UP TO DATE FACTS AND INFO ON WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS

CAUSES OF WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS

  Since DNA testing opened our eyes to wrongful convictions, many others causes of wrongly convicted cases has overflowed

 and we now see the failure of our system.

We should become more aware of our systems failures. Since DNA has shown us innocence other causes of wrongful

 conviction have been detected like misconduct, race, forced confessions, the desire for closure ,in some cases.social 

classes,and many other reasons. 

Justice seems to be misdefined these days. To convict someone for a crime isnt enough ..You must convict ,the right 

person. 
             THESE LINKS WILL TAKE YOU TO THE INNOCENCE PROJECT WEBSITE
Here is 7 most common causes of wrongful convictions:

http://www.innocenceproject.org/understand/Unreliable-Limited-Science.php
http://www.innocenceproject.org/understand/Eyewitness-Misidentification.php
http://www.innocenceproject.org/understand/False-Confessions.php
http://www.innocenceproject.org/understand/Government-Misconduct.php
http://www.innocenceproject.org/understand/Snitches-Informants.php
http://www.innocenceproject.org/understand/Bad-Lawyering.php

BACKGROUND ON WRONGFUL IMPRISONMENT

You probably been taught that our justice system uses the notion that person is ‘innocent until proven guilty’. As Americans, we pride ourselves on our commitment to justice. However, as technology has improved in forensic science, people have begun to realize that our system is more flawed than we hoped.

People are wrongfully imprisoned – even wrongfully put on death row – at astounding rates, which strips innocent people of their basic human rights – freedom, autonomy, dignity. Over 400 people have been exonerated by proving their innocence through DNA testing.

You may wonder why so many people are wrongfully imprisoned. Here are a few of the most common causes.

Causes of Wrongful Imprisonment

Eyewitness Misidentification

Eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide, playing a role in more than 75% of convictions overturned through DNA testing.

Unreliable or Limited Science

The arrival of DNA evidence in American courtrooms in the late 1980s and 1990s changed the criminal justice system forever. The widely accepted strength of DNA testing has led experts to call into question the reliability of other forms of forensics. Where these older forms of forensic science could indicate that someone might have committed a crime, DNA can show whether someone is actually guilty or innocent.

False Confessions

In more than 25% of DNA exoneration cases, innocent defendants made incriminating statements, delivered outright confessions or pled guilty.

These cases show that confessions are not always prompted by internal knowledge or actual guilt, but are sometimes motivated by external influences.

Forensic Science Fraud or Misconduct

Because forensic science results can mean the difference between life and death in many cases, fraud and other types of misconduct in the field are particularly troubling. False testimony, exaggerated statistics and laboratory fraud have led to wrongful conviction in several states.

Since forensic evidence is offered by "experts," jurors routinely give it much more weight than other evidence. But when misconduct occurs, the weight is misplaced. In some instances, labs or their personnel are too closely tied to police and prosecutors, and cannot therefore be considered impartial. Other times, a criminalist lacking the requisite knowledge embellishes findings, confident that he will not be caught since the lawyer, judge, and jury have no background in the relevant science.

Government Misconduct

Some wrongful convictions are caused by honest mistakes. In some cases, however, officials take steps to ensure that a defendant is convicted despite weak evidence or even clear proof of innocence.

The cases of wrongful convictions uncovered by DNA testing are replete with evidence of fraud or misconduct by prosecutors or police departments.

Informants or Snitches

In more than 15% of cases of wrongful conviction overturned by DNA testing, an informant or "jailhouse snitch" testified against the defendant. Often, statements from people with incentives to testify – particularly incentives that are not disclosed to the jury – are the central evidence in convicting an innocent person.

Bad Lawyering

The resources of the justice system are often stacked against poor defendants. Matters only become worse when a person is represented by an ineffective, incompetent or overburdened defense lawyer. The failure of overworked lawyers to investigate properly, call witnesses or prepare for trial has led to the conviction of innocent people. When a defense lawyer doesn't do his or her job, the defendant suffers. Shrinking funds and limited access to resources for public defenders and court-appointed attorneys is only making the problem worse.

This list does not cover all the cases, nor does it cover all the causes for wrongful imprisonment. In many circumstances, combinations of many such causes resulted in the mistakes.

Below is a chart from The Innocence Project summarizing the largest factors of wrongful imprisonment based on data from the first 130 DNA exonerations.

Sources 
innocenceproject.org

FACTS :

In the U.S., 303 people have been found innocent through DNA testing after conviction of a crime (DNA exoneration).

1. The first person to be found innocent through DNA testing was in 1989. Since then, exonerations have occurred in 36 U.S. states.
2. 18 of the 303 people exonerated through DNA served time on death row. Another 16 of the innocent were charged with capital crimes, but not sentenced to death.
3. The average length of time served by exonerees is 13.6 years. Innocent prisoners have served a total of 4,041 combined years behind bars.
4. The average age of persons wrongfully convicted is 27.
5. There have been tens of thousands of cases since the inception of DNA exoneration where prime suspects were identified and pursued until DNA testing proved their innocence.
6. Wrongful convictions are caused by false confessions and incriminating statements 25 percent of the time. In fact, 28 of the 303 wrongfully imprisoned pled guilty to crimes that they didn’t commit.
7. 50 percent of the wrongful imprisonments were due to unvalidated or improper forensic science. They were later overturned by DNA testing.
8. The leading cause of wrongful convictions was Eyewitness Misidentification Testimony.
9. Of the 303 exonerees, 188 were African Americans, 86 were Caucasian, 21 were Latino, 2 were Asian American, and 6 are racially unidentified.  
10. In 147 of the wrongful imprisonment cases, the actual suspects have been identified.