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Wrongful Convictions Essay

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Can you begin to imagine spending over 30 years of your life in prison over something you knew you never did? Imagine the point in which you were voiceless and the odds seemed to be against you. That is what has happened to so many people in North Carolina particularly due to wrongful convictions. Since 2007 the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission has been able to get over 7 people exonerated from the death penalty and back into society after spending more than 15 years incarcerated for a crime they did not commit due to tampering of evidence, coerced confessions, plea bargains, and much more. The legal definition for wrongful conviction is persons who are in fact innocent but who have been wrongly convicted by a jury or other court …show more content…

They were proven to not human but animal bones. The bones were the sole and primary source of evidence in the case. The rest of the evidence consisted of witnesses and the fact that the Boorns were arguing with Colvin the day he disappeared. The jury had no trouble reaching a guilty verdict, the judges presiding over the case then required the three members of the State Supreme Court to sit as a panel in any potential capital trial (Northwestern Bluhm Legal Clinic, 2006). Stephen and Jesse were sentenced to death (Northwestern Bluhm Legal Clinic, 2006). The Vermont General Assembly issued a special session to consider a plea for clemency. A clemency is a disposition to show mercy, especially toward an offender or enemy. Jesse was approved of clemency because he appeared less culpable, his sentence was commuted to life in prison, but Stephen was denied relief. The story of the Boorn brothers made headlines in the New York post on November 26, 1819. Thanks to a New Jersey traveler, Tabor Chadwick, the mystery of Russell Colvin was resolved and just in time before Stephen’s execution. Russell Colvin had not been murdered but had relocated to Dover, Vermont. The Boorns received exoneration and attention in newspapers throughout New

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