After Innocence

The documentary follows seven men whose innocence was established through DNA evidence. Some had spent years in prison, some decades; among them are a police officer, a man who had served in the army, and a young father. What the film is really about is what happens after release: the record that is never cleared, the compensation that never comes, the impossibility of finding work, the life you go back to no longer being there. The system that put them inside takes no responsibility once they are out, and that is the film’s real subject. Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, who founded the Innocence Project, are part of the account. Jessica Sanders’s ninety five minute documentary took the special jury prize at Sundance; it was completed in 2005.