After Innocence

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

Powerfully explores the struggles faced by those whom DNA testing has exonerated after years behind bars.

Village Voice Jennifer Gonnerman

Both riveting and disturbing.

The New York Times 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.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

The moral purity of After Innocence is so overwhelming that it simply leaves you with nothing to say or do. It's kind of beyond criticism.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

What emerges from these stories is a picture of the fallibility of the system and the vulnerability of innocent citizens, whom even scientific evidence cannot protect from incompetence, ego and prejudice, and of the courage of the exonerated victims to make meaning of their tragedies.

Film Threat Jeremy Mathews

Jessica Sanders has observed a collection of lives dramatically altered by a flawed legal system.

Variety Scott Foundas

A powerfully affecting documentary.

Dallas Observer Melissa Levine

One of the powerful things about After Innocence is that, no matter what your position on punitive justice, you can't argue with the film's position.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

There's also a little something smarmy about the interactions between the lawyers and their clients, all of whom are poor.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Gut-wrenching.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

After Innocence isn't bravura filmmaking, and it doesn't have to be -- this is one of those documentaries where the subject is compelling enough to do the legwork.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

The embittered men make fascinating subjects.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

In her clear and compelling film, Sanders lets the innocents do the talking.

The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden

Puts a human face on the failings of the American judicial system and the growing importance of DNA in legal proceedings.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Rousing, quietly outraged documentary.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Exploring the lives of several wrongly convicted men exonerated by DNA evidence, the documentary After Innocence makes a reasonable case that compensation is due them.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Though Jessica Sanders' rambling documentary about the damaged lives of wrongfully imprisoned men would have made a better subject for an hour-long "Dateline" special, it's still a powerful indictment of a judicial system too anxious to close cases, and then close ranks when someone tries to reopen them.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

Taylor does her cause no real favors by trotting out only the most articulate, most clearly railroaded exonerees. It should be just as chilling to learn that even the shady get screwed.