Wrongful Convictions: How Innocent People End Up Behind BarsTop of Mind with Julie Rose • Season 2025, Episode 21
Oct 13, 2025 • 54m
What happens when the justice system convicts an innocent person? Anthony Graves spent 18 years in prison—12 of them on Texas death row—for a crime he didn’t commit. His story is one of unthinkable injustice, unbroken faith, and a determination to reform the system that failed him. Criminal defense attorney David Rudolf reveals the patterns of human error and bias that lead to wrongful convictions. And Sheriff Walt McNeil and former public defender Emily Galvin-Almanza share how policing and defense work can evolve to keep innocent people out of prison. Can we ever make the system truly just?
GUESTS
Anthony Graves, exoneree, author “Infinite Hope: How Wrongful Conviction, Solitary Confinement, and 12 Years on Death Row Failed to Kill My Soul.” (https://www.beacon.org/Infinite-Hope-P1347.aspx)
David Rudolf- author, “American Injustice: Inside Stories from the Underbelly of the Criminal Justice System” (https://davidsrudolf.com/)
Emily Galvin-Almanza, co-founder of Partners for Justice (https://www.partnersforjustice.org/)
Walter McNeil, sheriff of Leon County, Florida (https://www.leoncountyso.com/about-us/meet-the-sheriff)
(This episode has been updated from its original release in May 2022.)