Everything you need to know' about your next Netflix true crime obsession

The 2010s has been, by and large, the decade of true crime.

The genre has been brought to a whole new audience, first through podcasts like Serial and subsequently via TV documentaries such as Making a Murderer.

We’ve even seen the true crime mockumentary spring up, most notably in the form of American Vandal, but the next show on your list is a return to true crime in its truer form.

It is called The Innocent Man, and here’s everything you need to know about it. The below contains details of the case at the centre of the show, but this is only partly a spoiler warning because (a) it’s based on true events which have been reported on in detail and (b) if you wanted to go in completely cold you wouldn’t be reading.

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What’s it about?

The Innocent Man is about the 1982 rape and murder of cocktail waitress Debbie Carter in the town of Ada, Oklahoma, and the murder of Denice Haraway in the same small town two years later

Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz were convicted for their part in the death of Carter, with Williamson sent to death row and Fritz given a life sentence.

As you can probably guess from the title, both men were later cleared after DNA evidence was used to exonerate them, and the documentary looks at the events and convictions, as well as all that followed. 

Who is involved?

Author John Grisham, who wrote a non-fiction book on the Debbie Carter case in 2006 where he examined the toll an 11-year death row stay took on former minor league baseball player Williamson, features prominently in The Innocent Man.

It addresses the subject of false confessions and allegations of police corruption, something we saw come up in great detail with the convictions of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey in Making a Murderer.

The documentary is directed by Clay Tweel (Gleason, Out of Omaha) and written by Tweel and Ross M. Dinerstein.

How can I watch it?

The Innocent Man will arrive on Netflix from 14 December. You can watch the trailer below.

(Images: Netflix/Getty)