Wrongful Conviction Case Study In Psychology

The article I selected was from a case in the state of Illinois about a man named Angel Gonzalez. Angel was charge and convicted of sexual assault and kidnapping and was sentence to 40 years in prison which he served a total of 20. He was finally exonerated in March 2015 from a crime he didn’t commit. Due to the misidentification of the victim Angel lost 20 years of his life. Luckily for him his case was opened in August 2012 by the Innocence Project which uses the most up-to-date DNA testing he was finally able to prove he was wrongly convicted. This non-profit legal organization reminds me of a show I watch every Monday night called “Conviction” which is about a unit that investigates cases of wrongful conviction but to my surprise I actually
All the different stories in this website are perfect examples of how often wrongful conviction happens. The chapter and the article relate in multiple ways to begin with every single area of psychology whether it is developmental, social, clinical or cognitive is related to some aspect of law. Also, if it wasn’t for forensic testing and technology many innocent people would still be in jail. I also believe that within the legal system there is a lot of manipulation especially in trials through forensic evidence and social sciences judges have to analyze the evidence in a court room and there is no change of it being dismissed or ignored. “On balance, it appears that the presentation of social science evidence raises the consciousness of judges and forces them to take research evidence seriously. One common perspective is that presenting research evidence to the courts “keeps judges honest” by forcing them to articulate clearly the basis for their decisions, even when they rule in a way that contradicts that evidence”(Costanzo & Krauss, 2015, p.24). Finally we learned from Costanzo and Krauss about both cultures (psychology and law) and it also explains how everything is accomplishing a greater benefit for the