Topic: Convictions

A new 10-part documentary project is currently in development focusing on a series of unsolved cold case crimes from the late 1970s in Speedway, Indiana. The investigation looks into five murders and a string of bombings near the Indianapolis 500, uncovering evidence of police corruption and a wrongful conviction. This project aims to bring transparency to stories that have been obscured by official misdirection for decades.

Dr. Earl Smith discusses the role of police surveillance and stereotypes in the high rate of wrongful convictions for Black men. He highlights that exonerated individuals spend an average of 15 years in prison for crimes they did not commit, with Black men being disproportionately represented among those cleared by DNA or new evidence. An anecdote titled "The Slowest Car in Town" is used to illustrate how a professional Black man's image is degraded by societal bias during a simple elevator ride.

The FBI receives approximately $3 billion annually for counterterrorism, which is significantly more than the funding allocated for organized crime or financial fraud. This budget creates a bureaucratic necessity to produce "terrorists" to justify continued funding to Congress. With a near-perfect conviction record and the failure of entrapment defenses in court, the FBI has little incentive to alter its practice of manufacturing cases through mandatory minimum sentencing and guilty pleas.