Conviction

Wallace brings the case of a death-row inmate, Earl Slavitt, to the CIU. Earl was convicted of murdering federal prosecutor Tom Simon, one of Wallace’s best friends. Simon did not believe in the death penalty, and Wallace, along with Simon’s widow, want to ensure that Earl did in fact commit the crime. With only days left before the execution, the CIU team shifts into high gear, looking for possible errors in the case.

CIU revisits the case of Sierra Macy, a teenage girl who was kidnapped ten years ago and assumed dead—until she manages to escape her captor’s home after he suffers a heart attack and dies.

The next case Hayes accepts for the CIU is that of Leo Scarlata, a man with diminished mental capacities, imprisoned for burning down his family’s restaurant with fatal repercussions. Hayes realizes she may have taken on more than she bargained for, especially when a documentary crew approved by Wallace begins following the team.

The accidental death of a young African American boy, shot by a cop, sparks a racial firestorm and inspires Hayes to re-examine the controversial case of Porscha Williams. Williams, a devoted African-American civil-rights activist and leader, is serving time for killing a white female cop at a race equality rally five years ago.

Hayes launches into damage-control mode following her controversial nationally televised interview, seeking to limit the repercussions within her family and to her mother's Senate campaign. Meanwhile, the CIU takes on the case of a young man from the wrong side of the tracks, convicted for killing a wealthy woman whose privileged family took him in and treated him as one of their own.

Hayes and the team tackle the case of a mother convicted in the death of her autistic son.

The CIU team tries to exonerate a political activist with suspect views who is serving a life sentence for bombing a mosque and killing an influential Imam and three followers.

Wallace's career-making case is reexamined by CIU team, but there are unforeseen complexities in this rape and robbery case, and the woman at the center of the crime becomes victimized again, this time by the press.

Hayes Morrison needs to dig herself out of what could be a publicly embarrassing situation. She makes a clandestine deal with her adversary, Conner Wallace, to take on the Conviction Integrity Unit and justice system in order to save face for herself and her family. The first case Hayes pushes her team to consider is that of Odell Dwyer, a handsome former high school football player who has been in prison for eight years for murdering his girlfriend.