Other techniques, such as blood typing, which have been validated can be improperly conducted in a lab or inaccurately described in trial. Misconduct or Improper Forensic Science: unlike DNA analysis, which was developed through rigorous testing and research, other forensics techniques, such as hair microscopy, bit mark analysis, and shoe print comparisons have not been subjected to systematic evaluation. The human brain is susceptible to error, therefore people can neither record events exactly as they see them nor will they be will able to recall them without some uncertainty or error.Ģ. Witness testimony is like any other piece of evidence at a crime scene: it must be preserved and retrieved carefully to avoid contamination. Over thirty years of social science research has proven that eyewitness testimony is, more often than not, unreliable or inaccurate. Witness Misidentification: this is the single most common cause of wrongful convictions playing a role in 75% of the convictions that have been overturned by DNA testing.
In the Innocence Project’s work to free wrongfully convicted inmates, it has narrowed down five major reasons why innocent people are convicted:ġ.
The Innocence Project’s work in DNA analysis has proven that wrongful convictions are not isolated occurrences, but are a symptom of the larger problems within the justice system. These wrongly convicted individuals served an average of thirteen years in prison before their release. With the help of this organization, more the 300 people in the United States have been freed, including eighteen who were on death row.
The Innocence Project, founded in 1992 by lawyers Barry Scheck and Peter Neufield, is a national non-profit organization committed to exonerating the wrongfully convicted through DNA testing, and reforming the criminal justice system to stop further injustice.
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