Why are there so many wrongful convictions in the U.S? (legal, statistics)
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Wrongful convictions happen all over the world but it seems like they happen far more frequently in the U.S. A country that claims to have the best justice system in the world.
There several systemic reasons why wrongful convictions happen.
-politics. DA's and prosecutors are often elected positions. Therefore they are incentivized to produce higher conviction rates.
-it is legal for a prosecutor to offer one criminal a shorter sentence for his or her crime if they cooperate in another case. The so-called "jail house confession". Or, often times individuals who are facing prison time for an unrelated crime will be a witness in another case because they are offered a deal. In these cases the witness has every incentive to lie.
-police pressuring individuals into giving false testimony. How many times do we hear about someone being pressured to give a statement to police that implicates someone else because the police threaten to arrest them for an unrelated crime?
-juries are more likely to convict someone of a crime. Especially older jurors. And prosecutors know this, so they try to stack jurors with older people.
Maybe in America wrongful convictions seem too common because the entire justice system is stacked against defendants. I also think that the profession of prosecutor attracts people who are more likely to be narcissists and even psychopaths. How else to explain some of the shocking behavior by prosecutors who knowingly convict innocent people?
I don't think we have a higher false conviction rate than anyone else.. But, being a free and open society.. It certainly does make news (as it should) when it happens.
I think we have a far lower incidence of it now than in the past as well. Remember that.. Some Texas county had a crime lab that was just making crap up.. That's the exception, not the rule. You can google that.. Look for "Texas county high exoneration rate" or similar. I've said it before though.. ONE wrongfully convicted person is too many.
I think that some jury members are just going through the motions to get out of there as well. Reasonable doubt can be a tough thing to live with.. If you're on a jury for.. say a murder case.. And the prosecution presents evidence that.. You THINK the person did it, but there's nagging doubt in your mind.. There's a part of some people who are on the jury that thinks "If I'm wrong and send this person to prison, someone else will come along behind me and fix it. If I'm wrong and let him go, and he kills again, that's on me".
I don't agree with that.. But.. I'm sure it happens.
I'm actually a big proponent of jury nullification. I think that is the biggest tool we have as citizens. I hate when things come to that, but..
I don't think we have a higher false conviction rate than anyone else.. But, being a free and open society.. It certainly does make news (as it should) when it happens.
I think we have a far lower incidence of it now than in the past as well. Remember that.. Some Texas county had a crime lab that was just making crap up.. That's the exception, not the rule. You can google that.. Look for "Texas county high exoneration rate" or similar. I've said it before though.. ONE wrongfully convicted person is too many.
I think that some jury members are just going through the motions to get out of there as well. Reasonable doubt can be a tough thing to live with.. If you're on a jury for.. say a murder case.. And the prosecution presents evidence that.. You THINK the person did it, but there's nagging doubt in your mind.. There's a part of some people who are on the jury that thinks "If I'm wrong and send this person to prison, someone else will come along behind me and fix it. If I'm wrong and let him go, and he kills again, that's on me".
I don't agree with that.. But.. I'm sure it happens.
I'm actually a big proponent of jury nullification. I think that is the biggest tool we have as citizens. I hate when things come to that, but..
The statistics are probably hard to come by but I would bet that the false conviction rate in the US is much higher than say for instance a country like Germany or France, or Norway. Or most Western European countries for that matter.
Politics seems to play a far greater role in our judicial system than other democratic countries.
Wrongful convictions happen all over the world but it seems like they happen far more frequently in the U.S. A country that claims to have the best justice system in the world.
Seems is the important word here. First, because we are both a country with a fairly open government and also have the death penalty, there are more groups with well trained volunteers that zestfully pursue wrongful convictions of strangers. Second, there is a difference between factual innocence and procedural errors. Some over turned cases involve guilty individuals. Third, we live here, we hear about these cases.
Surely, you do not think we have a higher conviction rate if innocent people than places like China, Saudi Arabia, Columbia, Gambia, etc? Or are you only discussing Europe and/or the English speaking countries?
Regardless, what little research there is, despite it's acknowledged limitations, indicates we are neither alone, nor the worst - even among our fellow "civilized" countries. We are however, the place with the most statistical information.
I don't know that there is any reliable way of knowing the numbers. Given the number of crimes and convictions, the ones we hear about are still a very low percentage, each is a tragic mistake though.
I don't know that there is any reliable way of knowing the numbers. Given the number of crimes and convictions, the ones we hear about are still a very low percentage, each is a tragic mistake though.
Coincidentally, I recently posted a thread in the Great Debate forum that deals with the subject matter.
In part, it notes the following data.
"In America, the death penalty was declared unconstitutional between 1972 and 1975. However, it was reinstated during the year 1976.
After its reinstatement, there have been 1,366 executions.
During this same time period, there have been 137 death row exonerations (this excludes 6 exonerations in 1976 that took place in the months prior to the reinstatement of the death penalty).
What is clear is that in the most critical of all trials, the wrongful conviction rate exceeds 9%, which is atrocious. If juries can't get capital murder trials right the vast majority of the time, I have to believe that verdicts in criminal trials of less import fare even more poorly.
I suspect the overall rate for wrongful convictions in all trials by juries in America are very likely to be in the 15% to 20% range.
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