Wrongful Convictions facts
While investigating facts about Wrongful Convictions Cases and Wrongful Convictions Canada, I found out little known, but curios details like:
Two men from Indiana were wrongfully convicted in a 1996 armed robbery because of a false statement from an informant who had sex with the lead detective who set them up. 20 years later, they were found innocent and one of them received $4.9 Million settlement.
how wrongful convictions affect society?
In 1991 Isaac Wright Jr. was wrongfully convicted of being a drug kingpin in New Jersey and sentenced to life in prison. While in prison, he studied law to pursue his own appeal and extracted a confession of police misconduct from the detective responsible for his conviction, exonerating Wright.
What is the most important contributing factor to wrongful convictions?
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what are wrongful convictions. Here are 50 of the best facts about Wrongful Convictions Statistics and Wrongful Convictions Statistics 2018 I managed to collect.
what are the seven most common causes of wrongful convictions?
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Prosecutors tried to put wrongfully convicted Juan Rivera back in prison for murder by introducing new evidence of blood on shoes; defense proved the shoes were not available for sale until after the alleged murder, resulting in an evidence tampering investigation
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Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh spent millions of dollars over seven years quietly bankrolling efforts to free the West Memphis 3, three Arkansas men who supporters say were wrongly convicted of the murders of three children.
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In 1649 King Charles I was tried for treason and other high crimes. The King responded in his trial "the King can do no wrong" and therefore couldn't be tried or convicted. Ten days later he was beheaded.
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Carlos DeLuna, who was wrongly convicted of murder and executed for killing a gas station attendant. The police made no effort to investigate another man named Carlos who looked nearly identical to DeLuna. Evidence of his innocence would have taken less than a day of investigation to uncover
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A man was wrongfully executed after being convicted of murdering his 3 children. A prosecutor cited his tattoo of a serpent and his Led Zeppelin poster to prove he was a sociopath.
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A man was wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison even though two lawyers received a confession from their client but couldn't say anything because of attorney-client privilege prevented them from implicating their client.
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The first death row inmate exonerated by DNA evidence was wrongly convicted child murderer Kirk Bloodsworth in 1993. Ten years later, Bloodsworth discovered the actual killer had been incarcerated just one cell block beneath him
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Eyewitness misidentification is the greatest contributing factor to wrongful convictions proven by DNA testing, playing a role in more than 70% of convictions overturned through DNA testing nationwide.
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Wrongful convict Shareef Cousin was arrested on the basis of an anonymous tip to crimestoppers. It was later discovered that the officer who arrested him was the one who phoned in the tip and collected the 10K reward.
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There is a project called the innocence project aiming to revoke wrongful convictions through DNA tests. They have recently exonerated a man who spent 36 years in prison for a crime he did not commit
Why wrongful convictions occur?
You can easily fact check prosecutors and victims why wrongful convictions matter by examining the linked well-known sources.
John Thompson sued and won against Harry Connick Sr's DA office after spending 18 years behind bars (14 of which he spent in solitary confinement on death row) for being wrongfully convicted of murder by Connick's DA office due to evidence withholding
Thaddeus Jimenez was jailed at 13 years old for murder, served 16 years, and awarded $25 million for wrongful incarceration when his conviction was overturned. He used that money to start a gang. - source
A man that was falsely imprisoned for 10 years spent most of his time studying law at the library and proving his innocence, later becoming a lawyer to help free other people who have been wrongly convicted. - source
36 people in Kern County were wrongfully convicted of Satanic ritual child abuse, and imprisoned for years before their cases were overturned. 2 died in prison.
George Stinney Jr. was the youngest person sentenced to death in the 20th century in the United States. He was wrongfully convicted at age 14 of the murder of two white girls ages 7 and 11. His conviction was vacated in 2014 when a court ruled that he had not received a fair trial. - source
When justice fails causes and consequences of wrongful convictions?
There's a Yearly Day Dedicated to Victims of Wrongful Convictions - October 2nd
How wrongful convictions happen?
In some european countries, police cannot lie to suspects about evidence, because it too easily leads to false confessions and wrongful convictions
The "a dingo ate my baby" phrase actually came from the case of Lindy Chamberlain, a woman who was wrongfully convicted of her 9 week old daughter's death, while maintaining that the baby was carried away by a dingo.
The lawyer who undermined the DNA evidence presented by prosecutors in the O.J. Simpson trial, was co-founder of The Innocence Project, who present DNA evidence to free wrongfully convicted prisoners
In 1971 a New Zealander by the name of Arthur Allan Thomas was wrongly convicted and imprisoned for two murders after the investigating police officers planted evidence in his garden. He spent 9 years behind bars and the officers responsible were never convicted or reprimanded.
Texas has had to exonerate more people for being wrongfully convicted than any other state - 52 people who between them served 999 years.
