There’s a saying in journalism: “If it bleeds, it leads.” The adage’s lesson being that real stories of crime and violence will always attract the most reader attention. And while the phrase itself is relatively new (its earliest references seem to date back to the 1980s), its sentiment is almost as old as mass media. Practically since the dawn of newspapers and mass printed books, readers have delighted in savoring true crime. In fact, some have even claimed that true crime was the fastest growing literary genre of the twentieth century. And while it’s been nearly fifty years since the genre’s most acclaimed entry (In Cold Blood by Truman Capote) and just over four decades since the publication of its biggest seller (Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi), true crime is still going strong.

From the surprising success of last fall’s “Serial” podcast (which explored one murder case from 1999 across ten weekly episodes) to HBO’s just-wrapped “The Jinx” (a documentary miniseries about infamous and wealthy repeat murder suspect Robert Durst) and next month’s “True Story” (a film adaptation of journalist Michael Finkel’s memoir of the same name about a murderer who used Finkel’s name while on the run and the relationship the two developed after he was caught), true crime is more popular and prevalent in media than ever.

While there’s still the salacious satisfaction that comes with true crime tales, there are also legal ramifications. Last month, Adnan Syed, the convicted murder at the center of “Serial” was granted the right to appeal his case, which received renewed public interest due to the podcast’s popularity. Syed’s attempt to appeal was already in motion before the arrival of “Serial” but the podcast helped generate support for Syed — both publically and financially. This isn’t the first time that a true crime entry led to judicial proceedings, in either criminal or civil court. Here are five prime examples of when true crime created courtroom commotion.

“The Thin Blue Line” (1988)

This 1988 award-winning film made documentarian/private investigator Errol Morris a star and saved an innocent man from death row. “The Thin Blue Line” centers on the 1976 murder of Dallas police officer Robert Wood and presents the stories of two men: Randall Adams, who was convicted of the murder, and David Harris, who accused Adams of the crime when interviewed by police. The film itself is a thrilling tale detailing an obvious miscarriage of justice that ends with Harris (who at the time of the filming was already on death row for an unrelated murder) admitting to Morris that Adams was innocent. Morris’s film raised awareness of the Adams case while his investigation found evidence of perjury, which was grounds for an appeal and led to an eventual overturned conviction. When Adams was released from prison, he sued Morris to regain exclusive control of the rights to his life story.

Fatal Vision, by Joe McGinniss

No single case has probably generated more quality standalone volumes in true crime than that of Jeffery MacDonald. MacDonald was an Army doctor whose pregnant wife and two daughters were murdered in their home in 1970. According to MacDonald, Manson-like hippies attacked him and his family. After a military court failed to make the charges stick, MacDonald returned to civilian life but was eventually indicted in 1974. Then, following a lengthy appeals process over the sixth amendment that went all the way to the Supreme Court, he was tried and convicted of the murders in 1979. Before the trial, MacDonald had granted nearly unrestricted access to writer Joe McGinniss in the hopes that McGinniss would write a sympathetic book that argued his innocence. The result was 1983's Fatal Vision, which squarely pointed the finger at MacDonald and was adapted into a TV movie. In 1987, MacDonald sued McGinniss for fraud and, after a mistrial, they settled out of court. The dispute between them was the subject of Janet Malcolm’s 1990 classic nonfiction media meditation, The Journalist and the Murderer. In 2012, Errol Morris (yes, that Errol Morris) published his own investigation into the MacDonald case, A Wilderness of Error, and argued in favor of MacDonald’s innocence.

Echoes in the Darkness, by Joseph Wambaugh

One of the more convoluted and shocking cases to be written about in modern true crime, Joseph Wambaugh’s 1987 Echoes in the Darkness (and the TV miniseries adapted from it) centers on the 1979 disappearance of Pennsylvania school teacher Susan Reinert and her two children. Reinert’s body was found in the trunk of her car but her children remain missing to this day and are presumed dead. Authorities eventually arrested and convicted Reinert’s fellow teacher (and reported lover) William Bradfield and her eccentric boss, Principal Jay C. Smith. Smith’s conviction was overturned in 1992 (after he’d spent six years on death row). Following his release, Smith sued Wambaugh and accused the author of paying the police’s lead investigator $50,000 to arrest him. Wambaugh has reportedly never denied the allegation and even supposedly once said in a deposition that he “didn’t think the book would work until something happened to Smith.” Wambuagh still alleges that Smith was involved in the crime and even wrote in an e-mail to The New York Times upon Smith’s death: “I do not celebrate the death of any man, but Satan does … A No. 1 draft pick has finally arrived.”

“Bernie” (2011)

In 1996, funeral director/mortician Bernie Tiede shot his wealthy companion Marge Nugent to death in their hometown of Carthage, Texas. He then hid the body for nearly ten months while he spent Nugent’s money before getting caught and confessing. Tiede’s beloved reputation among the people of Carthage, as well as Nugent’s opposite standing, led many of the townspeople to pressure the District Attorney to “go light” on Tiede even though he was guilty. The odd public sentiment in support of a murderer, especially in Texas, was the basis for a Texas Monthly article by renowned journalist Skip Hollandsworth in 1998. The article was then adapted by Hollandsworth and “Boyhood” director Richard Linklater into the 2011 black comedy “Bernie,” starring Jack Black as Tiede. After a screening of the film, an attorney in the audience approached Linklater about helping Tiede and eventually filed a successful appeal for a reduced sentence citing the previously unrevealed fact that Tiede had been sexually abused as a child. The court agreed with the appeal and Tiede was released on bond in May 2014 to await a formally reduced sentence. He currently lives in the Linklater’s garage apartment.

“Paradise Lost Trilogy” (1996, 2000, 2011)/Devil’s Knot, by Mara Leveritt

Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr., and Jason Baldwin were convicted of the 1993 murders of three eight-year-old boys in the woods surrounding West Memphis, Arkansas. The case was notorious for its lack of physical evidence and assentation by authorities that the boys were killed by Echols, Misskelley, and Baldwin as part of a satanic ritual. They were convicted and Misskelley and Baldwin were sentenced to life, while Echols was sentenced to death. The case was first covered by the 1996 documentary “Paradise Lost,” which gained sequels in 2000 and 2011. In 2002, Mara Leveritt published Devil’s Knot, which detailed the case and argued for the West Memphis Three’s innocence (a feature film adaption directed by Atom Egoyan and starring Reese Witherspoon was released in 2013). More documentaries and books followed, creating more public pressure and fueling more appeals, which found an astounding amount of physical evidence in favor of their innocence, and in 2011 the West Memphis Three reached a plea agreement with prosecutors that granted their release from prison. They served over eighteen years.

This article originally appeared on Word & Film.