Having watched from the sidelines as programs like Serial and Making A Murderer ignited a ratings-summoning, TV-and-iPod-shaped passion for easily digestible justice in the American heart, ABC has announced that it’s developing its own show about the troubles and travails of the possibly wrongly accused. Conviction—which comes from Quantico production company Mark Gordon Co. and Jessica Jones producer Liz Friedman—will center on a spoiled socialite, forced to help convicted criminals plead their case for a second shot at justice.
Carter Morrison—original names: Waspy Wasperson, Blueblood Oldmoneyguts, Dolly Madison—is the daughter of a former president, “blackmailed” into working for a group that investigates the integrity of criminal convictions. (Nothing says “the truth will set you free” like a petulant Jenna Bush clone plying her legal craft.) Presumably, each episode will see her and her quirky team tackle another potential miscarriage of justice, turn over new facts, and then finish by saying, “Well, let’s wait eight months for the court to process the appeal,” as justice-hungry viewers patiently watch the slow gears of the legal system glacially begin to turn.