The Overturn brings listeners into the real-life battles of people fighting on behalf of loved ones they believe have been victims of grave miscarriages of justice.
The series goes shoulder-to-shoulder with those on the outside as they campaign for those on the inside.
In the face of a dysfunctional criminal appeals system, they refuse to stop fighting to clear their loved ones’ names.
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From families contesting the convictions of teenagers jailed for conspiracy to murder over group-chat messages, to a former police officer who alleges he’s been stitched up by colleagues, to relatives of four men claiming a corrupt undercover sting led to their terrorism convictions, The Overturn brings their fight for justice to the forefront with journalistic resolve and critical urgency. The series highlights potential police corruption to secure dodgy convictions, the discredited testimony of prison cell snitches, and murder convictions so dubious even the victim’s family believe the wrong man went down.
But above all, it highlights the courage – and loneliness – of fighting a broken justice system.
These are the stories of people who maintain they’re innocent and yet remain in prison, fighting unimaginable odds to win justice in a system that – many would say – is rigged against them.
Every year, about 1,500 people write to the Criminal Cases Review Commission claiming to be innocent. That is the only organisation with the power to send a case back to the Court of Appeal. But last year, only 1.5% of those cases got sent back to the courts; and of the tiny number of wrongful convictions which are actually overturned, almost all are refused compensation.
These are the stories of people who maintain they’re innocent and yet remain in prison, fighting unimaginable odds to win justice in a system that – many would say – is rigged against them.
This podcast tells the stories of those on the outside, fighting to free those on the inside. The Overturn is produced and hosted by Marnie Duke with support from The Future Justice Project.
