You know, my mother used to say, a long time ago, whenever there would be any really

catastrophe that was in the movies or on the air, she would say, always look for the helpers.

There will always be helpers, you know, just on the sidelines.

That's why I think that if news programs could make a conscious effort of showing rescue teams,

anybody who is coming into a place where there's a tragedy. To be sure that they include that,

because if you look for the helpers,

you'll know that there's hope.

Actual Innocence is a podcast that tells the story of people who serve time for crimes they did not commit.

Listen to the heartbreaking true accounts of wrongly convicted people and their journey to exoneration.

I'm Brooke.

Thank you so much for listening.

If you're like me, a person who listens to a lot of true crime podcasts or even produces one,

you might sometimes find yourself feeling deflated or helpless in situations where seeking justice feels very overwhelming. And that's exactly where I found myself recently. But like Fred Rogers said

in the intro, I needed to find the helpers. And this episode is the result of my quest to do just that. I'm Brooke,

and these are the helpers. Wolfgang Mueller. I've been a lawyer since 1990. I'm Sam Gross. I'm a

law professor at the University of Michigan Law School, and I'm the editor of the National

Registry of Exonerations.

My name is Imran Sayyad. I am a assistant clinical professor at the University of Michigan Law School,

and I teach in the Michigan Innocence Clinic, which is where I supervise students working on

cases for Michigan inmates who may have been wrongfully convicted.

These are the helpers I interviewed.

Amran Sayyad, an innocent network attorney, Professor Sam Gross, the editor of the National

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