‘The Innocence Files’ on Netflix: Your Guide to All 8 Cases

Time served: 16 years

Death penalty: No

Conviction: Capital murder, sexual battery

In the 1990s a small town in Mississippi saw a devastating crime spree. Three-year-old Courtney Smith was taken from her bedroom window in the middle of the night, raped, and murdered. The only witness to Smith’s kidnapping was her five-year-old sister. Despite the sister’s young age making her an unreliable witness, Brooks was still charged and sentenced for Courtney Smith’s murder. The main piece of evidence against him was bite mark evidence, a form of evidence The Innocence Project has been trying to prove is unreliable.

Brooks remained in prison even after a similar case happened to another three-year-old girl. Rather than admit to the possibility that they arrested the wrong man, authorities attributed this second death to a copycat killer. It’s only after The Innocence Project looked into the wrongfully convicted Kennedy Brewer in that second case that Brooks’ case was re-examined.

Brooks was exonerated in March of 2008. Ten years later he passed away of cancer at the age of 58.

Time served: 13 years

Death penalty: Yes

Conviction: Capital murder, sexual battery

Brewer was wrongfully convicted as the supposed copycat killer after Levon Brooks. In 1992 three-year-old Christine Jackson was taken from her home in the middle of the night, raped, and murdered. At the time Brewer was dating the victim’s mother. Much like with Brooks, Brewer was convicted largely on bite mark evidence rather than anything else.

After Brewer wrote to The Innocence Project, the organization looked back into his case. In 2001 DNA testing found that Brewer was not responsible for the murder, and that same revelation led to the organization re-examining and freeing Levon Brooks. The bite marks that put both men in prison were determined to be likely caused by local wildlife. Justin Albert Johnson, a suspect in Courtney Smith’s case, later confessed to both murders.

Brewer’s case led to The Innocence Project to fast-tracking cases that relied on bite mark evidence. In February of 2008 all charges against Brewer were dropped and he was exonerated.

Time served: 33 years

Death penalty: No

Conviction: Murder and sexual assault

Harward’s case is another one that shows the unreliability of bite mark evidence. Teresa Perron lived in Newport, Virginia in 1982. In the middle of the night a strange man broke into her house and murdered her husband. He then proceeded to rape her, threatening to do the same to Perron’s daughter if she didn’t cooperate. After the encounter Perron’s body was covered in bite marks from her ankles to her torso. One of the few details she could remember about her attacker was that he was a sailor.

Though Harward didn’t match the assailant’s described height, he was arrested for the crime. The only pieces of evidence against him were the bite marks and the testimony of a guard who claimed Harward returned to base in a bloody uniform. By performing DNA testing on the rape kit years later, The Innocence Project was able to exonerate Harward. The real assailant was Jerry Crotty, who was later arrested.

Harward was exonerated in April of 2016.

Time served: 19 years

Death penalty: No

Conviction: Murder and six counts of attempted murder

Carrillo’s two-episode case is one of the most shocking installments of the docuseries, showing how easy it is for cops to manipulate witnesses. In 1991 Donald Sarpy was murdered in his Los Angeles driveway during a drive-by shooting. Though Sarpy was friends with gang members, he was considered to be an upstanding member of the community. Based on the testimonies of six witnesses the prosecution argued that 16-year-old Franky Carrillo murdered Sarpy as a way to prove himself to the Young Crowd gang.

But none of this was true. Carrillo’s first trial was declared a mistrial because the witnesses against him were unable to present a consistent story. Between this first trial and the months Carrillo was stuck in prison, it’s suspected that the prosecution and cops coached the crime’s eye witnesses to all point to Carrillo. One of those witnesses, Scott Turner, repeatedly explains how the Deputy Craig Ditsch prompted him to pick Carrillo’s name from a lineup, not allowing him to be released until he gave the deputy a name. All of the witnesses including the late Sarpy’s son Damian Sarpy changed their testimonies.

Carrillo was exonerated in March of 2011. He later filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles, a case that was later settled for $10.1 million.

Time served: 27 years

Death penalty: No

Conviction: Two counts of rape, robbery, and abduction

Haynesworth’s case also proves how misleading eyewitness accounts can be. In 1984 Janet Burke was living in Richmond, Virginia. While working at a day care she was raped at knife point. Over the following month four more white women were attacked and raped in a similar manner. Burke was certain that she memorized her assailant’s face. So when she picked Thomas Haynesworth’s face from a police lineup, she was sure he was her attacker. At the time Haynesworth was 18 years old and without a criminal record.

After Haynesworth’s arrest the crimes continued. The rapist called himself the Black Ninja and always targeted white women. After finding a backlog of rape kits from 1973 to 1988, Virginia Governor Mark Warner ordered that those kits be reviewed and tested. That’s when it was discovered that Haynesworth’s DNA did not match the crime that landed him in prison. Instead the DNA matched to Leon Davis, Haynesworth’s neighbor.

Haynesworth was exonerated in December of 2011. But the most incredible detail about this case is what he chose to do after his release. Not only did he forgive his accuser Janet Burke but now the two go all across the country, arguing for DNA testing and against the reliability of eye witness testimony.

Time served: 25 years

Death penalty: No

Conviction: Second degree murder and robbery

While in Philadelphia in 1991, 24-year-old Tae Jung Ho was robbed and shot to death. One of the only details Ho’s friend recalled about the murder was that the shooter was driving a white car, later identified as a Chevrolet Blazer. A nearby taxi driver later revealed that the car in question had four people in it.

Around the same time 21-year-old Chester Hollman III and his passenger Deirdre Jones were riding around Philadelphia in a Chevrolet Blazer. Despite the fact that Hollman’s clothing didn’t match the description of the shooter and that his car was two passengers shy of the reported four, he was arrested for Ho’s murder. Police investigated Hollman and Jones separately, telling Jones that they already knew Hollman did it and if she cooperated with them she wouldn’t be charged. Jones ultimately gave the false testimony that landed Hollman in jail. After Jones retracted her testimony, The Innocence Project discovered that one of the prosecution’s main witnesses had a lengthy criminal record. Not only that but an anonymous caller told authorities the address of the man who supposedly killed Ho, a tip they never explored further.

In July of 2019 the charges against Hollman were dismissed.

Time served: 10 years

Death penalty: Yes

Conviction: Capital murder

In April of 2003 a cash-checking store in Houston, Texas was robbed by three men. In the middle of the robbery the shopkeeper was shot and killed. Shortly after Alfred Dewayne Brown, Dashan Glaspie, and Elijah Joubert were arrested on capital murder charges. Though Brown maintained that he was sleeping at his girlfriend’s place during the time of the shooting, the other two involved in the robbery claimed that he was the one to commit the murder.

Brown’s case is full of despicable behavior. For one his girlfriend and the only one who could defend his alibi Ericka Dockery was imprisoned on perjury charges for four months. Desperate to get back to her young children, Dockery changed her testimony to agree with authorities’ suspicions against Brown. Also the grand jury in Brown’s case, which was supposed to be composed of people who don’t know each other, didn’t meet that basic requirement. There was no DNA evidence pinning this crime to Brown nor was there any gun residue. The nearly 300-page Writ of Habeas Corpus pointed all of this out while proving that Brown’s alibi was solid.

In May of 2019 Brown was issued a certificate of innocence. While Brown has filed for state compensation, it has yet to be awarded to him.

Time served: 9 years

Death penalty: No

Conviction: 15 counts of criminal sexual conduct, armed robbery, breaking and entering

In April of 1994, a man broke into a woman’s home in Clinton, Michigan while she was sleeping. According to the victim, the assailant wore a nylon stocking on his head and masked and blindfolded her, making it next to impossible for her to get a good look at him. Nevertheless authorities had the victim draw a sketch of her attacker. This sketch is primarily what led cops to suspect Kenneth Wyniemko.

Semen was found on the victim’s couch and in her underwear. There was also a cigarette butt found at the scene of the crime that authorities later came to believe belonged to the attacker. Despite this overwhelming amount of DNA evidence, none of these items were tested. Later in 2003 testing was performed. While the semen on the bedding was linked to the victim’s husband, the sample found in the underwear did not match Wyniemko but an unknown male.

In June of 2003 Wyniemko’s conviction was overturned. Because Wyniemko was the first person in Michigan to be exonerated under the post conviction statute, his release left him without any sort of safety net, monetary or otherwise.

Watch The Innocence Files on Netflix