False confessions, eyewitness misidentifications, incompetent defense lawyers, overly confident cops, and mishandling of forensics – all play a role in wrongful convictions. And it happens more often than you think.

At least 5,000 innocent people, and possibly 20,000 or more – or 0.5 to 2 percent of all convictions in the United States – are wrongfully convicted every year for crimes they did not commit. The reexamination of these cases has led to more exonerations. 

The topic of wrongful imprisonment has gained national notoriety with the podcast Serial, a spinoff of the radio program This American Life. Wayne State University criminal justice professor Marvin Zalman will explore wrongful convictions in the U.S. on Jan. 28 at Midtown’s Seva Restaurant during WSU’s popular speaker series, Knowledge on Tap. Seva is located at 66 E. Forest Ave.

Released in October 2014, Serial has been downloaded more than 5 million times and explores, over multiple episodes, the 1999 Baltimore murder of high school student Hae Min Lee. Her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, was charged with the crime and found guilty. He’s spent the past 16 years in prison. Through 12 episodes, Serial host Sarah Koenig shines a light on Syed’s case and asks the question: Did he do it?

Zalman came to Wayne State in 1980 as chair of the then new Department of Criminal Justice. Prior to that, he taught at the Criminal Justice Department at Michigan State University and in the law faculty at Ahmadu Bello University in northern Nigeria. For the last decade he studied many facets of wrongful conviction and has published eight research articles, five research chapters, six review chapters and encyclopedia articles, an annotated bibliography, and co-edited an anthology on this fast-growing subject.   

Knowledge on Tap consists of live — and lively — discussions with some of Detroit’s greatest minds. The events, held bimonthly at various Midtown restaurants and bars, feature an informal presentation by a distinguished Wayne State faculty member on a topic of their choice, followed by dynamic conversation.

All Knowledge on Tap events are free, open to the public — all ages welcome — and require no educational background. For more information or to RSVP, visit the WSU events calendar.