Literature Review
Crime convictions occur every day in America. Not everyone that is convicted for a crime means he/she did the crime. Unfortunately, in the American criminal justice system, people are convicted for crime they have not occurred. Wrongful convictions are the cause of people having convictions that they did not deserve. Many factors cause a wrong conviction. Some of the causes are police misconduct, forensic errors, inaccurate confessions, and judicial mistakes.
Wrongful Convictions
America’s justice system has convicted innocent people in America. One of the primary issues with wrong convictions is false identity. In America’s judicial system procedural errors and a factual innocent person are the two main ingredients that exist when a miscarriage in the justice system occurs (Gould & Leo, 2010). Much of the cases that make up convictions for wrong conviction are murder and rape. From 1989 to 2003, 95% of 340 exonerations came from murders and rape cases. Sometime guilty pleas can be a result in some of these cases (Gould & Leo, 2010). African Americans are targeted more than any other race in the courts of America. Eyewitness error is a major contribution to the convictions of African Americans. How police officers interact with witnesses when trying to identify a suspect is imperative. Stress, visual ability, distance, cross-racial identification, time of observation, is some of the variables that contribute to the leading cause of convictions in false identity. Preventable sources of error are used by officers, to interview witness and under this terminology a witness usually mistake the mistaken suspect as the original suspect (Johnson, Griffith, & Barnaby, 2013). The innocent individuals upon release face many challenges. These victims of America’s justice system have trouble adjusting to society. Many of the offenders that are released from prison face difficulty when looking for housing. When they are release from prison a lot of their needs go unnoticed. They do not receive medical attention, as they should. Not to mention, when these innocent people are free from prison they need assistance in every aspect that a regular person receive assistance. Financial support is required, controlling anger and bitterness should be treated with therapy, and being accepted in public as a normal person is yet another issue when one is release from behind bars. Experiencing this traumatic journey, these offenders need all of the help they can receive, however; they do not get enough assistance that will help them with their transition in freedom (Gould & Leo, 2010). When a crime take place, the victim focuses more on the weapon, the suspect is utilizing to harm the victim and this type of scenario is a factor in mistaken identity. …show more content…
Suggestion a practice that leads to false identification is composed of two factors that make the identification suggestive. The first part of suggestiveness is when a law enforcement officer or another observer identifies the witness at the time of identification procedure or any time before in court identification. On the other hand, the second part is when a law enforcement officer or a detective use different procedures to make the alleged suspect standout. For example, in the case of Marvin Anderson, pictures were used to identify him; the pictures the cops presented were distorted. One picture of him was colored and the other suspect pictures were in black and white. Unfortunately, these suggestive factors incriminate innocent people until the law realizes they were wrong (Gould & Leo, 2010). It is apparent that these frailties in the judicial system play a role in identifying who the real suspect is. These types of suggestive procedures that are encouraged by law enforcement officers allow the victim to choose the person who looks like the original suspect. The procedure should only allow the individual to make judgment on who is the suspect and what the suspect looks like and the procedure that the victim follow is enhanced by officers which leads to misjudgment. This type of wrong procedure works best at identification lineups. Therefore, the victim picks the wrong suspect because the suspect in the lineup looks similar to the usual suspect (Gould & Leo, 2010). False Confessions Confessions are fabricated, prosecutors tell lies, the truth does
Crime convictions occur every day in America. Not everyone that is convicted for a crime means he/she did the crime. Unfortunately, in the American criminal justice system, people are convicted for crime they have not occurred. Wrongful convictions are the cause of people having convictions that they did not deserve. Many factors cause a wrong conviction. Some of the causes are police misconduct, forensic errors, inaccurate confessions, and judicial mistakes.
Wrongful Convictions
America’s justice system has convicted innocent people in America. One of the primary issues with wrong convictions is false identity. In America’s judicial system procedural errors and a factual innocent person are the two main ingredients that exist when a miscarriage in the justice system occurs (Gould & Leo, 2010). Much of the cases that make up convictions for wrong conviction are murder and rape. From 1989 to 2003, 95% of 340 exonerations came from murders and rape cases. Sometime guilty pleas can be a result in some of these cases (Gould & Leo, 2010). African Americans are targeted more than any other race in the courts of America. Eyewitness error is a major contribution to the convictions of African Americans. How police officers interact with witnesses when trying to identify a suspect is imperative. Stress, visual ability, distance, cross-racial identification, time of observation, is some of the variables that contribute to the leading cause of convictions in false identity. Preventable sources of error are used by officers, to interview witness and under this terminology a witness usually mistake the mistaken suspect as the original suspect (Johnson, Griffith, & Barnaby, 2013). The innocent individuals upon release face many challenges. These victims of America’s justice system have trouble adjusting to society. Many of the offenders that are released from prison face difficulty when looking for housing. When they are release from prison a lot of their needs go unnoticed. They do not receive medical attention, as they should. Not to mention, when these innocent people are free from prison they need assistance in every aspect that a regular person receive assistance. Financial support is required, controlling anger and bitterness should be treated with therapy, and being accepted in public as a normal person is yet another issue when one is release from behind bars. Experiencing this traumatic journey, these offenders need all of the help they can receive, however; they do not get enough assistance that will help them with their transition in freedom (Gould & Leo, 2010). When a crime take place, the victim focuses more on the weapon, the suspect is utilizing to harm the victim and this type of scenario is a factor in mistaken identity. …show more content…
Suggestion a practice that leads to false identification is composed of two factors that make the identification suggestive. The first part of suggestiveness is when a law enforcement officer or another observer identifies the witness at the time of identification procedure or any time before in court identification. On the other hand, the second part is when a law enforcement officer or a detective use different procedures to make the alleged suspect standout. For example, in the case of Marvin Anderson, pictures were used to identify him; the pictures the cops presented were distorted. One picture of him was colored and the other suspect pictures were in black and white. Unfortunately, these suggestive factors incriminate innocent people until the law realizes they were wrong (Gould & Leo, 2010). It is apparent that these frailties in the judicial system play a role in identifying who the real suspect is. These types of suggestive procedures that are encouraged by law enforcement officers allow the victim to choose the person who looks like the original suspect. The procedure should only allow the individual to make judgment on who is the suspect and what the suspect looks like and the procedure that the victim follow is enhanced by officers which leads to misjudgment. This type of wrong procedure works best at identification lineups. Therefore, the victim picks the wrong suspect because the suspect in the lineup looks similar to the usual suspect (Gould & Leo, 2010). False Confessions Confessions are fabricated, prosecutors tell lies, the truth does