Name: 10 True Crime Documentaries That Actually Changed Laws
Uploaded: 2026-02-09T17:03:39.000Z
Duration: 14 min 10 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Nobody came to the door, nobody came to help me, came to my rescue or anything.

Adverbs of degree

And today we're looking at true crime documentaries so powerful and popular that they inspired either activists or policymakers to revise the law.

Their innocence never got the attention that their guilt did.

And I might be one of them people, I don't know.

Netflix users were captivated by the epic feud between an eccentric zoo owner and a big cat advocate.

Whatever Tiger King viewers thought about Joe Exotic's conviction for attempted murder for hire, everyone agreed that the cats caught in the middle deserved better.

When he was leaving, he said, check out what I just bought.

In the back of this guy's van was a snow leopard.

The three season docuseries raised awareness about the little known exotic animal trade industry and the risks it presented for both humans and big cats.

So in 2022, the US passed the big Cat Public Safety act to ban private ownership, breeding and novel contact with these creatures.

Violators could face a hefty fine or up to five years behind bars.

So at least some faith in humanity was restored after the world witnessed Tiger King.

We are thrilled to announce that today the Big Cat Public Safety act passed the Senate unanimously.

We start with breaking news in Madison tonight, where a body has been found in a waterfront home.

Police tonight are treating it as a homicide.

Madison Hamburg utilized his resources as a filmmaker to personally investigate his mother's murder.

Sadly, the case remains unsolved, but the docu series Murder on Middle beach still had an important impact.

The Madison Police Department denied producer Anika Niemeyer access to records related to the case on the grounds that an arrest was imminent.

I said, no, you're not telling me that it's not real.

When the Freedom of Information Commission made a limited order, the department's appeal went all the way to the Connecticut Supreme Court.

After almost four years with no arrest, the court ruled that the police must prove actionable progress in an investigation when withholding public records.

Hopefully this will help at least other people in Connecticut do their part in seeing justice done.

So hopefully this story can set an example and precedent for at least this state and eventually the country to re examine how law enforcement interacts with the family members of homicide victims.

It was inflammatory enough that they were afraid to run it while the whistleblowers were still in Russia.

So they Got them out of Russia, ran the program.

99% of Russian athletes are guilty of doping.

The crimes of a nation's government affected policy on a global scale.

But not before Icarus exposed rampant use of illegal performance enhancing substances among Russian athletes.

Ironically sponsored by the Moscow Anti Doping Laboratory, whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov's story prompted investigations that led to sanctions and the International Olympic Committee officially banning Russia.

Although Russian authorities have since confirmed that someone had interfered with the data handed over to investigators, the government continues to deny allegations of a state run program.

Her athletes have since had to represent neutral Olympic delegations with uniquely strict drug screenings.

Finally, the US passed the Rajenkov Anti Doping act in 2022.

This strengthened whistleblower protections within the sports industry and established penalties for doping conspiracies in any Games with American sponsorship.

Rajenkov has been in witness protection in the US Ever since he wrote book.

It's dangerous to write book in Russia time the Kalief Broder story they said most likely we're gonna let you go home.

Rikers Violent jail in the country look what it's doing.

There has long been debate about whether solitary confinement constitutes cruel and unusual punishment for adult prison inmates.

Never mind juveniles like Kalief Broder, whose brutal pretrial detainment at Rikers island was the subject of a six episode docuseries time.

The Caliph Broder story didn't just inspire a successful civil lawsuit over the deceased young man's treatment.

New York State passed Kalief's law in 2019 requiring the early production of crucial evidence to ensure speedier trials.

The state also restricted cash bails and prolonged solitary confinement before the latter practice was banned entirely in New York City jails.

This may only mark the beginning of greater judicial reform inspired by the tragedy shared by time.

And of course, we could not be here today.

And this law would not be on the books without Kalief Browder.

Kalief Browder the Keepers Basically, this story who killed Sister Kathy?

It's a 6,000 word monster review of the whole thing.

I would not ever hear the name Sister Kathy Sesnick until 1994 when the first stories began to emerge.

Father Anthony Joseph Mescal was stripped of his title over child abuse, with many believing he killed Sister Katherine Sesnick after she discovered him.

It would be another 16 years before the docuseries.

The Keepers prompted Maryland to take real action.

And the boil continues to swell and the people who were injured most deeply continue to struggle and suffer.

And the public continues to ask what happened.

The state legislature promptly approved an extension on the civil statute for survivors of sexual abuse in childhood.

The Child victims Act of 2023 later removed the statute altogether.

Although this was not a direct response to the Keepers, many of its participants pushed for the investigation, which confirmed the Baltimore Archdiocese's massive cover up.

Survivors taking a stand usually starts with demonstrating the public's readiness to listen to we are human beings who've been through a lot of trauma.

And finally, finally the court has recognized that Making a Murderer.

Even though there's no guarantee that Steven Avery will win this case, he says it's still worth going through the trial just to hold somebody accountable for taking 18 years of his life.

Netflix's first true crime docu series supercharged both the genre and scrutiny of its credibility.

Two seasons of Making a Murderer ultimately failed to clear Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey of homicide.

They did, however, inspire the public to question the methods by which the Wisconsin men were convicted.

You have to be careful when you bring a lawsuit against a sheriff's department in a community where you still live because you could end up getting charged with murder.

Experts linked this to the public pressure behind Colorado's law requiring full recordings of police interrogations for certain courts crimes.

Similar policies have since been proposed or enacted across the United States.

Making a Murderer remains popular in academic circles as both a representation of judicial failings and an example of biased journalism.

Whether Avery and Dassey are indeed guilty, the public agrees that it shouldn't be this hard to trust the system.

And so tonight we're going to take you to the place where it all unfolded to meet the central players and examine the evidence that the documentary left out.

He hit me across the left side of my face.

I remember holding the closet thinking, what just happened?

Little was known about the crisis of sexual assault and its denial within the US Military before the Invisible War.

Following the documentary's premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta was given a private screening and immediately ordered that these cases be handled by senior officers.

I had like a cold or pneumonia like symptoms and so they sent me to get checked out.

And while I was waiting to be examined, he came in and he helped himself.

The theatrical release coincided with the Marine Corps developing methods for cracking down on cultures of assault.

Finally, the 2013 US defense budget called for systematic protection, all thanks to the Invisible War.

Filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Zyrig continued this streak with 2015's the Hunting Ground, which influenced policies to hold universities accountable for sexual assaults on campus.

Though these tragedies remain rampant, acknowledging that can count for a lot.

I physically fought and got away and ran and then into the bathroom and like, I still remember just putting my hands on the sink and just looking at myself in the mirror shaking, like, what just happened?

Dear Zachary, a letter to a son about his father.

We came to the door and it was Jackie and Constable Water.

And I think, oh my gosh, somebody's with them now trying to tell him.

We went in and I told him and what I saw after that I will never forget in my life.

Kurt Cooney endured incredible anguish to tell the world about his friend Andrew Bagby.

After his ex girlfriend was charged with his murder, she was released on bail and took their child's life along with her own.

Koene thus decided to complete the documentary.