Despite Wrongful Convictions, Securing Freedom Isn't So Easy

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In 1983, Victor Rosario was convicted of setting fire to a building in Lowell, Massachusetts — a fire that claimed eight lives, and he was given eight concurrent life sentences.

Despite having signed a confession, which was taken after hours of interrogation with the use of a translator, Victor Rosario maintained his innocence. Thirty years later, after several failed challenges ,Rosario caught a break when a trial judge agreed to hear his appeal. Two years later, in 2014, that judge set him free.

Victor Rosario's story is the subject of this week's Case In Point from The Marshall Project and, as Andrew Cohen explains, Rosario's freedom hinges on a standard that exists in Massachusetts, where courts must consider a "confluence of factors" when reviewing a case.