Wrongful Convictions And The Dna Revolution: Twenty-five Years Of Freeing The Innocent
by Daniel S. Medwed /
2017 / English / PDF
4.5 MB Download
For centuries, most people believed the criminal justice system
worked - that only guilty defendants were convicted. DNA technology
shattered that belief. DNA has now freed more than three hundred
innocent prisoners in the United States. This book examines the
lessons learned from twenty-five years of DNA exonerations and
identifies lingering challenges. By studying the dataset of DNA
exonerations, we know that precise factors lead to wrongful
convictions. These include eyewitness misidentifications, false
confessions, dishonest informants, poor defense lawyering, weak
forensic evidence, and prosecutorial misconduct. In Part I,
scholars discuss the efforts of the Innocence Movement over the
past quarter century to expose the phenomenon of wrongful
convictions and to implement lasting reforms. In Part II, another
set of researchers looks ahead and evaluates what still needs to be
done to realize the ideal of a more accurate system.
For centuries, most people believed the criminal justice system
worked - that only guilty defendants were convicted. DNA technology
shattered that belief. DNA has now freed more than three hundred
innocent prisoners in the United States. This book examines the
lessons learned from twenty-five years of DNA exonerations and
identifies lingering challenges. By studying the dataset of DNA
exonerations, we know that precise factors lead to wrongful
convictions. These include eyewitness misidentifications, false
confessions, dishonest informants, poor defense lawyering, weak
forensic evidence, and prosecutorial misconduct. In Part I,
scholars discuss the efforts of the Innocence Movement over the
past quarter century to expose the phenomenon of wrongful
convictions and to implement lasting reforms. In Part II, another
set of researchers looks ahead and evaluates what still needs to be
done to realize the ideal of a more accurate system.
