EXCLUSIVE - CATHERINE LEGGE & MARIA SHEPPERD on THE MURDER THAT NEVER HAPPENED documentary

A wrongful conviction is one of the worst things that can happen to a person. It means spending long years in prison with a life wasted and dreams shattered for something that the person didn't do. In some countries it can even mean losing a life for a crime that the person did not commit. It is one of the most horrible forms of injustice and is even worse when this happens in a democratic society that has and respects laws. The Murder that Never Happened is an upcoming documentary directed and produced by Catherine Legge and in which Maria Shepherd, a wrongfully convicted and now licensed paralegal also worked on and contributed to. In this episode of LAW BREAK, I had an exclusive interview with both Maria and Catherine to talk about the upcoming documentary. The Murder that Never Happened touches on the story of Jimmy Duncan, a person on death row in Louisiana in the US. Catherine Legge is, among many things, a Canadian journalist, director and producer. Catherine has been making documentaries that challenge the traditional for nearly 30 years. She’s a 3 time Canadian Screen award winner and 5 time Gemini Award winner for directing, show-running, writing documentaries and docu-series from investigative, to justice, to comedy. She’s worked with CBC, CTV, Bell, History, Discovery, Rogers, documentary channel, Prime Video, CW Network and Hollywood Suites. Catherine’s documentaries include Billion Dollar Caribou (2013) Met While Incarcerated (2018) The Unsolved Murder of Beverly Lynn Smith (Prime Video, 2021), they’ve been featured at HOT DOCS, the Hamilton Film Festival and LA FEMME film festival and have been distributed around the world. Maria Shepherd was wrongfully convicted of manslaughter after her stepdaughter, Kasandra, died from a series of seizures after a lengthy illness. The case rested on Charles Smith’s flawed autopsy, which wrongly suggested abuse. Fearing the loss of her children and pressured by Smith’s flawed findings, Maria pled guilty in 1992 and served eight months in prison while pregnant with her fourth child. Years later, reviews exposed Smith’s widespread errors, leading Innocence Canada to help clear Maria’s name. Maria is now a licensed paralegal I, Ontario, Canada, and is speaker and advocate for the wrongfully convicted. In this interview, I had the privilege to interview both Maria and Catherine about their upcoming work project, the documentary the Murder that Never Happened. We discuss the making of the documentary, the reason why it was made and many other issues about the subject of wrongful convictions. #wrongful #convictions #lawandorder #humanrights #crime #punishment #junkscience #wrongfullyconvicted