“Facing Life: The Retrial of Evan Zimmerman,” a new true-crime documentary involving the University of Wisconsin Innocence Project will be broadcast on the A&E cable television network on Monday, June 5 from 8-10 p.m. central time.
From the Innocence Project press release:
“Facing Life” documents Zimmerman’s decision to face the possibility of life in prison rather than accept an offer of freedom that would falsely brand him as a murderer.
When Zimmerman’s former girlfriend, Kathy Thompson, was strangled on her wedding night in February 2000, her husband had a perfect alibi – one that made Evan Zimmerman the perfect suspect. Although Zimmerman proclaimed his innocence and police had no physical evidence against him, Zimmerman was investigated, arrested, convicted, and sent to prison for life.
Three years later – with help from law students and professors at the University of Wisconsin Innocence Project – Zimmerman won a new trial on appeal, and with it a second chance to clear his name. But before the retrial, the prosecution offered him a deal – plead guilty to a lesser charge and go free.