Institutional Flaws In Criminal Cases
Chapter 5 describes how, within the last century, mounting scholarly evidence has exposed institutional flaws within our judicial and police systems, resulting in the convictions of innocent persons for capital crimes. In some cases, overzealous behavior by police and prosecutors, led to the imprisonment of “factually” innocent defendants. While police sometimes coerced confessions or failed to conduct full investigations, prosectors and judges failed to evidence which might exonerate the defendant. Other judicial violations found through study included failure to follow courtroom procedures related to rule of law. One of the first wrongful conviction initiatives was through a congressional investigation in 1912. Although a noble undertaking for its time, the reports was flawed in its evidentiary compilation. The data was poorly collected and its findings poorly deduced. According to the report, no innocent person had been executed by the Federal government.
Building on the increasing literature, recommendations were made to improve the processing of criminal …show more content…
cases. These recommendations included rules on how evidence could be used to inculpate the accused, appellate court review of capital cases, testimonial rules for private experts and counsel for the indigent (Thistlethwaite and Wooldredge, 2010). According to the authors, no state has fully embraced the total suggested recommendations. Scholars have continued to present persuasive assessments through the collection of records and interviews. These assessments of the miscarriage of justice have included the study of capital cases across the United States. Research has focused on the fallibility of our criminal justice system through avoidable errors.
According to the authors, Charles Black described how capital prosecutions might error by committing mistakes towards the presentation of gross physical facts against an innocent person.
Bedau and Radelet, as described Thistlethwaite and Wooldredge (2010) spent several years categorizing instances of capital defendants convicted on the basis of mistakes gross physical facts. Bedau and Radelet conservatively concluded by the end of their study, from 1900 to 1985, three innocent people per every two years have been executed in capital cases. Specifically, one person is convicted per year, per in capital crime – African-Americans were widely over-represented in the study. The authors also recognize the American criminal justice system is not designed to correct errors once they are discovered. Exonerating convicted defendants is a relatively small number and can take years to identify and
correct.
Errors from police and prosecutors were considered a relatively small percentage compared all the sources combined, but nonetheless, decision makers should pay heed to the force of their office and the consequences of sending the wrong person to prison, or worse – to death. While source errors have included unreliable testimony of witnesses, overzealous investigations and pursuing convictions in the absence of rule of law, mistakes carry an awful heavy burden for even the conscientious law official to consider. One way a prosecutor can regain ownership is through the use of DNA on cold cases and as far as reviewing previous capital cases. Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins is leading in this area by reviewing all former cases, even in the absence of defense requesting any test.
Building on the increasing literature, recommendations were made to improve the processing of criminal …show more content…
cases. These recommendations included rules on how evidence could be used to inculpate the accused, appellate court review of capital cases, testimonial rules for private experts and counsel for the indigent (Thistlethwaite and Wooldredge, 2010). According to the authors, no state has fully embraced the total suggested recommendations. Scholars have continued to present persuasive assessments through the collection of records and interviews. These assessments of the miscarriage of justice have included the study of capital cases across the United States. Research has focused on the fallibility of our criminal justice system through avoidable errors.
According to the authors, Charles Black described how capital prosecutions might error by committing mistakes towards the presentation of gross physical facts against an innocent person.
Bedau and Radelet, as described Thistlethwaite and Wooldredge (2010) spent several years categorizing instances of capital defendants convicted on the basis of mistakes gross physical facts. Bedau and Radelet conservatively concluded by the end of their study, from 1900 to 1985, three innocent people per every two years have been executed in capital cases. Specifically, one person is convicted per year, per in capital crime – African-Americans were widely over-represented in the study. The authors also recognize the American criminal justice system is not designed to correct errors once they are discovered. Exonerating convicted defendants is a relatively small number and can take years to identify and
correct.
Errors from police and prosecutors were considered a relatively small percentage compared all the sources combined, but nonetheless, decision makers should pay heed to the force of their office and the consequences of sending the wrong person to prison, or worse – to death. While source errors have included unreliable testimony of witnesses, overzealous investigations and pursuing convictions in the absence of rule of law, mistakes carry an awful heavy burden for even the conscientious law official to consider. One way a prosecutor can regain ownership is through the use of DNA on cold cases and as far as reviewing previous capital cases. Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins is leading in this area by reviewing all former cases, even in the absence of defense requesting any test.