Cole, a Texas Tech student and U.S. Army veteran wrongly convicted of sexual assault in 1986, will mark 40 years since his conviction on September 17, 2026.

The long-awaited day finally arrived Tuesday for Thomas Clardy with his release from prison in -- and this time, he won't be going back. Clardy was first freed in 2023 after 17 years of imprisonment when a federal judge threw out his conviction. He spent two years living an exemplary life as a free man before an appellate court overturned that earlier decision, requiring Clardy to return to prison. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee recently decided to commute Clardy's sentence, and on Tuesday, he walked out into the arms of his family -- including his 2-year-old daughter named Innocence -- for good.

Thomas Clardy walks free again after Gov. Lee commutes sentence Clardy was greeted outside the prison by his fiancée, Keondra Cooper, their young daughter, Innocence, and dozens of supporters who waited to hug him.

IIP will be in court on Wednesday for an initial hearing in the case of client Michael Roye, who was convicted of murder in 2008. After a comprehensive investigation, a motion was filed by IIP and co-counsel MG+M The Law Firm in Randolph County in late August seeking to have Roye's conviction overturned. The victim, Casey Morgan, was someone that Roye had dated, but new testing of more than a dozen items from the crime scene in Steeleville, Ill., all exclude Roye as a source matching anything found in the samples.

Numerous other problems are detailed in the filing about the investigative process and the state's flawed theory of the case, including blood-spatter analysis that was at the heart of the arguments they presented. All biological evidence from the crime scene now fails to connect Roye to the murder. Roye, who has been imprisoned for the last 19 years, is an Army veteran with no prior criminal history until this case came along.

You can read the full filing in all its details seeking to have Roye's conviction overturned at:
https://uofi.box.com/s/jwkkdlbxd27kfvvf9qd90sd8wq7bueno

The ACLU has thrown its support behind the filing seeking a new trial for a man on , asserting in an amicus brief that racial bias in jury selection kept Willie Manning from getting a fair trial in 1994. The Supreme Court has thrown out convictions in two similar cases on the same basis in the past.

Mississippi Court Asked to Review Black Juror Exclusion in Manning Case - Davis Vanguard The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Mississippi have urged the Mississippi Supreme Court to grant Willie Manning permission to file a successive post-conviction petition, asserting that systematic racial discrimination during his 1994 capital trial jury selection compromised his convictio...

Another potential wrongful conviction has surfaced in , with a decision by an appellate court this week to throw out the conviction of Jason Harley Moore. He has been imprisoned for the last 12 years after being convicted of being responsible for the death of his infant daughter. The appeals court in their ruling after hearing new evidence said they no longer have confidence in the guilty verdict.

Riverside County Murder Conviction Overturned in Baby’s Death Jason Harley Moore was convicted in 2014 in the death of his 3.5-month-old daughter and spent more than a decade in prison. An appeals court has now overturned his conviction after new medical evidence challenged the science used at trial, although prosecutors can still seek a retrial.

A tragic end to a tragic life. A journalist reflects on her experiences covering the of Fred Steese, who was imprisoned by for 21 years. A hard-luck story for most of his life, Steese had to take an Alford plea and then lived his life as a free man for 13 years before cancer claimed him in August.

I Wrote About His Wrongful Conviction. He Got Only 13 Years of Freedom Before Cancer Took His Life. For years, I followed the case of Fred Steese, who spent 21 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. When he died in August, it felt like the universe had dealt him yet another injustice.

The Montana Innocence Project is in court, filing a motion seeking a new trial for a man convicted of killing his wife four years ago.

Their filing focuses on the fact that defense attorneys at trial were prevented from presenting their best defense for client Jay Hillious when a judge ruled that they could not present to the jury the argument that Hillious' father, Scott, was the most likely suspect. Scott Hillious took his own life five days after the murder of Amanda Hillious. Just what the judge was preventing with his pre-trial ruling led to confusion, but it ultimately kept defense attorneys from presenting their best theory of the case, that Scott Hillious, who had a history of violent behavior, committed the crime. No direct physical evidence tied Jay Hillious to his wife's death.

Montana Innocence Project Seeks New Trial for Kalispell Man Convicted of Wife’s 2020 Murder - Flathead Beacon Four years after a Flathead County District Court judge sentenced Bradley Jay Hillious to 100 years in the Montana State Prison in the death of his wife, the Montana Innocence Project (MTIP) is now representing the defendant and asking for a new trial. MTIP attorneys Karl Pitcher and Brady Smith in....

A new book by a sociology professor from Brown University takes a deep dive into histories of a number of cases from and reaches the following conclusion -- these cases don't originate out of mere coincidence.

Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve and her students were able to track down from nearly 50 such cases that all involved false confessions and examined all developments in their cases from the day of the crime until the end of their legal processes. “If we don’t see the whole process, we don’t actually get to see all the evidence of how they created a wrongful conviction,” Van Cleve said. The book also documents that similar patterns can be found in other large cities that are hubs of wrongful convictions, such as New Orleans, New York and Detroit.

The book, “Crime Fictions: How Racist Lies Built a System of Mass Wrongful Conviction,” is available from publisher Penguin Random House.

Wrongful convictions are not mere coincidence, says sociology professor in new book Prof. Van Cleve published her new book, Crime Fictions, in May 2026.

Questions are often asked about why detectives or prosecutors involved in cases are not held legally responsible more often, and the answer is usually qualified immunity. But in this week, a former analyst for the state found guilty of falsifying her work -- including in at least one wrongful conviction case -- just got sentenced to 10 years in prison for her misdeeds.

Former lab analyst sentenced to 10 years in prison for manipulating DNA data Authorities accused Missy Woods of altering years worth of data in cases involving homicide, sexual assault and robbery

Country music star Dierks Bentley will be headlining a show in on Oct. 27 to raise money to benefit two organizations, The Tennessee Innocence Project and the Washington Innocence Project. "Justice Jam" will also include Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready, who jammed with the Exoneree Band at the 2025 Innocence Network conference. More details can be found at:

Dierks Bentley to Headline Inaugural Concert for the Wrongfully Convicted in Nashville A RIFF on what country is really about.