These wrongful conviction cases led to people spending years — or even decades — behind bars for crimes they didn't commit.
The American justice system has never been perfect, but the general premise of “innocent until proven guilty” is one of the most important foundations of modern law and order. Unfortunately, a trial by jury doesn’t always get it right, for a variety of reasons. Perhaps the evidence is insufficient, or perhaps the skill of lawyers involved isn’t up to par. Whatever it may be, the shortcomings of the justice system are most obvious when we consider some truly heartbreaking wrongful convictions.
Most would agree that people should be punished for the crimes they commit — but what happens when you are punished for a crime you didn’t commit? Often, people can lose many years of their lives, simply because, this time, the system failed them. In some instances, this can add another layer of tragedy to an already sad story, one where the true culprit walks free while another person is forced to take their place behind bars.
These are the stories behind nine of modern history’s most tragic wrongful convictions — and how they impacted the lives of everyone involved.
David Camm, The Man Wrongfully Convicted Of Murdering His Wife And Children
Public DomainProsecuting attorneys brought in a so-called expert on blood spatter to try and make the claim that David Camm shot his wife and kids — but it was later found that the man had exaggerated his credentials.
A former Indiana State Trooper and amateur basketball player from Georgetown, Indiana, David Camm saw his life change forever after he returned home on September 28, 2000 to find his wife and two children dead in the garage. Horrifically, they had all been murdered.
His wife Kim and daughter Jill had both been shot in the head, while his son Bradley had been shot in the chest. Bradley’s body was found draped over the backseat of the family’s Ford Bronco vehicle. Kim’s body was discovered on the garage floor. She had been stripped down to her underwear, and her shoes and socks were oddly placed on top of the car’s roof.
Horrified and panicked, Camm made the decision to call his former police post to report the murders, rather than dialing 911. In his mind, he was calling “his people,” thinking it would be the best way to find out who had killed his family. Instead, this made Camm look suspicious in the eyes of the police. Moreover, when they arrived, they realized that he had moved Bradley’s body, getting drops of blood on his shirt in the process and contaminating the crime scene. Camm, however, said he thought that Bradley was possibly still alive and was attempting to resuscitate him.
Still, it wasn’t a good look, and three days later, David Camm was arrested and charged with the murders of his family members, despite the fact that he was not home at the time of the attack and 11 other basketball players could attest that he had been at a game with them the entire time.
FacebookThe wrongful conviction of David Camm led to him spending 13 years in prison for the deaths of his wife and children.
Later on, in court, multiple women claimed to have had affairs with Camm, and prosecutors used his unfaithfulness to his wife as a possible motive for the murders. In 2002, he was found guilty of murdering his spouse and children, and he was sentenced to 195 years in prison. That conviction was overturned two years later, with the Indiana Supreme Court saying that the extramarital affairs didn’t provide enough evidence for a motive.
Then, in 2005, authorities tested the DNA found on a sweatshirt left at the scene — which wasn’t properly examined before Camm’s initial trial. They matched the DNA to Charles Boney, a convicted felon called the “Shoe Bandit” for his habit of stealing women’s shoes. They also found that Boney had left a handprint on the Ford Bronco. However, this didn’t exonerate Camm. Instead, he and Boney were viewed as co-conspirators — with Boney supposedly giving Camm the murder weapon. Prosecutors also claimed that Camm molested his daughter and killed his family after his wife found out.
Once again, the jury found Camm guilty. And once again, the Indiana Supreme Court overturned the ruling, in 2009, citing a lack of hard evidence from the prosecution that Camm had ever molested his daughter and saying that this allegation unfairly biased the jury against him.
Eventually, after a third trial in 2013, David Camm was found not guilty on all charges after spending 13 long years behind bars, the tragedy of his family’s murder casting a dark shadow over his future. To this day, some people still firmly believe that he’s guilty, including Kim’s parents.
