Wrongful Conviction

Manufacturing Guilt, 2nd edition, updates the cases presented in the first edition and includes two new chapters: one concerning the case of James Driskell and another regarding Dr. Charles Smith, whose role in forensic pathology evidence led to several wrongful convictions. In this new edition, the authors demonstrate that the same factors at play in the criminalization of the powerless and marginalized are found in cases of wrongful conviction. Contrary to popular belief, wrongful convictions are not due simply to “unintended errors,” but rather are too often the result of the deliberate actions of those working in the criminal justice system. Using Canadian cases of miscarriages of justice, the authors argue that understanding wrongful convictions and how to prevent them is incomplete outside the broader societal context in which they occur, particularly regarding racial and social inequality.

Former bank manager Ronald Dalton never got to watch his three young children grow up. In 1989 he was convicted for a crime that never happened. His wife, Brenda, was later ruled to have choked to death on breakfast cereal not strangled as a pathologist had initially claimed. Dalton’s daughter, Alison, was in kindergarten when he was charged with second-degree murder in 1988. He attended her high school graduation on June 26, 2000, two days after his conviction was finally overturned. Behind the proud facade of Canada’s criminal justice system lie the shattered lives of the people unjustly caught within its web. Justice Miscarried tells the heartwrenching stories of twelve innocent Canadians, including David Milgaard, Donald Marshall, Guy Paul Morin, Clayton Johnson, William Mullins-Johnson, and Thomas Sophonow, who were wrongly convicted and the errors in the nations justice system that changed their lives forever.

"Miscarriages of justice in wrongful conviction happen more often than the criminal court system would like to admit. Awareness of the causes can reduce the overall potential for miscarriage of justice. These causes include: Prosecutorial ?tunnel vision?, Failure to make full disclosure, Suborned or concocted evidence, Eyewitness misidentification, False confessions, Reliance on in-custody informers, Incompetent ?experts?, Flawed legal representation. Wrongful Conviction in Canadian Law is the first book to review and analyze recommendations of Commissions of Inquiry into wrongful convictions. Comparative analyses reveal which recommendations have been implemented as policy, passed into legislation, or endorsed by the courts. You?ll learn how the authorities could have made ? or could have avoided ? such major errors." --Publisher.

All too often the police do not get the right person. Wrongful convictions are framed as mistakes or failures of the justice system. However, many of the wrongfully convicted are from among the poor and visible minority groups. The law then becomes an ideological mask relieving us of the responsibility of engaging with the real issues that underscore wrongful convictions. MaDonna Maidment illustrates how the desire to get a conviction and paint the police and the courts in a positive light often means that false evidence and court decisions based on prejudice and racism lead to innocent people being convicted. “The official version of the law,” says Maidment, “despite its claims of impartiality, neutrality and objectivity, is a tool of the state and its elite club members designed to maintain the illegitimate domination of society.” Turning back to the very sys-tem that got it wrong in the first place therefore should be a non-starter.

Imperfections in the criminal justice system have long intrigued the general public and worried scholars and legal practitioners. In Wrongful Conviction, criminologists C. Ronald Huff and Martin Killias present an important collection of essays that analyzes cases of injustice across an array of legal systems, with contributors from North America, Europe and Israel. This collection includes a number of well-developed public-policy recommendations intended to reduce the instances of courts punishing innocents. It also offers suggestions for compensating more fairly those who are wrongfully convicted.

"Wrongful Conviction in Sexual Assault: Stranger Rape, Acquaintance Rape, and Intra-Familial Child Sexual Assaults examines the phenomenon of innocent defendants who are convicted of rape and related sexual offenses. It presents findings that indicate sexual offenses are highly over represented among confirmed wrongful convictions. Drawing from Innocence Project and National Registry of Exoneration data and supplemented by social science and historical sources, the investigation explores various processes that lead to wrongful conviction, distinguishing the differential risk of wrongful conviction among stranger rape, acquaintance rape, and intra-familial child sexual assault. The book includes reference to established research on false confessions, eye witness mis-identification, erroneous expert and informant testimony, DNA evidence, racial bias, and 'manufactured' evidence. The work also introduces new terms and concepts (such as 'black box' investigation methods, the stranger rape thesis, the moral outrage - moral correction process, 'spontaneous mis-identification', victim status paths, the differential investigation challenge related to capable vs incapacitated rape victims, and the role of serial sexual offending in wrongful conviction) to clarify and illustrate unique aspects of wrongful conviction in sexual assault"--

On January 20, 1984, Earl Washington—defended for all of forty minutes by a lawyer who had never tried a death penalty case—was found guilty of rape and murder in the state of Virginia and sentenced to death. After nine years on death row, DNA testing cast doubt on his conviction and saved his life. However, he spent another eight years in prison before more sophisticated DNA technology proved his innocence and convicted the guilty man. DNA exonerations have shattered confidence in the criminal justice system by exposing how often we have convicted the innocent and let the guilty walk free. In this unsettling in-depth analysis, Brandon Garrett examines what went wrong in the cases of the first 250 wrongfully convicted people to be exonerated by DNA testing. Based on trial transcripts, Garrett’s investigation into the causes of wrongful convictions reveals larger patterns of incompetence, abuse, and error. Evidence corrupted by suggestive eyewitness procedures, coercive interrogations, unsound and unreliable forensics, shoddy investigative practices, cognitive bias, and poor lawyering illustrates the weaknesses built into our current criminal justice system. Garrett proposes practical reforms that rely more on documented, recorded, and audited evidence, and less on fallible human memory. Very few crimes committed in the United States involve biological evidence that can be tested using DNA. How many unjust convictions are there that we will never discover? Convicting the Innocent makes a powerful case for systemic reforms to improve the accuracy of all criminal cases.

This volume addresses issues of law, science, and policy related to wrongful convictions in the American system of justice. Coverage includes the incidence, correlates, causes, and consequences of wrongful convictions, as well as recommended reforms. The materials are organized in the form of a casebook, comprising edited judicial decisions and complementary materials from law, psychology, criminal justice, and related disciplines. "Wrongful convictions are tragedies on multiple levels. By understanding how they occur, however, we can learn how to prevent them -- and better identify those that exist. This text is a valuable resource for anyone interested in advancing justice and safety through our systems of criminal justice."-- Stephen Saloom, Policy Director, Innocence Project "The ice has finally been broken. Acker and Redlich's Wrongful Conviction is the first casebook dedicated solely to the subject of wrongful convictions. It has set a high standard of excellence that will be a tough act to follow. Not only will this well-organized and easy-to-read casebook appeal to law professors who teach seminars in such subjects as wrongful convictions, criminal procedure, and psychology and the law, but it should also appeal to undergraduate professors who teach students interested in careers in law and criminal justice."-- Steven A. Drizin, Clinical Professor of Law and Legal Director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions, Northwestern University School of Law "This book sets out an important and accessible track of study. Starting with the question of what is a wrongful conviction, the authors also explain the basic features of the criminal process and evidence law, and introduce contributions from the social sciences to help our understanding of sources of error. That journey will engage all interested in understanding what can cause wrongful convictions and what can improve the quality of criminal justice."-- Brandon L. Garrett, Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law "Acker and Redlich provide a current and comprehensive analysis of the legal procedures and standards that produce and resolve wrongful criminal convictions. Their presentation is part handbook for lawyers, part history lesson for scholars, and part quest for policy reforms. Their coverage is engaging and broad: from false confessions and faulty eyewitness identification, to flawed forensic evidence and, ultimately, compensation for those who are exonerated. I urge all defense attorneys to read and use this book; and I beg all prosecutors to do the same. Professors around the country: assign this book to all of your students!" -- Kimberly J. Cook, Professor of Sociology and Criminology, University of North Carolina Wilmington "Acker and Redlich have succeeded admirably in achieving their goals of selecting watershed and little-known, but important cases that define and illustrate the focal issues in each area of wrongful conviction and in discussing the results of relevant social science research and their policy implications. The notes and questions following each section are excellent. The notes provide supplemental material in a condensed fashion and the questions prompt thoughtful dialogue and encourage further study. ... an outstanding scholarly contribution to the field of wrongful conviction." -- Criminal Law Bulletin "An excellent book ... It should also be on the shelf of every scholar interested in wrongful convictions, as it provides a wealth of important materials." -- Criminal Justice Review