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Analyze The Main Causes Of Wrongful Conviction

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02/23/2024 Wrongful convictions affect everyone involved. According to the National Institute of Justice, being wrongfully convicted means that “the person convicted is factually innocent of the charges” (Wrongful Convictions, n.d.). They have been around since the beginning of the criminal justice system, and the numbers continue to grow. Eyewitness misidentification, false confessions, and flawed forensic evidence are the leading causes of wrongful convictions, which result in detrimental consequences for those involved. The purpose of this report is to analyze the main causes of wrongful convictions and to propose potential solutions.

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS Problem Defined Wrongful Convictions are when the person convicted of a crime is …show more content…
When cases are worked there are multiple points evidence must go through, allowing room for error. There is no one way to solve one crime, so the area for error is large. Focusing on just the three main causes of wrongful convictions, there are eyewitness misidentification, flawed forensic evidence, and false confessions. Eyewitness Misidentification The first major one is eyewitness misidentification. Eyewitness misidentification is when someone incorrectly names or points out a suspect in a crime. This can happen by accident or on purpose. The person may look really similar to someone they know, leading to an accidental eyewitness misidentification. It can also happen if someone is angry at a person and just simply wants to see them get in trouble. According to the Innocence Project within 351 exonerations, 68% of them were due to eyewitness misidentifications (Berman & Toglia, 2021). Eyewitness misidentification has been an issue since the start of crime and continues to show up abundantly today. According to the 2022 Annual Report released by The National Registry of Exonerations, 54 exonerations were made involving mistaken witness identification. Not only were there 54 exonerations for mistaken witness identification, but there were also 181 cases exonerated due to false accusations (2022 Annual Report: The National Registry of Exonerations, 2023). This directly ties to wrongfully naming the …show more content…
Source: (Berman & Toglia, 2021) Impacts of the Problem There are many ways individuals can be impacted by wrongful convictions. A lot of people work on and are involved in these cases. Wrongful convictions affect the integrity of the criminal justice system. According to The National Institute of Justice, “the strength of our criminal justice system depends on its accuracy and its ability to convict the guilty and clear the innocent” (Wrongful Convictions, n.d.). It also changes the quality of life for the convicted and their families. It creates long-term negative effects for everyone involved in a case proving to be a wrongful conviction. People who are wrongfully convicted must cope with many changes during and after the conviction. Wrongfully convicted tend to feel a change in self-identity and adjusting to the new way of life, damage to their reputation, issues with mental and physical health, as well as difficulties in relationships and jobs (Brooks & Greenberg, 2021). People that are wrongfully convicted deal with lasting consequences. These are a couple examples of when someone was simply accused of something and how it affected them. Not even convicted yet and there are still negative impacts of it. Jay Cheshire committed suicide after being acquitted of rape (Brooks & Greenberg, 2021). Another was Christopher Jeffries being arrested for murder but ended up being released without charge

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