INDIANAPOLIS - They're behind bars in Indiana but say they're innocent. Some are wrongfully convicted.
Their stories are gaining attention thanks to a new documentary series on Netflix that's got everyone talking.
"Making a Murderer" tells the story of Steven Avery, a Wisconsin man who was wrongfully convicted of rape and freed by DNA evidence 18 years later.
Avery was then arrested a decade ago for murder.
Prosecutors say he did it. Avery and his attorneys say police framed him.
Hundreds of thousands of people are now signing a petition for him to be freed. More are asking the President to step in.
RELATED | "Making a Murderer" makes a movement (spoilers)
Experts say, in the rare case when someone is wrongfully convicted, it's not typically because that the police were corrupt and planted evidence. They say it's usually because of a mistake, an oversight or new technology in DNA testing.
"In a system that's human, then you recognize it has the potential for error- no one guarantees we'll get it right all the time and sometimes we get it wrong," said Francis Watson, Wrongful Conviction Clinic at IU School of Law.
Watson says, for the most part, just as in Steven Avery's case, eventual freedom is tied to DNA.
One case the Wrongful Conviction Clinic is working on right now involves a rape in 1989 in Lake County.
Darryl Pinkins has been behind bars ever since. Watson is hopeful for not longer.
"Sometimes it's wrong and the government knows it's wrong, but more often than not, it's just a mistake - the government presents the evidence believing it to be valid, but science tells us as we move through that it's not," said Watson..
Pinkins has a post-conviction hearing coming up as the state weighs DNA evidence tied to a hair.
PINKINS CASE BACKGROUND | 5 Gary men plead not guilty in attack on Hammond woman | Pinkins guilty in bump-rape | Indiana Court of Appeals case on Pinkins | DNA mixture evidence for Darryl Pinkins | Examiners' testimony about hair analysis being questioned
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