Pros And Cons Of Wrongful Convictions

The five factors associated with wrongful convictions are as follows, adversarial process, eyewitness identification, forensic evidence misconduct/ error, interrogation and confessions, and informants/ jailhouse snitches. The adversarial process relies on the skills and resources of the defense and prosecution. Eyewitness identification includes evidence from a witness who has seen the event and can pick out a perpetrator. Forensic evidence misconduct/ error involves forensic evidence that has been collected poorly or handled wrong down the line and tampered. Interrogation and confessions have exonerated about 20% of the wrongful convictions cases, but with this can lead to false confessions. Lastly, informants/ jailhouse snitches about 15% of DNA exonerated cases have involved this

These points can effect the counsel and lead to wrongful convictions. Yaroshefsky discussed the Strickland standard which involves the sixth amendment right to counsel but is violated by the inadequate performance of the counsel. Not only should the council received a fair trial but they also need it to be adequate. The example used in the article for bad lawyering was the Earl Washington Jr. trial. Cases involving the death penalty take months of preparation, with many witnesses and experts to testify. The case of Washington only lasted five hours and included two defense witnesses. Washington’s inadequate performance of his counsel led to him being put to death. With a better counsel he would have most likely had a different outcome, and not have been charged. The type of representation given can affect the case and cause wrongful convictions. Eyewitness misidentification causes about 70% of wrongful convictions. In Memon’s article about cognitive interviews being superior over regular interviewing, because it offers more accurate details, and allows the witness to recall more information.