Criminal Law declares what conduct is illegal and proscribes a penalty. Although, we rely on our court system to administer justice, sometimes the innocent are convicted (Risinger). Most people would not be able to imagine a person who is convicted of a crime as innocent, sometimes that is the case. Imagine what a variance that is: an innocent criminal. In an article by Radley Balko he asks the question, “How many more are innocent?” In his article, he questions America’s 250th DNA exoneration and states that it raises questions about how often we send the wrong person to prison. The other issue that follows is the means of appealing the court’s decision and who they can turn to for help. In the textbook Criminal Courts 2nd edition, it states that “appeals of any kind, especially death penalty appeals, consume a great deal time. On the average, it takes about ten or eleven years for inmates to be executed. In some instances, the appeals process has dragged out over a fifteen year period.” The number of years it takes for an appeal seems excessive when thinking about an innocent person serving time for a crime they did not commit. Although one would want the appeals process to be speedy, that is not the case when considering the steps involved. The appeals process begins once the defendant has been convicted of a crime. The defendant is entitled to at least one appeal to a higher court. The primary purpose of an appeal is to correct a wrong that may have been committed. These wrongs may be mistakes by police, the prosecution, or the court. Errors may have occurred that influence the trial outcome. Appeals are intended to correct these mistakes and errors. A secondary purpose of an appeal is to render judgment about one or more iss... ... middle of paper ... ...Gale Encyclopedia of Everyday Law. Ed. Shirelle Phelps. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2003. 265-271. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. Tarrant County College. 2 Mar. 2011 . Fleury-Steiner, Benjamin. "Innocence Project." Encyclopedia of Social Problems. Ed. Vincent N. Parrillo. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc., 2008. 497-498. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. Tarrant County College. 2 Mar. 2011 . "Know the Cases." Innocence Project. Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, n.d. Web. 1 Mar 2011. . Risinger, D. Michael. "INNOCENTS CONVICTED: AN EMPIRICALLY JUSTIFIED FACTUAL WRONGFUL CONVICTION RATE." Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 97.3 (2007): 761-806. Legal Collection. EBSCO. Web. 2 Mar. 2011
The Web. The Web. 19 Apr 2014. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hinckley/hinckley.htm>. Vaughan, Joyce. "
Seigal, L. J., & Worrall, J. L. (2012). Introduction to criminal justice (13th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Linder, Douglas O. "Judge James E. Horton." UMKC School of Law. 1999. Web. 24 Feb. 2011.
...Streeter 275. Courtesy of the Tarlton Law Library, Jamail Center for Legal Research, The University of Texas at Austin, 2013. Web. 3 February 2014.
Such devastating mistakes by eyewitnesses are not rare, according to a report by the Innocence Project, an organization affiliated with the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University. The Innocence Project uses DNA testing to exonerate those wrongfully convicted of crimes. Since the 1990s, when DNA testing was first introduced, Innocence Project researchers have reported that, “Seventy three percent of the two hundred thirty nine convictions overturned through DNA testing were based on eyewitness testimony” (Loftus xi). One third of these overturned cases rested on the testimony of two or more mistaken eyewitnesses. How could so many eyewitnesses be wrong? This paper will identify a theoretical framework that views eyewitness testimony ...
In 1992, Cameron Todd Willingham was convicted of arson murder, where a fire that was presumably started by him, killed his three children, and in 2004 he was put to death. Later, the Texas Forensic Science Commission, established in 2005, found that none of the evidence used while prosecuting Mr. Willingham was valid, and that the fire was in fact, accidental. Unfortunately, many cases like this have occurred in our nation’s history, where human error was to blame for convicting an innocent person. The American Justice system will only be as accurate as the science and technology that we have in place to remove human error during the process. The movie The Wrong Man is a perfect example of human error in the justice system convicting an innocent
In Corsicana, Texas Cameron Willingham and his family’s home was burned down the twenty-third of December is 1991. According to the report Cameron was asleep when the fire started and survived the accident with only a few injuries, as for his children they were not so lucky, they lost their lives to the tragic accident. At the time of the accident Cameron’s wife was buying presents for their children for Christmas. According to a witness and her Daughter Diane and Buffie from a few houses down went outside and saw Cameron screaming, “My babies are burning up!” Diane and Cameron tried countless attempts to rescue the girls from their room until the fire department could get there. According to the New Yorker “The house, in short, had been deliberately transformed onto a death trap.” According to the reports on December twenty-fourth and twenty-seventh of 1991 the fire was declared arson and they later decided to conduct a criminal investigation. Cameron was questioned by the investigators on December 31st and was then later arrested on January 8th of 1992 for the death his three daughters.
Oct 1993. Retrieved November 18, 2010. Vol. 79. 134 pages (Document ID: 0747-0088) Published by American Bar Association
Maron, D. F. (2014, April 28). Many Prisoners on Death Row are Wrongfully Convicted. Scientific American .
Cole, G. F., & Smith, C. E. (2007). The American System of Criminal Justice (11th Edition ed.). New York: Thomson Wadsworth.
Abadinsky, Howard. Law and Justice: An Introduction to the American Legal System. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2008. Print.
... middle of paper ... ... Gonzaga Law Review 33.3 (1998): 653-668. HeinOnline.com -.
The death penalty is immoral and should be removed from every justice system across America because it puts the lives of innocent people at risk. If someone is wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death, there is a chance that they could be executed. Now an innocent victim and an innocent accused killer have died while the real killer is still free. Approximately 156 prisoners on death row have been exonerated, and it is impossible to tell how many more prisoners were innocent and still were executed (DPIC). An example of an innocent person being executed is the case of Cameron Willingham. Willingham was convicted of murdering three children in 1991 in a house fire. He was executed in 2004. A
John P. Wright, Kären M. Hess, Christine H. Orthmann. "Juvenile Justice." Cengage Learning; 6 edition, 2012