Fox Cities Book Festival: Connecting writers and readers across our diverse communities.

Joan Treppa is a wife, mother, social justice advocate for the wrongfully convicted, and award winning Minnesota author of, Reclaiming Lives: Pursuing Justice for Six Innocent Men. She champions for the release of the six men convicted in the 1992 death of paper mill worker Tom Monfils and has become a strong voice for their families whom she describes as the, collateral damage of wrongful convictions. My introduction to wrongful convictions came about when I read a book in 2009 called, The Monfils Conspiracy. It tells the tragic story of Keith Kutska, Dale Basten, Michael Hirn, Reynold Moore, Michael Johnson and exoneree Michael Piaskowski; six paper mill workers wrongfully convicted of murder in Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA, in 1995. Putting aside any conclusions I had of guilt or innocence, my initial impression was that they had been bullied, much like I was as a young girl. Although their experience was far worse than mine, their rights, like mine, had been violated. After delving into what seemed to be a bottomless pit of horrific details about the case, it became apparent these men were unfairly targeted despite evidence that clearly pointed to their innocence.