Wrongful Conviction: Causes & Prevention in the Court of Law - Essay Sample

Introduction

When an innocent person is convicted in the court of law for a crime, he or she did not commit, and after depth investigation, a court determines that he or she was innocent it said to be a wrongful conviction. The various reasons why for a wrongful conviction include coercion, intoxication, law ignorance, duress, violence fear, harsh sentence threat, an affiliation of harm, situation misunderstanding, and diminished capacity. The criminal justice system has been paying a lot of attention to wrongful convictions and several Innocence programs and projects to protect people from injustice (Zalman, and Julia 22). These programs and reforms are meant to work and help innocent people who have been wrongly convicted so that they can prove their innocence. Exploratory investigations, pro bono legal, and DNA tests are used to prove the innocence of people.

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The United States of America has the best law reforms across the world; however, this does not indicate that they get justice. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, a total number of 2604 individuals were exonerated between 1989 and 2020. In the last thirty-one years, many injustices have resulted to 23300 years lost in jails for individuals who were later exonerated. The National Registry of Exonerations found that Texas, regardless of having the strongest laws on crime, led the country with 374 exonerations in the past 31 years. Other leading states founded on total numbers of releases were Illinois (330), New York (291), and California (215) (National Registry of Exonerations). The increased number of exoneration can be attributed to DNA testing, prosecutorial accountability, improved societal awareness, and the need to reduce widespread incarceration.

The most populated states such as Texas, New York, and California have the highest numbers of exonerations. However, the association between rates of exoneration and the size of the population is indirect because the state Illinois, which is the sixth most populated takes the second position in the rates of exonerations. Similarly, California, the most populated state ranks 4th in the rates of exonerations. In this case, it falls behind Texas, Illinois, and New York. Some states with high populations do not focus their resources to determine wrongful convictions, for instance, Florida is the third most populated state, but it ranks 9 in the rates of exonerations. Likewise, states with the lowest populations do not have the least number of exonerations, for example, Wyoming is the least populous of any state and yet ranked 41st in several exonerations. The data indicates that most states with the lowest exonerations are also the least in the population (National Registry of Exonerations).

According to Green even though Texas exonerated few individuals in 2017, it was the leading in the country. The state also offers compensation for the wrongful convictions by providing released people with $80,000 per wrongly confined year (Green). Moreover, it offers financial assistance and reintegration payments. In 2017, the average number of years lost in prison was 5.69 and the government paid half a million to every released individual. Likewise, in 2018, Texas spent $7 million to pay 16 exonerees (Green).

Some states lack exoneration laws, making individuals accuse the federal government to receive reinstitution. Almost all states are saved with a lawsuit to release the money, for instance, Louisiana has paid used only $250,000 over the last ten years.

Causes of Increased Exonerations

The reforms include State-by-state innocence commissions, enhanced witness identification measures which help minimizes the probability of mistaken identity. Parting of crime labs so that they do not work together with law enforcement establishments, the individuals who are convicted wrongly are compensated, police interrogations recording. Other factors include better evidence safeguards and state laws are authorizing post-conviction admission to DNA testing. DNA testing has become very efficient in detecting the specific person who performs a crime. Most victims proving their innocence by DNA evidence, and they continue to increase each day due to its accuracy. Advanced technology such as computer forensics and algorithm has increased accuracy in suspect determination. According to (Green) a quarter of detected wrongful convictions since 1989 are attributed to DNA.

Improved integrity in the judicial system has been limiting evidence manipulation or corruption cases. Reports by Time Magazine indicate that the increase in the number of exonerations is resulting from is "a growing trend of accountability in prosecutorial offices around the country" (Barone). Harris county indicated the largest number of exonerations, for instance in 2010, 128 individuals were proven innocent. This number represented 15% of all wrongful convictions in the US (Barone). The country recognized that most convictions on illegal substances were not identified in the experiment kits (Baone). Enhancing the integrity of the judicial system had made the jury to analyze the cause and evidence provision in every case. The National Registry of Exonerations estimates that 50% of wrongful convictions have resulted from false confessions false accusations, confessions, and perjury in homicide and sexual abuse cases. Other issues include official misconduct, mistaken identity, and bad forensic evidence.

The case of Timothy Cole

Timothy Brian Cole was arrested and convicted wrongly for a rape charge. After staying 25 years in jail, he died in 1999. Ten years later, DNA evidence showed that a different man was the offender. On March 24, 1985, Mallin, a student at Texas Tech reported a sexual abuse case. The crime occurred when she was parking in a church lot near her dormitory in Lubbock. A black man approached asking her for jumper cables. Malin did not have any, but the man got in through the window and forced her to perform both oral and anal sex. He also stole a watch and a ring and when the investigation began, Malin describes the offer as a black man who wore a yellow shirt and sandals. The police suspected the "Tech Rapist" and sketches on the described man were published in the campus newspaper. In 1985, Cole, a 26-year old was studying business in the same Cole, but during the night of the crime, he studied at home. His brother had hosted a card game. Two weeks after the incident, Cole went to a restaurant to get a pizza and spoke to a female police detective. He became a suspect after Malin picked his photo from six different pictures because he was Polaroid. Malin also identified Cole as the offender in a line-up involving four prisoners and Cole was arrested for sexual assault.

The Trial

In 1986, Cole was tried by a jury in Lubbock where Malin identified him as the offender. A forensic examiner testified that sperm collected at the night of rape correlated with those in the victim's body. A type-A selector was also discovered on swabs and the analyst explained that Malin and Cole had blood group A. Although the analyst found similar characteristics in the pubic hair that was previously collected, the trial did not derive a firm conclusion. Cole's defense included a claim of an asthmatic condition and he could not smoke. Cole's brothers and friends defended him by testifying that they were with him in the house. Cole's attorney complained of additional evidence, but the judge refused the calm and sentenced Cole to 25 years (Innocence Project).Johnson appealed in 1995, but Cole died in 1999 without knowing that his case was being reopened. The Innocence Project lawyers asked for a DNA test and it indicated no correlation in 2008. He was proven innocent in 2010 ( Innocence Project)

According to Zalman, and Julia the state of Texas established the Timothy Cole Act and increased compensation funds to $80,000 per year served (229). The state established the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions in 2009 to assess how wrongful convictions can be prevented. Cole's is a sad case demonstrating how misidentifications and wrong lab reports may contribute to wrongful convictions. The case has prayed a significant role in the development of judicial reforms to address the issue. However, I feel that the judge and the lab analysts made inconclusive generalization because of racial bias.

Works Cited

Barone, Emily. The Wrongly Convicted. Whey more Falsely Accused People are Being Exonerated today than ever before. Time Magazine. (2017). https://time.com/wrongly-convicted/

Green, Sydney. Fewer exonerations in Texas' Harris County drove national rate lower too, study finds. The Texas Tribune. (2018). Accessed from https://www.texastribune.org/2018/03/14/study-finds-harris-county-decreased-exonerations-last-year/

Innocence Project. Timothy Cole. Accessed on may, 5, 2020 from https://www.innocenceproject.org/cases/timothy-cole/

National Registry of Exonerations. Exonerations in the United-States Map. (2020). Accessed on May 5, 2020, from https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/Exonerations-in-the-United-States-Map.aspx

Zalman, Marvin, and Julia Carrano, eds. Wrongful conviction and criminal justice reform: Making justice. Routledge, 2013.