~~~WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS AND OUR JUDICIAL SYSTEM~~~
Perjury, faulty eyewitness identification, and prosecutorial misconduct are the leading reasons for wrongful convictions. There have been about 873 faulty convictions in the past 23 years that have been recognized by prosecutors, judges or governors.
The numbers, which do not include many cases in which innocent suspects plead guilty to avoid the risk of more serious punishments or cases that have been dismissed because of legal error without new evidence of innocence, represent only a fraction of the problem in the nation's criminal justice system.
What this shows is that the criminal justice system makes mistakes, and they are more common than people think. It is not the rule, but we won't learn to get better unless we pay attention to these cases. The overwhelming majority of convicted defendants are guilty. Most never dispute their guilt and few ever present substantial post-conviction evidence of innocence. When that does happen, however, it should be taken seriously. We cannot prevent all false convictions, but we must not compound these tragedies by stubbornness or arrogance or, worst of all, indifference.
Of the 416 homicide exonerations, 64% were attributed, at least in part, to perjury or false accusation. Official misconduct by either prosecutors or police, including the withholding of evidence favorable to the suspect, was a contributor in 56% of the cases.
•In the registry's 203 sexual assault cases, 80% involved mistaken eyewitness identification.
•Faulty witness identification was a factor in 81% of 47 robbery cases
Much of the misconduct involved the failure to disclose information or evidence that might have been helpful to the defendants. Wrongful convictions represent our worst nightmare. One is one too many.
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