Lava for Good’s critically acclaimed Wrongful Conviction podcast, co-hosted by celebrated criminal justice reform advocate and founding board member of the Innocence Project Jason Flom, and Pulitzer prize-winning podcast host and producer Maggie Freleng, returns with gripping new episodes that delve into harrowing stories highlighting pervasive issues in the criminal justice system. Flom and Freleng speak with individuals who were wrongfully convicted of crimes they did not commit. Some have been fully exonerated and reunited with family and friends while others continue to languish in prison. Their cases underscore shocking systemic failures and outright biases within the legal system. Episodes will alternate between the two hosts every Monday and Thursday beginning January 8, 2024. Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Twenty-two-year-old Elma Sands is found murdered in a Manhattan well on January 2nd, 1800. Her lover, wealthy and well-connected Levi Weeks, is accused of the barbaric offense. Weeks brings in the nation’s best legal defense team – none other than Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr – to clear his name while a pandemic-stricken New York City buzzes with scandal. This six-episode true story unfolds over the unbelievable two-day trial that laid the sexist roots of today’s justice system. Through flashbacks & testimony recreated in modernized language and narrated by Allison Flom, Erased: The Murder of Elma Sands investigates history’s chronic erasure of women and highlights the toils of Catherine Ring, a 27-year-old Quaker woman who took on the nation’s best legal team to preserve her cousin Elma’s name. Starring & Executive Produced by Allison Williams ("Get Out", "Girls") as Catherine Ring, Tony Goldwyn ("Scandal," "Ghost") as Alexander Hamilton, Barry Scheck (Innocence Project Founder) as Aaron Burr, and Jason Flom (Wrongful Conviction) as Judge John Lansing. https://link.chtbl.com/ScLF1iuL Erased: The Murder of Elma Sands is released weekly, starting next Wednesday, October 18th, wherever you get your podcasts. Or, to hear all six episodes right now, ad-free, subscribe to Lava for Good+ on Apple Podcasts. Erased: The Murder of Elma Sands is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From the production team that brought you The War on Drugs, Bone Valley, and the Wrongful Conviction series,  here is Episode 1 of our new podcast: Earwitness. If you like what you hear, you can listen to episode 2 right now wherever you get your podcasts or by clicking this link: http://lavaforgood.com/earlanding Journalist Beth Shelburne meets with former Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley, who explains why he is deeply disturbed by the wrongful conviction of Toforest Johnson for the murder of Deputy Bill Hardy. Through her reporting on the case, Beth, like Baxley, is convinced that Toforest has no connection to the murder. She sets out to conduct an in-depth investigation into why detectives targeted him in the first place, how he was convicted, and why the State of Alabama is still seeking his execution today. Earwitness will be available every Tuesday wherever you get your podcasts. To hear episodes a week early and ad free, subscribe to Lava for Good+ on Apple Podcasts. Earwitness is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One July night in 1995, Deputy Sheriff William G. Hardy was shot behind the Crown Sterling Suites hotel in Birmingham, Alabama. At the same time as the murder, at least ten people saw Toforest Johnson four miles away, at a popular nightclub called Tee's Place. But detectives zeroed in on him as a main suspect in Deputy Hardy’s murder anyway, ultimately resulting in Toforest being tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. For over a quarter century, Toforest has been confined to a 5’ by 8’ cell on Alabama’s death row. In 2019, investigative journalist Beth Shelburne began covering the case, going down a disturbing rabbit hole revealing many unsettling facts that cast grave doubts about Toforest’s guilt. The facts she found tear at the very foundation of the American criminal justice system: No eyewitnesses or physical evidence tied Toforest to the murder; the state tried to convict a different man for the same crime; and perhaps most disturbing of all, Toforest’s conviction relied on an ‘earwitness’ – a woman who claimed to have eavesdropped on an incriminating phone call, a woman whom prosecutors paid for her testimony, in secret. That payment was not disclosed to the jury, Toforest, or his lawyers until after he had been on death row for 17 years. From the team behind the award-winning hit podcast Bone Valley, Lava for Good’s Earwitness is an 8-episode docuseries that asks the question, “How did an innocent man end up on death row — and why is the state still trying to execute him over the objection of the prosecutor who put him there?” Shelburne’s unprecedented access to key players—the lead detective, lead prosecutor, witnesses, jurors, and the earwitness herself— illuminate a story filled with disturbing twists, frustrating ambiguities, and shocking admissions. The story of Toforest Johnson and the state's enthusiasm for the death penalty in the face of such troubling evidentiary flaws brings to light the failings of a criminal justice system run amok. https://link.chtbl.com/uvmXtbob Earwitness will be available every Tuesday beginning September 19 wherever you get your podcasts. To hear episodes 1 week early and ad free, subscribe to Lava for Good+ on Apple Podcasts. Earwitness is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On August 10, 2017, police executed a search warrant at a home in San Antonio, TX and found nearly three pounds of methamphetamine hidden in a bathroom. Upon this discovery, police arrested 45-year-old Louie Garcia and two other individuals. It turns out that the search warrant stemmed from the word of a confidential informant, and nothing else. Further, upon their arrest, Louie and his co-defendants urged that they had been framed. Shortly before the police arrived, a man had stopped at the house with a young girl. They asked to use the bathroom, and then left. When the police did arrive, the officers immediately went up to the bathroom, where they found the drugs. Their claims fell on deaf ears, and Louie was sentenced to 8 years in prison. Greg Glod and Clayton English talk to Louie Garcia and Dayna Jones, Louie's attorney. To learn more and get involved, visit: https://lavaforgood.com/podcast/s1e6-the-war-at-your-door-no-knock-warrants/ Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.