In the year 1992, Cameron Todd Willingham was convicted to the death penalty by a fire that killed his three kids in which the court believe he had purposely started it. Twelve years later the Texas Forensic Science Commission found that the evidence provided was wrongfully interpreted, and the evidence used against Willingham became invalid. The worst part about this heartbreaking story was that it was later known that the fire was actually accidental, and the mistakes of people costed an innocent man his life. Taking away an innocent inmates life should be an eye opener to all of us in this country. Judicial execution should not be legal in the United States for the reasons being that it has a high cost, there have been wrongful executions,…
No matter how hard the justice system tries, their will always be the risk and possibility of executing innocent people. There have been 100’s of reported cases of the justice system thinking that someone has commited a crime, then turned out to be wrong, just because it seems like the person is an obvious suspect. One reported case of this happening is a Texas man named Cameron Todd Willingham. He was executed in 2004 for allegedly setting a fire that killed all three of his daughters. After his execution, there was evidence revealing that he didn’t set the fire to cause their deaths.…
In Texas, Anthony Graves was convicted of assisting Robert Carter in multiple murders in 1992. Relying on Carter’s testimony that Graves did indeed help him commit the murders, Graves was convicted in 1994. Later, Carter admitted that the police coerced false statements and withheld evidence from the jury that could have acquitted Graves. Graves was exonerated in 2010. Although the preceding stories indicate instances in which innocent people were exonerated, it is imperative to remember that others do not get that chance.…
In chapter 10 of Examining Wrongful Convictions: Stepping Back, Moving Forward our authors Take a look into our plea-bargaining systems role into wrongful convictions. According to our authors plea- bargaining dispose of roughly 95 % of adjudicated criminal cases (Maguire, Tbls. 5.24.2008, 5.46.2006). Over my years of taking criminal justice course I have learned to so many innocent people actually plead guilty to crimes they did not commit. DNA evidence which lead to an exoneration is evidence of just that. Wrongful convictions produce out of our Plea Bargaining are much less likely to result in an exoneration due to the defendants own admittance.…
Wrongful Convictions are known to occur when a defendant is found guilty in trial when they are innocent, the defendant might have felt obligated to plead guilty to the crime to avoid a long sentence or the death penalty. It could also be obtained by a jury or an appellate court reversing the convictions, violating the defendant’s constitutional rights. There are many factors involved with the development of wrongful convictions and it depends a lot on the cases. There are different situations on each case and they might be unique and different compare to other common cases. Some cases might not always be involved with misconduct from officials, it depends whether the case issue is something newly presented and difficult to analysis.…
Wrongful convictions undermine the Criminal justice system and the procedural structure that is supposed to “uphold” and help deliver justice. Justice is a term that has many different definitions however within the Canadian Justice System, what is Justice? Is justice having criminals being convicted regardless of how evidence was obtained or excluding important evidence based on how it was obtained, which may allow someone who is guilty, to be “free”. The Justice system protects the accused by ensuring that evidence will be attained properly, as well as providing the accused with the right to remain silent and not self-incriminate. These rights are put in place to protect the rights of the accused and to try and prevent wrongful convictions.…
Some may be condemned to serve a lesser sentence such as life in prison without parole. Kirk Bloodsmith, who was also released from death row due to DNA testing, quoted “We can no longer accept this fatal flaw in our criminal justice system as a reality. Humans make mistakes and when innocent lives are at stake, there can be no room for…
Human rights are an important aspect of human dignity. One of these human rights is the “innocent till proven guilty” right. But why exactly is this an important right? This is what I intend to find out.…
Often, statements from people with incentives to testify — particularly incentives that are not disclosed to the jury — are the central evidence in convicting an innocent person. The registry itself, which looks deeply into 873 specific cases of wrongful conviction, examined cases based on court documents as well as from groups that have long documented wrongful convictions. That group of wrongfully convicted spent more than 10,000 total years in prison, according to the report, with an average of 11 years…
Such an action violates their rights and causes humiliation and suffering to the family. Even after exoneration the long term problems do not disappear and result in a lifetime of burdens such as financial suffering, emotional stress, and psychological problems become catastrophic. Criminal justice resources are also wasted due to trials and invalid incarceration of an innocent inmate. Additionally while the wrong person in jail the real assailant is free causing additional crimes within the community.…
Please answer the following questions related to Deviance. The answers should be from one to four sentences depending on the question. To give you more space in the answering, you may attach a word document at the end. 1. Define Deviance.…
Are people today being wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death? Today, there are 3,000 people on death row (Drehle). This means 3,000 inmates are waiting for their day to be executed or waiting for their date of execution to be set. According to a recent study, “120 of the roughly 3,000 inmates on death row in America might not be guilty, while additional scores of wrongfully convicted inmates are serving life in prison” (Drehle). People convicted of a crime and sentenced to death or life in prison may not have done the crime, but not much is being about the wrongful convictions.…
The injustice in the United States criminal justice system has, historically and contemporarily, attracted the attention of sociologists and researchers alike. At face value, the criminal justice system serves to maintain order amongst the chaos of criminal cases and deliver justice for those convicted. However, there appears to be a degree of irony in labeling the criminal justice system as being “unjust”, assuming that the system truly delivers justice. Yet this is supported by recent polls stating that only roughly 25% of the American population has a significant level of confidence in our system (Matsueda & Drakulich 2010). Further studies tell us that subgroups, such as minorities, have even stronger negative viewpoints toward the criminal…
John Grisham’s The Innocent Man displays the many errors contained within the American Judicial Process and the flawed institution of death row. The American criminal justice system contains discrepancies, including the manner in which court and police systems are operated. Raymond Bonner’s paper regarding holes within the judicial system illustrates the condition of innocence after conviction.…
Samantha, You are correct in saying that execution is flawed because it leaves the margin of hope for error. However, this margin of error applies to all crimes and sentences. False imprisonment could happen to any innoccent person for stealing a sticker to being a serial killer. Their is always a slim chance of inadequacy in everysystem, but I truly believe that America has the most just court system. That is why they allow inmates to appeal from deathrow in favor of innocence or lessening of sentence.…