Автор: Daniel S. Medwed
Название: Wrongful Convictions and the DNA Revolution: Twenty-Five Years of Freeing the Innocent
Издательство: Cambridge University Press
Год: 2017
ISBN: 1107129966
Язык: English
Формат: pdf
Размер: 11,4 mb
Страниц: 407
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.
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.