WHAT IS A WRONGFUL CONVICTION?
A conviction of a person accused of a crime which, in the result of subsequent investigation, proves erroneous. Persons who are in fact innocent but who have been wrongly convicted by a jury or other court of law.
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A wrongful conviction not only devastates the innocent person and their loved ones; it diminishes the integrity of the justice system and harms the public good. ...
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Unvalidated Forensic Science
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False Confessions
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Snitch Testimony
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Police and Prosecutorial Misconduct
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Poor Defense Lawyers
"Various studies estimate that in the United States, between 2.3 and 5% of all prisoners are innocent."
One study estimated that up to 10,000 people may be wrongfully convicted of serious crimes each year.
SEVEN MOST COMMON CAUSES OF A WRONGFUL CONVICTION
Cultural consequences
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During the time of a miscarriage of justice and its correction, the public holds false beliefs about the occurrence of a crime, the perpetrator of a crime, or both. While the public audience of a miscarriage of justice varies, they may in some cases be as large as an entire nation or multitude of nations. This misinterpretation ostracizes prisoners and their devoted family members!
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The news-consuming public may develop a false belief about the nature of crime itself. It may also cause the public to falsely believe that certain types of crime exist, or that certain types of people tend to commit these crimes. Thus, wrongful convictions can ultimately mold a society's popular beliefs about crime. Because our understanding of crime is socially constructed, it has been shaped by many factors other than the actual truth.
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Mass media may also be faulted for distorting the public perception of crime by over-representing certain races and genders as criminals and victims. The way a media presents crime-related issues may have an influence not only on a society's fear of crime but also on its beliefs about the causes of criminal behavior and desirability of one or another approach to crime control.