Wrongful Convictions
Introduction
There is no true way to know the amount of individuals who have been wrongfully convicted (Neubauer, 2011). Contrary to popular belief, justice and law are not coexisting (Gershman, 1993, pp. 502-515). Most individuals feel and believe that the Criminal Justice System would have steps in place to catch and rectify this issue (Neubauer, 2011). The advent of DNA testing not only generated more attention for, and research about wrongful convictions (Gould, 2010, pp. 825-868). This also pushed for academicians from simply research to a hybrid of research and advocacy’s (Gould, 2010, pp. 825-868). Virtually no one denies the existence of wrongful convictions (Gould, 2010, pp. 825-868). Wrongful convictions challenge the integrity and legitimacy of criminal justice and call out for solutions (Davis, 2007). It acts a policy change catalyst wrongful convictions are a research field that touches upon many disciplines (Davis, 2007). The pretrial processing of criminal defendant is extremely important because most criminal cases are resolved before trial (Stolzenberg, 2012).
Body
Advocacy for innocent
Innocent networks are a recent phenomenon within the Criminal Justice System (Siegel, 2012). Their main purpose is to assist in the exoneration of those individuals who have been wrongly convicted (Siegel, 2012). Collectively, as an Innocent Network, they screen claims of innocence, work to exonerate the factually innocent, promote policies to reduce errors of justice, and provide support for exonerees (Siegel, 2012). A vast majority of these exonerations are for murder and rape cases (Siegel, 2012). And a majority has been successful through the use of DNA evidence (Siegel, 2012). The pressures to produce conv...
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Steve Bogira, a prizewinning writer, spent a year observing Chicago's Cook County Criminal Courthouse. The author focuses on two main issues, the death penalty and innocent defendants who are getting convicted by the pressure of plea bargains, which will be the focus of this review. The book tells many different stories that are told by defendants, prosecutors, a judge, clerks, and jurors; all the people who are being affected and contributing to the miscarriage of justice in today’s courtrooms.
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Wrongful convictions in Canada is a very sensitive and disturbing topic that has created concerns as to why individuals are being wrongfully convicted. As people in Canada read about cases involving wrongful conviction, such as Guy Paul Morin, Rubin Carter and David Millguard, it often undermines their faith in the criminal justice system. Tunnel vision, the use of questionable DNA evidence, and eyewitness misidentification are the three main causes of wrongful convictions in Canada. Recognizing and addressing these concerns has led to a reduction in cases of wrongful convictions in Canada.
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.
In July of 2008, one of the biggest crime cases devastated the United States nation-wide. The death of Caylee Anthony, a two year old baby, became the most popular topic in a brief amount of time. Caylee’s mother, Casey Anthony, became the main suspect after the child supposedly was kidnapped and went missing. To this day, the Casey Anthony case shocks me because justice, in my opinion, wasn’t served. I feel as if the criminal conviction system became somewhat corrupted in this case. The entire nation, including the court system, knew that Casey Anthony was behind this criminal act, but yet she escaped all charges. I chose this case not only because it’s debatable, but also to help state the obvious, this case was handled the wrong way. Clearly the legal system was biased, which worked in Casey Anthony’s favor, freeing a murderer.
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Twenty-three years and 873 exonerations is what this particular study is constructed of. One may ask themselves what race and gender is most prominent to being exonerated? According to the statistics in the study (), 93% observed exonerates were men and only 7% women. When considering race 92% of defendants were accounted for and 50% were black, 38% white, 11% Hispanic, and 2% Native American or Asian. ()
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