Stranger than fiction

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was of course the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, but what is perhaps less well known is that he took an interest in intervening in real life cases using Holmes's methods to show that a miscarriage of justice had taken place.  Perhaps the best known of these (because a book was written about it) was the case of Oscar Slater, who had spent 16 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, but round our way he is best known for intervening in the case of George Edalji. This was in the late 1800s when just having a name like Edalji was enough to arouse suspicions that you must be a "wrong 'un", so when a series of local horse maimings took place, Edalji quickly became prime suspect. and he was tried and convicted.  Enter Conan Doyle who soon established that Edalji could not have committed the offences and he was subsequently pardoned.