Wrongful Convictions Examples

A wrongful conviction is when an individual is accused guilty and convicted of a crime they did not commit. Evidence could be used as proof of the individual’s innocence, this allows them to be freed from prison if wrongfully convicted. In some cases, AIDWYC is an organization that aids in wrongful convictions. Twenty high profile cases, with the help of AIDWYC have been returned. This research paper will discuss and compare how wrongful convictions are examined. One incident of a wrongful conviction in North America is the story a man named Nick Yarris, he had spent twenty-one years in prison until, he was proven innocent. For his case, DNA evidence was used to prove his innocence. Another example, is the case of Robert Baltovich, whom was wrongfully

In court, the officer had claimed Nick had punched his face multiple times but didn’t have any pictures to show evidence of his beat-up face. The jury felt the police officer was lying. Therefore, this case was acquitted. The following week his next trial began for the murder of Mrs. Craig. No one in the court room could look at Yarris, because they felt he had killed her. In the early 1980s blood type was mainly used to identify people, since he shared the same blood group as the murderer, they felt sure he was the one who did it. Yarris was sentenced to death and put in solitary confinement, where he was not allowed to speak. It was part of the punishment, the prison had no sunlight and the block had about 140 men. The guards would beat them if they spoke, they allowed prisoners to exercise for an hour during this time, prisoners would often fight and beat each other in the prison. Yarris was having a difficult time in the prison. He was beating his head on the wall and it would cause him constant trips to the nurse’s station to get stitched up. In a newspaper, he discovers an article on genetic fingerprinting, it introduced a newly developed DNA testing, which was allowing innocent individuals to be