Three innocent teenagers. One coerced lie. Thirty-six years stolen.On November 18, 1983, a 14-year-old boy was murdered inside a Baltimore middle school. Within days, police arrested three teens-Alfred Chestnut, Andrew Stewart, and Ransom Watkins-and built their case on a foundation that would crumble decades later: the testimony of frightened children who were threatened, manipulated, and forced to identify the wrong suspects.They entered prison at sixteen. They walked out at fifty-two.This is the untold story of how a desperate rush for justice became a catastrophic miscarriage of it. How Detective Donald Kincaid coerced child witnesses with threats of prosecution. How prosecutors buried evidence pointing to the real killer. How a jury deliberated for just three hours before sentencing three innocent boys to die behind bars.But this is also a story of unbreakable resilience. Of a mother who kept a receipt that prosecutors ignored. Of witnesses who finally found the courage to recant, risking everything to tell the truth. Of families who visited prison for 36 years, never doubting their loved ones' innocence. And of three men who refused to confess to a crime they didn't commit, even when a false confession might have earned them freedom.The longest-serving wrongfully convicted inmates in American history. A $48 million settlement that can never restore what was taken. A system that still resists admitting its mistakes.From the hallways of Harlem Park Junior High to the concrete cells where innocence went to die, from coerced interrogation rooms to the moment a judge finally said "I apologize"-this deeply researched investigation exposes how easily justice fails when we prioritize convictions over truth.If you believe the system protects the innocent, this book will shatter that faith. If you've lost faith in justice, this book will show you why-and what must change.A true story more devastating than fiction, more urgent than headlines, more important than comfortable lies.Based on extensive court records, investigative reports, and the documentary that exposed this injustice to the world