Examples Of Wrongful Convictions

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Jake Thomas
PHIL 460
11/17/16
Wrongful Convictions For many years our justice system has over-looked the fact that sometimes they produce erroneous convictions. The system believes they are more likely to release guilty individuals than to convict innocent ones because defendants are recognized as innocent until proven guilty. However, as much as we’d like to believe this, recent studies have lead researchers to a different conclusion. The conclusion they’ve come to is that there are far more innocent people behind bars than ever imagined. The reason that this is so, can be attributed to several different factors. These factors are witness error, police or prosecutorial misconduct, false confessions, use of informants, ineffective defense counsel, forensic errors, and plea bargaining. (Free and Ruesink, 2012) Witness error is one of the more commonly found factors that contribute to wrongful convictions. Although most witness error is not deliberate, misidentification is more …show more content…
The earliest innocence project was founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld at Yeshiva University’s School of Law. According to the innocence projects various research over the years, (as cited by Free and Ruesink, 2012) witness error accounts for 78.6% of wrongful convictions, police or prosecutorial misconduct represents 42%, 59.5% was attributed to false confessions, 15% was due to the use of informants, and 27% was associated with ineffective defense counsel. Even though most of the data gathered is inconclusive, it still gives interested parties a glimpse into the problems of the justice system. The work done by the Innocence Project has significantly increased the understanding of the problems that lead to wrongful convictions and what needs to be done to assist in the exoneration of wrongfully convicted defendants. (Free and Ruesink,

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stand, allowing unreliable witnesses to testify, intentionally destroying evidence, and depending on forensic experts that are not accredited and credible (Brandeis University, n.d.). Police misconduct causes wrongful convictions. Law enforcement officers commit perjury in wrongful conviction cases. Some of the misconduct by police officers are filing false police reports, defining…

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In chapter 13 of Examining Wrongful Conviction: Stepping Back, Moving Forward; Judicial Review: Appeals and Post-Conviction proceeding’s, our Nancy J. King examines the forms of major judicial review after conviction and how they provide “at best an incomplete remedy for individuals convicted of crimes they did not commit.” (Pg. ???). Consequently, king examines why these incomplete solutions, that where put in place in order to prevent individuals convicted of crimes they did not commit, where…

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appropriate punishment. "According to the Center for Prosecutor Integrity, multiple studies over the past 50 years show that courts punished prosecutorial misconduct in less than two percent of cases where it occurred" (The New York Times). That is one example why this is an issue in the justice system. The people that are greatly effected by this problem are the people that are…

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just is it? Many scholars among scholars agree, there are prevalent issues within the backbone of our country. There are countless issues, however, the seemingly more pressing ones are rehabilitation compared to punishment, racial prejudice, and wrongful incarceration. Rehabilitation in comparison to punishment has been a discussion topic for several years. The discussion encompasses the true objective of incarceration. As always, if applicable, a judge will decide what is best for the specific…

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