True crime series are a really hot item at the moment on Netflix and has been for quite some time. I would argue that there are so many of them that the creators really need to do something special in order to hold the attention of the audience. So when a series came out that highlights the failures and even borderline criminal behavior of the justice system, it seemed like a fresh change and is worth checking out.
Only recently released, this series follows the lives of people involved in high-level crimes with serious sentences including death by execution that certain information came to light a long time, sometimes years later, after the people who were sentenced have been languishing away in prison for crimes they did not commmit.
It's an incredibly tragic show when we see that people end up with long sentences that are sometimes based on the State's Attorney's office needing a conviction and taking advantage of people that you can't help but think that even the prosecutors are aware might not have done the crime but the government and their Public Relations department needs someone to go down for a heinous crime.
Most of the stories have happy endings but this series makes you think about how many other people there are out there right now in the same situation that didn't have the good fortune for their to be some sort of retribution.
Another aspect of the series that they highlight is some truly devious characters that work in forensics that it appears as though they actually "doctor" their results out of pride and are accomplices in nearly framing people that even the self-proclaimed forensic experts probably know is innocent but they are more interested in protecting their own livelihoods than they are in seeking actual justice.
One particular individual, after being presented with irrefutable evidence that his analysis was wrong is still completely unapologetic about the approach that he used in a trial that could have resulted in an innocent man getting a lethal injection ending his life.
His name is Dr. Michael West and he is certainly not going to be getting much fan mail after a large group of people see this series.
Are you angry about the Justice system that exists? Well this series isn't going to help that. Stories of withholding and doctoring evidence, framing people the state is very aware probably didn't do the crime in question, and the intentional denial of appeals through political posturing is just a few of the things that you are going to encounter in this gripping series that I feel is one of the better true crime series out there.
Should I watch it?
This series gets one of the biggest hell yeahs that I can possibly give. You'll learn something and probably be a bit afraid of the court system after you see it. I suppose it could be a bit biased in that it seems as though their entire objective is to make the justice system seem terribly corrupt. Let's just hope that these are isolated incidents.