FOR LIFE: The Podcast

A preview of FOR LIFE: The Podcast, premiering February 11th

Jeffrey Deskovic was just a teenager when he was wrongfully convicted in 1990. Through 16 years of incarceration — and despite countless painful setbacks — he remained determined to prove his innocence. In this episode, Jeffrey tells his story of resilience, and the tenacity he never knew he had until his freedom depended on it.

Late one night in 1994, 19-year-old Richard Miles called his roommate from a payphone on his way home. He was at the wrong place at the wrong time. A nearby shooting, a case of mistaken identification, and brazen prosecutorial misconduct would put him behind bars for 15 years. Richard shares how faith and family helped him survive -- and how one lucky break led to his exoneration.  

Gloria Killian was a former law student with no criminal record when she was implicated in a 1981 murder and robbery. She was sentenced to 32 years to life in prison. In this chapter, Gloria shares how the community she found in prison and her work helping her fellow inmates, along with her unlikely friendship with a social justice advocate, would change the course of her life.

A preview of the upcoming episodes when we resume on March 10th

Kwame Ajamu was 17 years old when he, his brother, and their friend were convicted of robbery and murder in 1975. The only evidence against them was the fabricated testimony of a 12-year-old boy. Still, all three men were sentenced to death. In this chapter, Kwame describes how education became his refuge during his 28 years in prison, and how his personal transformation would turn him into the man who would exonerate the three, and eventually find the love and support he needed.

In 1988, 22-year-old Christopher Ochoa was working at a pizza chain restaurant in Austin, Texas, when a tragic crime and a coerced false confession shattered his life and tore him from his family. Chris relates the harrowing events that led to his own wrongful conviction, and his forced implication of his coworker. Despite painfully dark moments in prison, Chris explains how compassion from others helped him endure -- and how finding his own compassion drove him to become an attorney and advocate.

In 1990, Antione Day, a 28-year-old father of five and musician, had just returned from an out-of-town gig when he heard that local police were looking to ask him some questions about a recent robbery-homicide in his neighborhood. He had no idea that his freedom -- and his family -- would be ripped away from him for over a decade. In this episode, Antione talks about how his wrongful conviction also robbed his children of the father they needed, but with love and time, they are on the road to healing.