Documentarian Jessica Sanders' film After Innocence follows the lives of nine wrongfully convicted prisoners who, after years of false imprisonment, are released with the help of newly introduced DNA evidence. The stories of these men are moving, and the vibrancy of their characters in spite of years of torment is inspirational. They not only face the traumas of prison, but even after exoneration are subject to the same struggles of reintegration that face any released prisoner. Their records are not expunged, they receive no compensation and few get even a simple apology.
With the aid of the Innocence Project, a foundation to help exonerate wrongfully accused convicts, these men fight for the basic civil rights that have been robbed of them through no fault of their own but rather a fault in the system. The stories are especially alarming because of the seeming randomness of these men's convictions and their initial faith that justice would prevail. The film's primary struggle is its attempt to balance focus between the valuable services that the Innocence Project provides and the still daunting adversity that its protagonists face even after their exoneration. In all, After Innocence is powerful in its frightening depiction of the oft-overlooked flaws in the criminal justice system.
