"At the Sundance Film Festival, viewers leaped to their feet, many in tears, at the end of the first screening."

--Sharon Waxman, NEW YORK TIMES

From an Online Review (as posted):

"to put it simply, this film is a STUNNING jaw-dropper. it is by far one of the best films i have seen in decades, not because of great film-making techniques, but simply because of its incredibly powerful content. highly worth your time to see the how and why our (U.S.) justice system so consistently malfunctions and to see the wide swath of lives it ravages in the process.

but this is a truly hopeful film, as it shows many exonerees who, after being freed, have risen above the horrors of being imprisoned for 10, 20 years for committing no crime at all; and it shows many of those in the innocence project who make enormous sacrifices of time, effort, and money to save innocent people from the hell of unjust imprisonment and death"

From another New York Times Review by Stephen Holden:

"Calm, deliberate and devastating, Jessica Sanders's documentary "After Innocence" confirms many of the worst fears about weaknesses in the American criminal-justice system. In examining the cases of seven men wrongly convicted of murder and rape and exonerated years later by DNA evidence, the film reinforces the queasy feelings you have while following high-profile criminal trials.

The pursuit of justice in those cases often seems secondary to the drama of competing lawyers and to the ferocious desire of prosecutors to win at costs and protect their reputations. Like many of us, judges, lawyers and prosecutors may often out of their way to avoid admitting mistakes."

Winner of the Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize in 2005