One reason why you may be interested in post-conviction relief is if you believe you have been falsely convicted. You firmly believe you did nothing wrong, but you have been convicted anyway. You may want to look into your right to appeal that decision and take other steps to address the conviction, which is going to have a dramatic impact on your future.
Some studies have found that the top reason for false convictions is an eyewitness mistake or misidentification. For example, perhaps you were nowhere near the scene of a certain crime, but an eyewitness picked you out and said you were the perpetrator. The eyewitness does not seem to be lying, but you know that they have made a critical mistake and wrongly identified you. Why would this happen?
Memory issues
There are many different reasons why this can happen. Maybe you simply look similar to the actual perpetrator, and the eyewitness made a mistake. Maybe they did not actually have a very good view of what happened.
In many cases, the problem is simply that the eyewitness misremembers the events that took place. This could happen because human memory often changes. In fact, there is some evidence that the brain can slightly change or alter memories every time they come up. Therefore, an eyewitness who has been specifically thinking about the case could have inadvertently altered their own memories numerous times, leading to a false conviction where they believe they saw you at the scene of the crime, even though you were never there.
In a situation like this, you need to understand what legal options you have to seek post-conviction relief. It can help to work with an experienced law firm at this time.