Wrongful Conviction

Shawshank’s Redemption, an all-time best movie produced in 1994 starred and led by actors Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. A story about two imprisoned men’s experience with the corrupted prison institution through their way of self-redemption. There is a line, which was well read by Morgan Freeman, I am particularly fond of. Here I quote ‘These walls are funny. First you hate them, then you get used to them. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That 's institutionalized.’ A prison should aim at retribution, incapacitation, deterrence and rehabilitation. I am very well convinced that prison has served its first three purposes by depriving offenders’ freedom, but the

In 1994, Congress passed the Truth-in-Sentencing Incentive Grants law. Truth-in-Sentencing laws were put into place to help reduce the possibility of an inmate being able to have early release from incarceration. Each state has their own policies, rules and regulations for inmate release. The truth-in-sentencing law requires that offenders serve the majority of their prison sentence imposed by the court in order to be eligible for release. Previous policies included reducing the amount of time the offender served on a sentence, such as good behavior, earn time, and the parole board made a decision to release an inmate. These policies were restricted or stopped when the truth-in-sentencing law came into effect. Abadinsky, Howard, Probation

In Michelle Alexander’s book, “The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness,” Alexander addresses a topic that many may not know is happing. Alexander addresses the racism towards people of color by using the legal system as a tool to legally segregate people of color as well as poor whites. Alexander touches upon the way politicians use the war on drugs as an excuse to build more jails to incarcerate poor people of color. She also talks about the way police use racial profiling.

Manufacturing Guilt Wrongful Convictions in Canada, Second Edition, is relevant to the course I am taking Social Inequity and Justice because, like my course this book discusses and examines sociological approaches to social inequity in regard to race and ethnicity and how it effects these groups and their lives. Manufacturing Guilt Wrongful Convictions in Canada, Second Edition is about innocent people that spend many years behind bars, wrongfully committed for crimes they did not commit. When someone is wrongfully convicted, they are being punished for an offence they did not commit and to make matters worse the actual perpetrator of the crime goes free. Many people that do get exonerated their applications take years in the federal review

Wrongful convictions are a problem that most government officials won’t admit. The United States and other countries such as Australia have been susceptible to these miscarriages of justice. This can arise from a snowball effect of scenarios such as witness misidentification, perjured testimonies, coercive methods of interrogation, prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective counsel. These are some of the reasons that can potentially lead innocent people to be convicted of crimes they did not commit. The thousands of exonerations in the United States has caused concern for other nations to reevaluate their criminal justice system. Australia being one of those nations has formed an agency call Australian Law Reform Commission, whose purpose is

In his book, Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson delves into the disconcerting issues of the United States’ extremely corrupt legal system and widespread, heartrending mass incarceration and extreme punishment. Stevenson’s eloquent writing style and captivating stories draw in readers and opens eyes to the recondite, yet extremely important issues with the criminal justice system.

With millions of criminal convictions a year, more than two million people may end up behind bars(Gross). According to Samuel Gross reporter for The Washington Post, writes that also “even one percent amounts to tens of thousands of tragic [wrongful conviction] errors”(Gross). Citizens who are wrongfully convicted are incarcerated for a crime he or she did not commit. Many police officers, prosecutors, and judges are responsible for the verdict that puts innocents into prison. To be able to get exonerated many wait over a decade just to get there case looked at, not many are able to have the opportunity of getting out. People plead guilty for crimes that are not committed by them to avoid trial, but by doing so the right decision wasn’t made.

The article “When Our Eyes Deceive US” speaks about the wrong decisions that can lead to a wrongful conviction. This particular article decided to focus on cases of wrongful convictions of sexual assault. The first case mentioned was that of the wrongful conviction of Timothy Cole. His victim positively identified him three times (twice in police lineups and one in person at the trial), he was exonerated by DNA testing. To the utmost misfortune, the real rapist had been confessing to the crime for nine years.

Law abiding citizens should not be wrongfully convicted of a crime that they did not commit. Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) was first used to aid a criminal investigation by Professor Jeffreys in 1986 for rapes/murders that occurred in the United Kingdom. The first DNA exoneration took place in 1989. Prior to DNA testing there were hundreds of wrongful convictions. Post DNA testing there has been a decrease in wrongful convictions, but they are still prevalent for various reasons including eye witness misidentification, improper forensic science, and incriminating statements. Regardless of the reason, wrongful convictions remove a part

The biggest issue within the Criminal Justice system is the large number of wrongful convictions, innocent people sentenced to die for crimes they did not commit. People are put in prison for years, even executed for false convictions. This affects not only those put in prison but friends and family of the accused. Wrongful convictions aren’t solely a tragedy for those directly involved either. It weakens the faith the public has for the justice system as well as poses safety issues; when innocent people are put away, the real criminals are still out there. Luckily, it is known what causes wrongful convictions and how to fix them.

Justice Thurgood Marshall liked to say: “If you execute an innocent person, what are you going to say? Oops?” How does “Oops” heal a mother’s broken heart when her child has been killed for a crime he/she never even committed? How does “oops” help raise a child who will grow up without a mother or father because of the law? How many times does the legal system have to say “Oops” before there will be justice served for those who have been wrongfully convicted and possibly died for their innocence? Wrongful conviction is often caused by mistaken eyewitness identity, civil misconduct, and has even lead to the creation of a television series called Vindicated. In a nationwide, 23 year long research report, University of

Today in the United States of America many individuals have been falsely convicted of charges with the prosecutors performing prosecutorial misconduct. Many individual lives have been ceased due to the long sentencings of being falsely accused of convictions. The chief officials over these cases should have rules and regulations as to how prosecutorial cases are dealt with, set a standards to show the misconduct and to relief the defendant, and to emphasize on ways to prevent future incidents of prosecutorial misconduct.

Within the criminal justice system, there are two competing models: the crime control model and the due process model. These two models were constructed by Robert Packer and each represents a particular school of thought. In managing crime, there is the individual i.e. the suspect and there is the society. The due process model is seen to focus on the suspect whereas the crime control model focuses on the society. This paper analyzes these two models and based on the rate of crime in the society, makes recommendations as to which is the best model in criminal justice.

Predicting how people think, feel, and behave, based on whether they are superstitious, or if they prompt to think about the supernatural is possible. Superstition is the belief in supernatural causality that one event causes another without any natural process linking the two events, such as astrology, religion, omens, witchcraft, and prophecies, that contradicts natural science. Research into paranormal conviction may give more prominent knowledge into the way of paranormal marvels, and also into the sort of individual who has confidence in and/or encounters paranormal occasions. For instance, paranormal conviction was found to identify with recurrence of irritating dreams, dream review and dream translation, religiosity, neuroticism, inventiveness,

For a first time offender, being sentenced for years feels as if the world is crashing down on you. The feeling of dread at the separation from family, friends, and of being alone in a world with offenders creeps in. As you are led away, your spirit breaks.