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Wrongful Convictions

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Abstract

This paper discusses the concept of wrongful convictions in the US. It starts by defining what

is wrong conviction, terming it as the conviction of innocent individuals, which could result

in errors from collecting evidence or wrong identification. The paper identifies some possible

causes of wrongful convictions, noting that eyewitness misidentifications are among the

leading causes of wrongful convictions in the US. Other key players include the police

reinforcement of eyewitness misidentifications and mistakes from the forensic scientists in

linking crime scenes and the perpetrator. While wrong convictions are common in the US,

different policies such as the Fourteenth Amendment, the Fifteenth Amendment, and law

enforcers' requirement to adhere to the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics are geared towards

reducing cases of wrongful convictions.

Introduction

The US criminal justice system takes pride in providing justice to every American

irrespective of their age, religion, sexual orientation, and gender. Different laws have been

developed throughout the years to protect Americans against violations of their rights.

However, despite the laws and policies, mistakes have continued to be made in the US justice

system, which may have a long-term effect on the affected individuals considering that they

have been wrongly imprisoned for crimes they have not committed. According to Pollock

(2017), the country is still struggling with wrongful convictions in the 21st century despite the

modern technologies that would have been effective in helping prosecute offenders

effectively.

Causes of Wrongful Convictions

While the US constitution has sought to ensure that everyone in the country can

access justice, suffering injustice as a result of being convicted for crimes one did not commit

and spending years in prison. Schapiro (2020) defines wrongful convictions as the conviction

of innocent individuals which may result from process errors resulting in injustice to the

defendant. The primary role of the criminal justice system in the US is not to imprison

innocent people, which is why there are laws that seek to protect defendants against such

instances. There are different ways through which wrongful convictions can happen,

including false confessions, faulty circumstantial evidence, and false eyewitness accounts.

With the number of wrong convictions increasing within the US criminal justice system,

people have started losing their faith in the legitimacy of its effectiveness and fairness.

Eyewitness misidentifications, invalid forensics, incorrect information from police

informants, false confessions, and insufficient provision of lawyers have been cited as the key

causes of wrongful convictions in the US (Colby, 2019). Eye witness misidentification is the
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leading cause of wrongful convictions in the US. Invalid forensic evidence also significantly

contributes to wrongful convictions. Science is one of the most reliable scientific pieces of

evidence that can be used to convict people rightly. In numerous cases in the past, cases of

altered evidence destroyed evidence and, in some cases, lost, making it unavailable for use

during trial. Misrepresentation of forensic evidence fault results from mistakes made by

scientists involved in the case.

Role of Police in Wrongful Convictions

The police officers play a vital role in false identification and enhancing the

eyewitness's confidence that they have positively identified the correct perpetrator of a crime.

The case could result in distortion of reports compiled by the witnesses, which the judges

heavily rely on when making critical decisions. According to Blom (2022), the law

enforcement officers can create suggestiveness that could translate into a falsefully

identification of the culprit. There are two primary ways that suggestiveness could arise.

Firstly, law enforcement officers can confirm the identification of a culprit in some situations

either after first identification or in court. For example, a law enforcement officer

congratulates witnesses for confirming their suspicions. Such an instance will increase the

witness's confidence that they have positively identified the perpetrator of the crime.

A second instance would be through an identification parade where a law enforcement

officer can suggestively induce false identification of a suspect. The situation can be created

in an event where the suspect is depicted in a suggestive manner in relation to the other

suspects (Blom, 2022). For instance, when the police parade just one person from a given

race, body size, or height who resembles the actual culprit. The person is then replaced with

the actual perpetrator in the witness's memory leading to a wrongful conviction. Finally, the
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police could be involved in a cover-up which could result in a wrongful conviction. While the

practice is unethical for law enforcers, it may happen in some situations.

Significance of Forensic Evidence

Forensic plays a crucial role in the criminal justice system, especially in the

preparation of evidence and prosecution of the suspects. Forensic scientists examine and

analyze evidence from the crime scene and other places to develop key details that help in the

investigation and prosecution of the offenders and help free the innocent from wrongful

convictions (Cole & Barno, 2020). It is one of the most reliable sources of evidence, and the

courts realize its significance in providing a basing tool for conviction decisions. However,

while the system is reliable, it is also subject to errors resulting from faulty data collection or

other mistakes by the forensic scientist. Such mistakes may prove costly for an innocent

person due to the high regard for forensic evidence in court.

Policies against Wrong Convictions

The Fifth Amendment of the US constitution assures the US citizens that they shall be

deprived of their right to liberty, life, or property without the due process of the law. The

Fourteenth Amendment also protects the defendant's right, noting that everyone is innocent

until proven guilty. Further, the Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) landmark decision that anyone

charged with felony but they cannot afford a lawyer should be guaranteed free assistance of a

legal counsel (Wilson, 2019). Therefore, everyone has the right to fair and equal treatment

under the law. However, when wrongful convictions happen to innocent people, the public

starts to lose confidence in the justice system. Some of the key effects of wrongful

convictions include losing years of their lives which they may spend in jail. Wrongful

convictions also affect the victims of crime, who may feel guilt and fear due to the fact that
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the perpetrator was not apprehended and punished for their crimes; instead, someone else is

suffering for the actions.

With the increased number of people wrongly convicted every year, the US criminal

justice system has developed procedural safeguards and codes. The procedural safeguards

seek to reduce the number of wrongful convictions. Firstly, Law Enforcers are required to

follow the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics (McCandless & Ronquillo, 2020). Law

enforcers' fundamental role is to serve the community and safeguard their lives and property.

Law enforcers are tasked with the role of protecting the innocent against dishonesty to protect

the weak in the community against intimidation and oppression. It is vital to put into place

mechanisms for the wrongfully convicted to allow them to get back into court and prove their

innocence.

The criminal justice system in America is not perfect by any means, just like any

other system, and unfortunately, there will always be mistakes made at some point in time.

Except these mistakes being made are causing innocent people to be convicted of crimes they

did not commit, causing lifelong hardships (Cohen, 2021). To reduce the number of wrongful

convictions that keep happening, there must be changes within the system. This starts with

politicians, police officers, judges, lawyers, and society realizing that wrongful convictions

are real and continue to happen in America more than they should (McCandless & Ronquillo,

2020). Knowing the different causes of wrongful convictions and implementing the steps to

prevent them is the first step toward stopping them from happening altogether.

People in society should be able to rely on the criminal justice system to rightfully

convict individuals who break the law but considering the number of wrongful convictions

continuing to happen because of faults in the system. People are beginning to question

whether they should trust in what the system proclaims to do, which takes extraordinary pride
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in providing justice to all people, regardless of their race, gender, religion, or sexual

orientation. Once the criminal justice system can learn from all the mistakes made in the past,

begin using the ethical practices we discussed in this essay, and start enforcing ethical

behaviors by all players within Law Enforcement, the number of wrongful convictions in

America will go down. Until then, the same problems will continue to take place within the

Judicial system in America.

References

Blom, R. (2022). Eyewitness Memory in Journalistic Context: An Interdisciplinary Approach

to Study Post-Event Misinformation Effects. Journalism Practice, 1-18.

https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2022.2034519

Cohen, M. A. (2021). Pain, suffering, and jury awards: A study of the cost of wrongful

convictions. Criminology & Public Policy, 20(4), 691-727.

https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3750300

Colby, Duncan (2019). “Justifying Justice: Six Factors of Wrongful Convictions and Their

Solutions,” Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science, 7(1),6.

https://doi.org/10.31979/THEMIS.2019.0706

Cole, S. A., & Barno, M. (2020). Probabilistic reporting in criminal cases in the United

States: a baseline study. Science & Justice, 60(5), 406-414.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scijus.2020.06.001

McCandless, S., & Ronquillo, J. C. (2020). Social equity in professional codes of

ethics. Public Integrity, 22(5), 470-484.

https://doi.org/10.1080/10999922.2019.1619442

Schapiro, E. (2020). Wrongful Convictions: Not Just an American Phenomenon?: An

investigation into the Causes of Wrongful Convictions in the United States, Germany,

Italy, and Japan. Emory International Law Review, 34(3), 897-935.

Wilson, S. (2019). International Inequality or American Atrocity?: A Comparative

Investigation of Indigent Legal Representation in the United States and the European

Union.