One study done by the Michigan Innocence Clinic found that between 2.3-5% of all inmates in the United States were wrongfully convicted. This means that about 10,000 people may be wrongfully convicted of serious crimes each year. But how could an innocent individual end up incarcerated?
Eyewitness Misidentification and False Confessions - Eyewitness misidentification his is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide. This is due to the fact that there are flaws with a witness’ memory that can consequently make someone who’s innocent appear guilty. Like any other types of evidence, eyewitness testimony must be carefully evaluated and preserved. Unfortunately, Many investigators fail to do this and as a result they allow many false confessions to appear credible. In many cases, innocent defendants made incriminating statements, delivered outright confessions, or plead guilty even though they’re innocent.
Government Misconduct and Bad Lawyering - In some cases, government officials take steps to ensure that a defendant is convicted despite weak evidence or clear evidence that proves their innocence. They may do this through bribes. While it is not common, lawyers are also capable of purposefully presenting a bad case so that their client is found guilty. This may be because a lawyer is overworked or because they have failed to prepare for trial.
Because so many people are wrongfully convicted all the time, I believe it is important to find the root of why that is happening and try to decrease the frequency at which it happens. The central park five immediately come to mind when discussing wrongful convictions. The central park five were pressured by police officers to give false confessions and detectives knew the evidence was weak: like when the semen in the sock didn't match any of the accused boys. This also reminds me of a Netflix limited series that I recently started watching called Unbelievable. Unbelievable is based off of true events and tells the story of a girl who is accused of lying about being raped. In the series, the police pressure the young girl into saying that she made up the rape. When the girl attempts to change her statement about lying and tell the truth about her rape, the police threaten to arrest her for giving a false statement. Identifying the sources of injustice in our system will aid in increasing justice in the future.
ReplyDeleteNot only are all of the points you stated reasoning behind wrongful convictions, but I believe that jury selection is also a key role. Jurors can often be prejudice, especially based off of location or their personal experiences. For instance, since the OJ jurors were mainly black and in Los Angeles where the LAPD were already doubted, it was easy for them to believe that the police could plant evidence. On the other hand, Nick Hillary knew that the public opinion was so negative against him and that any juror would convict him, so he opted for a judge instead.
ReplyDeleteI do not like how lawyers are able to pick the jury because in my opinion that takes away the point of the trial. Sure some have to have no to little knowledge, depending on what the case is about, however, by lawyers being able to select some of the jury, it takes away from the case being fair.
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