Raymond at a book signing for his graphic novel memoir, “Pushing Hope,” published on October 28th, 2025.
Your Year-End Watch & Read Guide: 9 Books and Documentaries That Will Open Your Eyes About Our Criminal Legal System
These stories reveal the flaws in our criminal legal system and the strength of those impacted — and they’ll fuel you for the fight ahead.
12.17.25 By Mrinali Dhembla
Image: Madeo/Innocence Project
As 2025 comes to a close, we’ve put together a list of films, series, and books that expose cracks in our criminal legal system, highlight the resilience of those who are forced to navigate them, and demand that we take action.
These recommendations will deepen your understanding of why we work around the clock to restore freedom for wrongly convicted people, transform the systems responsible for their unjust incarceration, and advance the innocence movement.
1. The Yogurt Shop Murders (HBO Max)
This 2025 HBO miniseries follows the investigation of the high-profile 1991 murders of four teenage girls in Austin, Texas. Directed by Margaret Brown, it highlights the trauma experienced by the girls’ families, the challenges of the investigation, the wrongful arrests of four men, and the coercive tactics police used to secure the false confessions that led to the wrongful convictions of two of them.
In 1999, four men were arrested for the murders. Two of them — Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott — were convicted primarily based on false confessions. More than two decades later, DNA testing excluded all four men and pointed to serial killer Robert Eugene Brashers as the perpetrator.
The series is a devastating tale of loss and a striking reminder of how justice can be skewed and the road to the truth can be long.
2. Murders in Boston: Roots, Rampage and Reckoning (HBO Max)
This three-part HBO series from 2023 explores racially discriminatory practices within the Boston Police Department through the 1989 murder of a white woman.
The show follows the murder of Carol Stuart, whose husband, Charles, told police that they had been shot by a Black man wearing a striped tracksuit. Rather than exploring all leads, including a tip from a detective who had cast doubt on Charles’ story, the police department launched an intense manhunt in Boston’s predominately Black neighborhood of Mission Hill, heightening racial tensions in the city.
Murders in Boston takes a look at the deep-rooted racism in the state’s criminal legal system, and examines a racial legacy that led to the police’s gross misconduct in Ms. Stuart’s case.
3. The Alabama Solution (HBO Max)
The film is an appalling expose of Alabama’s prison systems — rife with the brutality of horrific beatings, unreported stabbings, and other systemic abuses.
The investigative documentary, co-directed by The Jinx director Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman, highlights disturbing issues such as overcapacity, drug addiction, and the routine life-threatening beatings of incarcerated men.
Shot over the span of six years using footage from phones smuggled by incarcerated people, the film forces its audience to take a hard look at everyday, pervasive injustices the public almost never sees.
4. The Jailhouse Lawyer by Calvin Duncan
Calvin Duncan’s book is a memoir of grit, passion, and resilience in the face of adversity. Mr. Duncan was only 19 when he was arrested and wrongfully convicted for a murder-robbery in New Orleans. While in prison for 28 years, he studied to become a “jailhouse lawyer” and worked on hundreds of cases.
Over the years, Mr. Duncan — a staunch advocate for justice — helped overturn the convictions of many, and remains steadfast in making the criminal legal system more transparent and fairer. This year, he became the newly elected clerk of the criminal court in New Orleans.
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5. The Hazel Boyz: The Trials of Four Innocent Men by Deon Patrick, Lewis Gardner, Daniel Taylor and Paul Phillips
This Amazon bestseller traces the lives of four men who were wrongfully convicted of double murders that occurred near Clarendon Park on Chicago’s North Side based on coerced confessions that involved going more than 27 hours without food and access to a lawyer.
An investigation by The Chicago Tribune uncovered new evidence, which led to the exoneration of the men in 2013 and 2014.
The book highlights the harrowing reality of how flaws in our criminal legal systems can obscure the truth and captures the poignant tales of broken dreams, fractured families, and youths taken away.
6. Bone Valley: A True Story of Injustice and Redemption in the Heart of Florida by Gilbert King
This eye-opening novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gilbert King shares the story of a gross miscarriage of justice that took place in the heart of rural Florida.
In 1987, 18-year-old Michelle Schofield was found murdered and believed to have been killed by her husband Leo. Police overlooked evidence in what Mr. King considered an incomplete investigation, causing Leo to be wrongfully incarcerated for 36 years.
7. Trial By Fire (Netflix)
Starring Jack O’Connell and Laura Dern, Trial By Fire is a gut-wrenching story of Innocence Project client Cameron Todd Willingham, who was wrongly convicted in 1992 for allegedly setting a fire that killed his three daughters based on unreliable arson science and incentivized jailhouse informant testimony.
Mr. Willigham was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas on February 17, 2004.
Months after Mr. Willingham’s execution, The Chicago Tribune published a report that raised questions about the arson analysis that formed the basis of his conviction, and the Innocence Project presented arson experts who issued a 48-page report that found the analysis to be invalid.
The movie, which was released in 2018, debuted on Netflix this year and has reignited the public’s interest in Mr. Willingham’s case.
8. The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox (Hulu)
A “twisted tale” of injustice and a family’s enduring loss, this Netflix series traces the wrongful conviction of Amanda Knox, who was accused of her roommate’s murder in Italy in 2007.
Ms. Knox was interrogated for more than 50 hours in the absence of a professional translator, which became a critical point in the case. She was exonerated in 2011, after DNA testing proved her innocence.
This year, Ms.Knox was honored with the Impact Award at the 2025 Innocence Network Conference in Seattle and published her book, Free: My Search for Meaning.
9. Pushing Hope by Raymond Santana
In this moving illustrated memoir, Raymond Santana, a member of the Exonerated Five, reflects on his wrongful conviction of a 1989 sexual assault in New York’s Central Park and his pursuit of justice.
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