Wrongful convictions once were a very prevalent thing to happen in the US. It was a common thing in both civil and criminal proceedings.
Hundreds and thousands of innocent people have ended up in jail for such miscarriage of justice. Even though, eventually, they were exonerated, they still had to serve a significant amount of time in prison.
Some jurisdictions were even generous enough to provide the wrongfully convicted with compensation.
This article will delve into detail about the pitfalls of wrongful convictions. It would also highlight the different heinous wrongful convictions that have scarred American citizens for a long time.
Understanding Wrongful Convictions
Accurate convictions are the backbone of the criminal justice system in the US. It helps build and strengthen our society and bring about a feasible way to restore faith in people that justice still exists.
However, the concept of wrongful convictions is now increasing which is now making normal people not trust the integrity of our justice. A wrongful conviction can happen anyway ranging from factual misinterpretation or even botched forensic results.
Botched forensic results are one of the most primary reasons for wrongful convictions. In this case, postconviction DNA has contributed to hundreds of exonerations in the last few years. DNA technology has now opened a new avenue of relieving people from crimes that they haven’t even committed.
What Causes Wrongful Convictions?
There are 5 major factors that can cause wrongful convictions. They are:
Unreliability in Testimony
Witness testimonies, especially eyewitness testimony are extremely unreliable and have contributed to more than 70% of wrongful convictions.
Psychologists suggest that the way police line-ups are conducted can alter the memory of an eyewitness. This, in turn, results in misidentification in a significant way. It has also made the witnesses be biased to a particular ethnic group. Hence, the end result might even be unreliable which can make the entire case stand on falsehood.
Forensic Mistakes
Forensic analysis is also one of the major reasons for wrongful convictions. Even though technology acts as a boon for us, sometimes they are also the reason for our downfall.
Wrongful convictions primarily occur when forensic experts sometimes mistake and contaminate the method of packaging while transporting it to a secured facility. Sometimes it is often done unintentionally as well. Hence, if proper protocols are not followed, it can cause a miscarriage of justice.
Other than that, faulty analysis by inexperienced analysts is also one of the primary reasons for wrongful convictions. Since the court bestows more of its trust on forensic evidence than anything else. Over the years, there have been misrepresentations on serological analyses, and microscopic hair comparison.
False Confessions
There’s a high possibility of innocent people admitting to crimes that they haven’t committed. The most false confessions are gained in murder and rape cases. Sometimes, police pressure compels someone to come up with false statements as well through various coercive techniques.
Perjury
In a police investigation, it’s common to commit perjury and come up with false accusations. This often happens when the person who testifies against the defendant might get paid or get any other handsome compensation.
Prosecutorial Misconduct
Sometimes, in order to win the case, the prosecutor often conceals or destroys evidence that might make them lose conviction. Sometimes the prosecutor pays the witnesses to falsely testify to convict the defendant wrongfully. Other than that, prosecutors often botch the results of forensics and take other unlawful ways to swing the verdict their way.
Top 10 Wrongful Convictions in the US
There are some cases of wrongful convictions in the US that have severely harmed the reputation of these people and traumatized them to their core. Let’s see who they are and how they were wrongfully convicted.
Kirstin Lobato
Even though some people might term it as a hate crime, but she was wrongfully convicted for a crime that she didn’t even commit.
Apparently, she stabbed a black man as he tried to attack her. However, the police found the body of someone else and based the murder on her. The other dead body, also had the same mutilated genitalia as Kirstin did to her victim. Out of fear, Kirstin confessed her crime.
Years later, she was acquitted when her defense attorney ordered another DNA test which proved Kirstin’s absence from the crime scene. However, Kirsten still had to serve her time for 16 years for a crime she didn’t commit.
Melinda Bronson
Sexual abuse is one of the worst accusations one can get, and Melinda has also suffered the consequences of being a registered sex offender for 9 years.
The charges against her were brought by her son A.R. of being fondled by Melinda. She was charged with sexual abuse of endangering the child and in February 2002, she got registered as a sex offender.
Years later in 2007, A.R. as an adult revealed that his alcoholic father coerced him to make the claim of sexual abuse against his mother. In light of this fact, the court then reversed Melinda’s conviction and subsequently made the prosecution to dismiss the case.
Brian Banks
Like sexual abuse, rape is also a sensitive issue which is not addressed often. Brian Banks being just a student at the Long Beach Polytechnic High School was accused of rape by his fellow classmate. To avoid a lengthy sentence he accepted a plea deal and ended up serving his entire sentence.
Later Wanetta Gibson, the one who accused him of rape, admitted that the sexual contact was mutual and consensual. She did that so that her mother wouldn’t find out about her sexual activity.
Later, Wanetta’s family received “hush money” of $1.5 million.
Sheldon Thomas
Sheldon Thomas spent 19 years in prison for a crime he didn’t even commit. He was mistaken for someone else due to his inability to recognize the guilty person from their foggy memory. However, in 2023, Thomas’s conviction was finally overturned and he was free to go.
Melissa Calusinski
State attorneys contended that Melissa murdered a 16-month-old kid called Benjamin Kingan to the ground. Even though there was no possible eyewitness to the case, she was still convicted under these false charges.
Aisha McClinton
Primarily based on religious prejudice, Aisha McClinton was charged with possession of weapons and marijuana. Even though years later she tried to counter those charges by filing a certificate of innocence that was denied multiple times. However, she finally got the certificate in November 2018.
Jasmine Eskew
Nothing is compared to a mother’s love. A mother cannot hurt her daughter, right? However, the police begged to differ. Jasmine was convicted by the police under deliberate coercion against homicide and felony assault of her daughter who is a minor. Later she was acquitted, and her boyfriend Robby was held liable by the Montana Supreme Court.
Clarens Desrouleaux
This case of theft was a sensitive issue and it borders on violating civil rights. In this case, Clarens was charged with three burglaries he didn’t commit. He was even coerced by the police to confess the crimes he didn’t commit. Being a native Haitian, he was even deported back to Haiti and had to face immense discrimination during the case.
Later in 2018, Clarens filed a case against the police who coerced him to make that confession, and the charges were dropped after that substantially.
Brenda Jones
Brenda Jones was wrongfully accused of arson. She was coerced by her former roommate Alan to tell the police that she burnt the house down. Brenda was getting assaulted by Alan at that time and she reported the assault to the police. However, the police didn’t take her testimony into account and she got arrested and charged with arson.
Nine months later, when Brenda’s public defender reopened the case, it was found that there were several differences in the account given by the police on Brenda. The court substantially understood that Brenda was framed making the prosecution dismiss her charges.
Aaron Culbertson
In this case, even though Aaron was a minor, he was still penalized accordingly as you penalize adults. Aaron was wrongfully accused of this crime in Ohio. He had to spend 4 years in prison. However, in December 2022, the state dismissed the charge and hence Aaron was released.
Final Thoughts…
Wrongful conviction is a curse and can cause harm to anyone. It’s pivotal that you being a lawyer authenticate all the evidence before even presenting it in court.
And that’s a wrap! This is all you had to know about wrongful convictions and its implications. We hope this blog was informative and helpful.
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