This time, a documentary on America’s Criminal Justice System.

Jessica Sanders’s documentary “After Innocence” examines the cases of seven men wrongly convicted of murder and rape and exonerated years later by DNA evidence. Watching this documentary you will feel nothing but outrage for competing lawyers who fight to win, not for justice.



The movie addresses the question of compensation after wrongful imprisonment. Unlike paroled prisoners, who have a network of social services to help them re-enter society, the exonerated have little guidance or support. What does society owe these people for what they lost, not only in wages and career opportunities but as compensation for their suffering and humiliation? In most states compensation legislation has not been enacted.

- The New York Times





Employing a direct, unfussy style, pic is structured as a series of first-person testimonials in which Sanders’ subjects recount the entire arcs of their cases, from the moment of arrest to the moment of release. What emerges is a complex and deeply troubling portrait of crime and punishment in America.

- Variety at Sundance





Yet by trying to adequately tackle seven different portraits during its 95-minute running time, the documentary-which, in its final third, begins to seem like an extended promotional piece for the Innocence Project-also feels cursory and thin, its emotional wallop somewhat softened by a misguided decision to work on a broad, rather than intimate, canvas.

- Slant



Some of the films’ subjects were wrongfully imprisoned for twenty years or more of their prime earning years, putting their parents well past the age when most people retire and deeply in debt besides. The film loses a bit of power when trying to confront that situation, since the families appear to look at this as a fair trade for their sons’ freedom.

- eFilmcritic4408