I didn’t kill her. I thought all you had to do was tell the truth but I was wrong.” This was the statement that was made by Thomas Sophonow, right after a jury of his peers convicted him of the second-degree murder of Barbara Stoppel in 1981. While many people who have been found guilty claim innocence, Sophonow was actually wrongfully convicted of the murder of Barbara Stoppel. Wrongful convictions like Sophonow have been the inspiration of the plots of many works of fiction including The Confession by John Grishan, Shawshank Redemption (1994) and The Green Mile by Stephen King. For some these works of fiction are just that fiction. Yet for the multitudinous innocent men and women who have been incarcerated for crimes they did not commit these works of fiction are their reality.
Despite the fact that some believe that wrongful convictions are part of the past, the truth is that they are still part of our justice system today. In fact it is estimated that 6,000 people each year from the United States are wrongfully convicted. While in Great Britain it is estimated that there are 15 cases of wrongful conviction each year Since DNA testing has become more accepted, during appeals with cases that have a DNA sample of the perpetrator, the wrongfully convicted are able to prove that their innocence. Yet there are still some cases where there is no DNA evidence to prove the innocence of those wrongfully convicted. Therefore even when we have so many advanced technologies, without the proper evidence for these technologies we can still wrongfully convicted innocent people if we are not cautious.
Wrongful convictions can lead to many people being affected. People like Steven Truscott, Ronald Dalton, Wilbert Coffin, Guy Paul Morri...
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The aspect of wrongful conviction is established within law to protect the innocent from being abused by the law. Nevertheless, the real issue of concern is the fact of whether wrongful conviction actually helps those who cannot help themselves. With that said, another important underlying factor is whether the criminal justice system has restrictions set up to help those from being innocently convicted and those who have been convicted and later was found to be innocent. By looking at the case of Guy Paul Morin, one will see how the police, courts, and criminal justice system failed in aiding the innocent and bringing justice in society, as well as showing that the system has failed in helping its people, and what must be done to aid those who have been wrongfully convicted.
As we learned this week, DNA databases are used by various governmental agencies for several different purposes. We all have seen new magazine shows such as, 20/20 or Dateline, that show the collection of DNA samples from suspects in a case that is compared to those collected at the scene of the crime. But what happens when the sample is an incomplete match, compromised, or contaminated? The answer is the wrongful conviction of innocent citizens. The case that I have decided to highlight, is the wrongful conviction of Herman Atkins. In 1986, Atkins was convicted of two counts of forcible rape, two counts of oral copulation, and robbery in the state of California. It was alleged that Herman entered a shoe store, and raped, beat, and robbed a
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The symbol of the Canadian judicial system is the balanced scales of justice. When a wrongful act is committed, the scales of justice are greatly misplaced and require a solution to counterbalance the crime and restore balance. Additionally, the scales represent the idea that law should be viewed objectively and the determination of innocence should be made without bias. The Canadian criminal justice system encapsulates the idea of the scale of justice, to control crime and impose penalties on those who violate the law. One of the most important aspects of this system is that an individual charged with a criminal offence is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The current system has two prevailing methods involved in the process of dealing with crime: Retributive and restorative justice. This paper will analyze aspects of retributive justice and restorative justice, with reference to their respective philosophies, for the purpose of finding which is more effective at achieving justice and maintaining balance.
The death row not only consists of murderers, but it could also include a large number of innocent people whose lives are at risk. In the past 35 years, over 130 people have been taken out of the death row because of new evidence proving their innocence. This shows that the death penalty process is very faulty and contains many errors when it comes to convicting a person of a crime. There was an average of three exonerations per year from 1973 to 1999 which soon rose to an average of five per year between 2000 and 2007 ( Cary, Mary Kate). The ...
Garrett, Brandon. Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2011. 86. Print.
The worst thing in life is paying for another man's mistake. Sadly, this is something that occurs frequently. After watching a video about the wrongful conviction and the imprisonment of Ronald Cotton, I was baffled. I find it absurd that an innocent person can lose their freedom for a crime that they were not involved in. Ronald Cotton is not the only unfortunate individual who has endured wrongful imprisonment. Bennet Barbour, James Bain, and many others have been convicted of crimes that they did not commit due to faulty eyewitness testimonies.
McAlinden , A. (2011). Transforming justice: Challenges for restorative justice in an era of punishment-based corrections. Contemporary Justice Review, 14(4), 383-406.