The Infamous Ex-Chief

Jeffrey Deskovic: Wrongfully Convicted at 16, Exonerated by DNA After 16 Years

The Infamous Ex-Chief Season 1 Episode 147

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Jeffrey Deskovic was 16 years old when police put him through a six to seven hour polygraph session with no attorney and no parent in the room. The man running that session later testified in court, under oath, that his method had a name: GTC. Get The Confession.

The DNA from the crime scene excluded him. The hair comparison excluded him. The jury convicted him anyway, and Deskovic spent the next 16 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

In this episode, Deskovic walks through exactly how a wrongful conviction happens from the inside: how a prosecutor gets a jury past physical evidence that doesn't match, what a medical examiner "suddenly remembered" right after the DNA results came back clean, and how a conflict of interest with his own public defender may have kept key evidence out of his trial entirely.

We also cover his history with Jeanine Pirro's office fighting his access to further DNA testing, and why he later testified against Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court confirmation over an appellate ruling that cost him seven more years behind bars.

Deskovic was freed by DNA testing in 2006. He's now an attorney running the Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice, which has helped free 15 wrongfully convicted people and passed 9 laws aimed at preventing this from happening to someone else.

What you'll hear in this episode:

  • How a false confession gets built out of information fed to a suspect over six weeks
  • Why DNA and hair exclusion didn't stop a conviction
  • The prosecutorial and judicial decisions that kept Deskovic in prison through seven denied appeals
  • What it took to finally get exonerated in 2006
  • How the Deskovic Foundation decides which wrongful conviction cases to take

Support Jeffrey's work:
 Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice
 Website: https://www.deskovicfoundation.org/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deskovicfoundation/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thejeffreydeskovicfoundation/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffdeskovicfoundation

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