Wrongful Conviction Essay

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Running Head: Wrongly Convicted Wrongly Convicted - The Innocent are Finally Free XXXX XXXX University Professor XXXX XXXX XXXXX X, 2011 Too many people have served time in prison for crimes they did not commit. What can we do as citizens to help change the criminal justice system which have caused these inexcusable errors and destroyed the lives and future of innocent people? Here, you will find an overview of prisoners who were falsely accused for crimes they did not commit; why wrongful convictions occur and what can be done to stop them. “A study conducted by judges, prosecuting attorneys, public defenders, sheriffs and police suggests that about 10,000 people in the United States may be wrongfully convicted of serious crimes each year” (http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/ronhuff.htm). Here are the statics: “Since 1989 when the first DNA exoneration occurred, 328 defendants have been exonerated in the United States after being convicted of serious crimes such as rape and murder. The exonerated were 316 men and 12 women; 145 of them were cleared by DNA identification and 183 by other kinds of evidence” (http://www.ur.umich.edu/0304/May10_04/25.shtml). What went wrong? * Eyewitness Misidentification * Improper Forensic Science * False Confessions * Overzealousness/Public Pressure Eyewitness Misidentification Imagine being a victim so frighten and traumatized after such a hideous unimaginable experience. It can be hard, almost impossible to accurately describe the assailant. The main focus is to stay alive and do what you can to get away from the attacker. Eyewitnesses can also find it difficult to give a precise account of what took place and provide a detail description of the person(s) involved. They can be just as frighten. No one is ever prepared for situations like this and it is so easy for
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