In December 2018 in Tomahawk, Wisconsin, Michael Hirn walked out of McNaughton Correctional Center-- the last of the many prisons in which he has been incarcerated since 1995.
Hirn is the third of six men, convicted of killing a co-worker at a paper mill company in Green Bay, to be released from prison. Over the course of the last 23 years, none of the six have ever admitted guilt and all continue to declare their innocence. Although Hirn has been released, he is technically still a convicted killer, and he and the other men are determined to continue fighting that label, insisting they were all wrongfully convicted.
The Reporters Inc.'s cameras were rolling as Hirn was released, and we then accompanied (exclusively) Hirn and some of his family and friends to a nearby restaurant where he ate his first meal as a free man.
The Reporters Inc. is profiling this case as part of an upcoming documentary series about wrongful convictions. For more information:thereporters.org/project/innocentconvicts/