Opinion

Five teenagers. Recanted confessions. Convicted. Sound familiar?

Phoebe Zerwick is the author of “Beyond Innocence: The Life Sentence of Darryl Hunt” and director of the journalism program at Wake Forest University.

On a Tuesday afternoon in November 2002, police in Winston-Salem, N.C., picked up five teenagers, all suspects in a brutal attack that resulted in the death of Nathaniel “Papa” Jones, a 61-year-old service-station owner who lived in their neighborhood.