Monday, April 23, 2007

The Innocence Project

"Today, the Innocence Project launches "200 Exonerated, Too Many Wrongfully Convicted," a month-long national campaign to create state Innocence Commissions and enact other reforms that can address and prevent wrongful convictions."

On the 200th DNA Exoneration in the U.S.

"These 200 people are a remarkably diverse group - they include a rich man's son in Oklahoma, homeless people, school teachers, day laborers, athletes and military veterans. But mostly they are African-American men without money to hire good lawyers (or, sometimes, any lawyers).

Combined, these 200 people have served about 2,500 years in prison - that's roughly a million nights in prison."

....

"The 200 DNA exonerations nationwide give us irrefutable scientific proof of the flaws in the criminal justice system. We look at every exoneration to determine what caused the wrongful conviction in the first place, and we see clear patterns. More than 75% of the wrongful convictions involved eyewitness misidentification (often cross-racial misidentification, and often from more than one witness); nearly two-thirds involve forensic science errors (from simple mistakes to outright fraud); 25% were based on false confessions (as the result of coercive interrogations or defendants' limited mental capabilities)."

1 comment:

Barbara's Journey Toward Justice said...

Show Recommendation -
NBC Dateline Tuesday May 22 The Ada Hour Injustice of Wrongful Convictions Featuring Dennis Fritz Author of Journey Toward Justice

NBC Dateline will air on Tuesday May 22 The Ada Hour.
The Ada Hour will chronicle the repeated injustice of wrongful convictions.
In addition to John Grisham, District Attorney Bill Peterson, Barry Scheck and Robert Mayer the piece will feature Dennis Fritz the author of Journey Toward Justice.
Please feel free to post your comments about The Ada Hour on my blog Barbara's Journey Toward Justice