The Innocence
Project is a national litigation and public policy org. dedicated to
exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals through DNA testing and reforming
the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.
There have been 289 post-conviction DNA
exonerations in the United
States
• The first DNA exoneration took place in 1989. Exonerations have been won in35 states; since 2000, there have been 222 exonerations.
• 17 of the 289 people exonerated through DNA served time on death row.
• The average length of time served by exonerees is 13.5 years. The total number of years served is approximately 3,800.
• The average age of exonerees at the time of their wrongful convictions was 27.
Races of the 289 exonerees:
180 African Americans
82 Caucasians
21 Latinos
2 Asian American
4 whose race is unknown
• The true suspects and/or perpetrators have been identified in 139
of the DNA exoneration cases.
• Since 1989, there have been tens of thousands of cases
where prime suspects were identified and pursued—until DNA testing (prior to
conviction) proved that they were wrongly accused.
• In more than 25 percent of cases in a National Institute
of Justice study, suspects were excluded once DNA testing was conducted during
the criminal investigation (the study, conducted in 1995, included 10,060 cases
where testing was performed by FBI labs).
• About half of the people exonerated through
DNA testing have been financially compensated. 27 states, the federal
government, and the District of
Columbia
• 22 percent of cases closed by the Innocence
Project since 2004 were closed because of lost or missing evidence.
• About 80 percent of wrongful
conviction cases overturned through DNA testing were single
perpetrator crimes. Nearly 75 percent of the single perpetrator crimes involved
eyewitness misidentifications, and about 75 percent of them were non-homicide
cases. In about half of the single perpetrator cases, the real perpetrator has
been identified.
Leading Causes of Wrongful Convictions
These DNA exoneration cases have provided irrefutable proof that wrongful
convictions are not isolated or rare events, but arise from systemic defects
that can be precisely identified and addressed. For more than 15 years, the Innocence
Project has worked to pinpoint these trends.
Eyewitness Misidentification Testimony was a factor in nearly 75 percent of post-conviction DNA exoneration cases in theU.S.
At least 40 percent of these eyewitness identifications involved a cross racial identification (race data is currently only available on the victim, not for non-victim eyewitnesses). Studies have shown that people are less able to recognize faces of a different race than their own. These suggested reforms are embraced by leading criminal justice organizations and have been adopted in the states of New Jersey and North Carolina, large cities like Minneapolis and Seattle, and many smaller jurisdictions.
False confessions and incriminating statements lead to wrongful convictions in approximately 25 percent of cases. In 35 percent of false confession or admission cases, the defendant was 18 years old or younger and/or developmentally disabled. Twenty-two of the first 265 DNA exonerees pled guilty to crimes they did not commit.
The Innocence Project encourages police departments to electronically record all custodial interrogations in their entirety in order to prevent coercion and to provide an accurate record of the proceedings. More than 500 jurisdictions have voluntarily adopted policies to record interrogations. State supreme courts have taken action inAlaska , Massachusetts , Minnesota , New Hampshire ,
New Jersey , and Wisconsin Illinois ,
Maine , New Mexico ,
and the District of Columbia
Eyewitness Misidentification Testimony was a factor in nearly 75 percent of post-conviction DNA exoneration cases in the
At least 40 percent of these eyewitness identifications involved a cross racial identification (race data is currently only available on the victim, not for non-victim eyewitnesses). Studies have shown that people are less able to recognize faces of a different race than their own. These suggested reforms are embraced by leading criminal justice organizations and have been adopted in the states of New Jersey and North Carolina, large cities like Minneapolis and Seattle, and many smaller jurisdictions.
False confessions and incriminating statements lead to wrongful convictions in approximately 25 percent of cases. In 35 percent of false confession or admission cases, the defendant was 18 years old or younger and/or developmentally disabled. Twenty-two of the first 265 DNA exonerees pled guilty to crimes they did not commit.
The Innocence Project encourages police departments to electronically record all custodial interrogations in their entirety in order to prevent coercion and to provide an accurate record of the proceedings. More than 500 jurisdictions have voluntarily adopted policies to record interrogations. State supreme courts have taken action in
Informants contributed to wrongful convictions in 19 percent of cases. Whenever informant testimony is used, the Innocence Project recommends that the judge instruct the jury that most informant testimony is unreliable as it may be offered in return for deals, special treatment, or the dropping of charges. Prosecutors should also reveal any incentive the informant might receive, and all communication between prosecutors and informants should be recorded.
To read more, go to http://www.innocenceproject.org. Also, read John Grisham's The Innocent Man, his legal non-fiction thriller about murder and injustice in a small town.
after spending 12 yrs in Texas prisons for a murder he
didn't commit.
nearly 20 yrs in prison for a murder he didn't commit.
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