Hey, everybody, it's Connor Hall, one of the producers here at Wrongful Conviction,

and I will be curating a list of episodes for the next few weeks,

offering case updates, behind the scenes, info, and maybe some insights.

Now, when given this opportunity, a number of people immediately came to mind,

including Alexis Keerica Martin. If you don't remember, she was 15 years old when the robbery

of her sex trafficker turned into his murder. Now, I'm sure many folks would be sympathetic to somebody in that situation.

If they were to be involved in a plot to bring about the demise of their sex trafficker, a child sex trafficker.

But Kierke maintains that she was not involved in any such plot.

And without any direct evidence of her involvement, the DA in Akron,

Ohio at the time, still thought that Keerica needed to pay, which is strange, given just the

circumstances. Yet in addition, Ohio had just enacted a safe harbor law, which he, the judge,

and trial counsel, should have known about, a law made for situations just like this one to end a human trafficking survivor's nightmare rather than compounding it with the legal system.

And since that law was not invoked, Kierica was bound over into adult court, convicted, and sentenced to 21 years to life.

And when this was brought to the attention of Ohio Governor Mike DeWine,

he granted Kieryrica clemency, putting her on parole in April 2020.

And about a year later, we released our coverage of her case,

at which time she was doing speaking engagements,

as well as a few normal jobs to save her college

with the plan of starting a nonprofit

to help prevent human trafficking and support other survivors.

Now, a year on from that, I can remember it like it was yesterday. I mean, we were at the

2022 Innocence Network Conference in Phoenix. We had just wrapped another day of interviews.

...