False Allegations Hub

After 42 Years in Prison, Ervin Harris Is Exonerated of a Rape Conviction

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A Jefferson County judge has vacated Ervin Harris’ 1974 rape conviction, finding the lone eyewitness identification against him unreliable.

Originally published by Innocence Project on 24 August 2026

She Was Absolved of a Heinous Crime. Why Won’t They Leave Her Alone?

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A judge exonerated Nancy Smith, an Ohio bus driver, after she was convicted of abusing children in her care. Now, prosecutors want to reverse an order saying she was innocent.

Originally published by The New York Times on 25 August 2026

Convicted murderer Sue Neill-Fraser can now talk to media, law centre says

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Editor's note (26 August 2026): Republished as filed, with the ABC's headline unchanged. Its description of Sue Neill-Fraser as a convicted murderer states her legal position, not this site's view of it: she has always maintained her innocence, her conviction is contested, and the restriction reported here is the one that stopped her from saying so publicly.

The Human Rights Law Centre says a restrictive parole condition that stopped Sue Neill-Fraser from being able to claim her innocence in the media has been removed after a court challenge.

Originally published by ABC News on 25 August 2026

Alan Hall wrongful conviction case: Former cops not guilty of perverting course of justice

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Alan Hall was wrongfully convicted nearly 40 years ago of murdering Arthur Easton. Two former police officers involved in the investigation have been found not guilty of perverting the course of justice.

Originally published by Stuff on 12 August 2026

Flaw in the IPP system

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Offender imprisoned for extra 18 years before legal error spotted and put right

Originally published by A Lawyer Writes on 24 August 2026

Lawyers of man convicted of Stephen Carroll murder refer PSNI surveillance to miscarriage of justice body

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Brendan McConville’s solicitors have referred his case to the CCRC after a review confirmed the PSNI obtained their communications data ahead of his 2013 appeal.

Originally published by The Irish News on 21 October 2025

After 2 decades in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, man receives $6 million. Then his ex-wife who divorced him while he was inside demands a share

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

“It would have opened the floodgates to litigation by all exonerees’ ex-wives."

Originally published by We Got This Covered on 23 August 2026

'I always knew the truth': Man falsely imprisoned for 18 years exonerated of O.C. robbery

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Guy Miles spent more than 18 years in prison for a 1998 Fullerton robbery he did not commit; Orange County prosecutors have now vacated the conviction after a Conviction Integrity Unit review.

Originally published by Yahoo News on 22 August 2026

Opinion: Connecticut should not tax the wrongfully convicted

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

New Haven will pay two wrongly convicted men $15.25 million each — yet Connecticut's estate tax can still reclaim 12% of compensation the state itself paid.

Originally published by CT Insider, Hearst Connecticut Media on 21 August 2026

The Life and Death and Life of Repressed Memories

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Harvard psychologist Richard McNally and social psychologist Carol Tavris on why the discredited idea of “repressed memories” is back — in Amy Griffin's memoir and Bessel van der Kolk's bestsellers — and what the research on fragmented trauma memories actually found.

Originally published by Skeptic on 19 August 2026

Man who served 30 years for crime he didn't commit sues Albany, detectives for $80M

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Corey Young served 30 years for a 1995 Albany shootout he did not commit. He is now suing the city and two detectives for $80 million over coerced witnesses.

Originally published by CBS 6 Albany on 19 August 2026

Protect Victims, Yes, But Who Protects The Falsely Accused?

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A Malaysian doctor argues that after police referred a Sabah hospital sexual harassment complaint to prosecutors and the case was classified No Further Action, the accused's presumption of innocence still counts for nothing in public.

Originally published by CodeBlue on 20 August 2026

Pueblo woman exonerated of murder sues county, officers

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Acacia Lyn-Darr, exonerated in 2025 after nearly 12 years in prison, is suing Pueblo County and its officers over a conviction built on coerced testimony.

Originally published by The Pueblo Chieftain on 19 August 2026

The New York Times gloats over the destruction of “the Monster” Weinstein

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Editor's note (21 August 2026): This commentary was published two days after a Manhattan jury convicted Harvey Weinstein in February 2020, and is republished as it was written. Its central criticism was later borne out. On 25 April 2024 the New York Court of Appeals overturned the conviction by 4–3, holding that the trial court had wrongly admitted testimony about uncharged sexual acts against women who were not complainants in the case — the “prior bad acts” evidence this article argued was incompatible with the rights of the accused — and ordered a new trial. At the retrial in Manhattan the jury convicted Weinstein on 11 June 2025 of one count of criminal sexual act against Miriam Haley, acquitted him on a second count, and deadlocked on the third-degree rape count involving Jessica Mann, on which a mistrial was declared the next day. A further trial of that count ended in another mistrial in May 2026, and on 25 June 2026 the Manhattan District Attorney dismissed it rather than try it a fourth time. Sentencing on the remaining conviction is listed for September 2026. Weinstein has been in custody throughout; a separate conviction in Los Angeles in December 2022 carried a 16-year sentence imposed in February 2023.

Weinstein’s conviction has established the “breakthrough” principle that a criminal conviction can be secured without reliable and verifiable evidence. The working class and poor will suffer the consequences.

Originally published by World Socialist Web Site on 26 February 2020

Faked admission of a rape that didn’t happen

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A Sydney judge ruled a rape complainant used a rehearsed script to manipulate the accused into an apology he did not believe. The charges were then dropped.

Originally published by Wrongful Convictions Report on 11 February 2024

Ohio death row inmate Tyrone Noling gets rare chance to ask parole board for pardon

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Tyrone Noling has spent 30 years on Ohio's death row for a double murder he insists he did not commit; a rare clemency hearing let him put recanted testimony and an alternative suspect to the parole board.

Originally published by NBC News on 19 August 2026

Sexual abuse – or justice abused? A priest’s tale

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Fr Gordon MacRae's own account of the New Hampshire investigation, the plea deals he refused and the 1994 trial that left him serving 33½ to 67 years.

Originally published by Wrongful Convictions Report on 8 January 2024

Special Report – Prosecutors ‘straining impermissibly for a conviction’: eight examples

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Editor's note (21 August 2026): This article opens and closes on Walter Sofronoff KC's findings against then-ACT DPP Shane Drumgold, published the day before it was written in August 2023. Those findings did not stand. On 4 March 2024 the ACT Supreme Court held that Mr Sofronoff's undisclosed contact with a journalist during the inquiry gave rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias; Acting Justice Stephen Kaye also held one finding against Mr Drumgold legally unreasonable and found another had been made in denial of natural justice. The report's findings about other people, and its recommendations on the ACT criminal justice system, were undisturbed. In March 2025 the ACT Integrity Commission found that Mr Sofronoff had himself engaged in serious corrupt conduct in running the inquiry; his challenge to that finding was dismissed by the Federal Court on 11 December 2025.

Eight Australian cases in which judges, lawyers and legal academics say prosecutors strained impermissibly for a conviction — from Gordon Wood to Shane Drumgold.

Originally published by Wrongful Convictions Report on 4 August 2023

George Pell: Court quashes cardinal's sexual abuse conviction

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Editor's note (20 August 2026): This report was filed on the day of the High Court's decision, 7 April 2020, and the question of Cardinal Pell's future that it leaves open has since been answered. He did not return as Vatican treasurer: his five-year term as Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy had expired on 24 February 2019 while he was in custody, and he remained prefect emeritus. He returned to Rome in September 2020 and died there on 10 January 2023, aged 81, following complications after hip surgery.

Australia's High Court unanimously quashed Cardinal George Pell's conviction for sexually abusing two choirboys, freeing him after more than 400 days in jail.

Originally published by BBC News on 7 April 2020

Robert Xie appeal – was he ‘framed’?

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Editor's note (20 August 2026): This article was written in June 2020, as Robert Xie's appeal opened. The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed that appeal on 15 February 2021, finding that no miscarriage of justice had occurred.

Robert Xie and his wife Kathy Lin say he was framed for the 2009 murders of five of her family. Two extracts from his appeal submissions show why.

Originally published by Wrongful Convictions Report on 24 June 2020

Russell Brand investigation: what good journalists should have to go through to report sexual assault allegations

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

An expert on media law explains how newspapers avoid defamation when investigating a story.

Originally published by The Conversation on 20 September 2023

The sinister Vatican plot against Cardinal Pell

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Editor's note (20 August 2026): This opinion piece is republished as it was written, in October 2020, days after the allegation it discusses first surfaced in the Italian press. Several later developments bear on it. Victoria Police declined to open an investigation on 23 October 2020, saying AUSTRAC had advised it of no suspicious activity in the transactions; the Australian Federal Police completed its analysis of the financial intelligence AUSTRAC had referred and announced on 3 February 2021 that it had found no criminal misconduct. AUSTRAC's initial figure of A$2.3 billion transferred from the Vatican to Australia between 2014 and 2020 was corrected in a joint Vatican-Australian review to about A$9.5 million across 362 transfers, which the Vatican attributed to contractual obligations and ordinary management. Cardinal Becciu has consistently denied directing any payment to influence the trial, and no charge relating to a transfer to Australia was ever brought against him. He was convicted in December 2023 of embezzlement and related offences over the Holy See's London property investment, a separate matter; on 17 March 2026 the Vatican appeals court found procedural errors that nullified that indictment and ordered a retrial, listed to begin on 22 June 2026, so the case remains unresolved. Cardinal Pell died on 10 January 2023.

A Vatican monsignor told prosecutors that Cardinal Becciu wired €700,000 to Australia during Pell's trial, reviving suspicion about who wanted him convicted.

Originally published by The Spectator Australia on 6 October 2020

Actor Johnny Depp’s testimony exposes unsubstantiated #MeToo allegations by Amber Heard

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Editor's note (19 August 2026): This report was filed mid-trial, on the fourth day of Johnny Depp’s testimony in April 2022, and is republished as it was written. The trial concluded on 1 June 2022: the Fairfax County jury found that Amber Heard had defamed Depp with actual malice and awarded him $10 million compensatory and $5 million punitive damages, the latter reduced to Virginia’s statutory cap of $350,000. On one of Heard’s counterclaims the jury found for her and awarded $2 million. Both sides abandoned their appeals and settled out of court in December 2022.

Four days into Johnny Depp’s defamation trial against Amber Heard, his testimony paints a very different picture from the #MeToo allegations that damaged his acting career.

Originally published by World Socialist Web Site on 23 April 2022

Kevin Spacey has been found not guilty of sexual assault, but will his career recover?

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey has been cleared of multiple sexual assault charges. Some say he faces an uphill struggle to return to his previous position as a top-ranking star.

Originally published by SBS News on 27 July 2023

Musician Ashley MacIsaac ends lawsuit over Google AI summary falsely labelling him a sex offender

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Juno-award winning musician Ashley MacIsaac has ended his defamation suit against Google over its AI overview falsely labelling him as a sex offender. He was originally seeking $1.5 million in damages, but filed a notice of discontinuance in July.

Originally published by CBC on 19 August 2026