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The Canadian case I selected in which a wrongful conviction occurred was of Robert Baltovich. In 1992 Baltovich was wrongfully convicted of the murder of his girlfriend Elizabeth Bain and he was sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for the next 17 years (Innocence Canada, 2016). This case took place in Scarborough, Ontario and Baltovich spent eight years behind bars for a crime he did not do. Baltovich got a retrial and he was finally released on April 22, 2008. Bain’s murder still remains a mystery, her car was found with a bloodstain on the back seat but her body was never discovered.
I feel like after the courts made these errors over a certain amount of time that they would come up with some type of procedures to try and minimize wrongful convictions. Also I feel like it is crazy for there to be and obvious wrongful conviction. By obvious wrongful conviction I mean like in the case of State v. Dedge where half of the evidence that was pending against him wasn’t strong enough to convict some one or the witnesses used had past history of being wrong in court. I don’t understand how the court system wouldn’t take the time to help someone that was sentenced to life in prison when all evidence proves his or her
Maria Del Carmen Garcia AP Seminar 31 August 2017 Innocent Until Proven Guilty The homicide of Hae Min Lee is intriguing considering how many facts don't add up and the many holes there was and still is in the entire investigation. In the beginning no one knows who did what and who was where? It is hard to recall a day that happened months ago.
There are people that have been exonerated based on new evidence of innocence. These people may be put on death row due to the wrongful conviction of a crime. The Innocence Project is a public policy organization that is dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals, such as Michael Blair, through hair analysis testing. The questions asked may be what crime Blair commited, who was involved, what led to the wrongful conviction, and how Blair was exonerated for the crime he had committed.
Wrongful convictions are a problem that most government officials won’t admit. The United States and other countries such as Australia have been susceptible to these miscarriages of justice. This can arise from a snowball effect of scenarios such as witness misidentification, perjured testimonies, coercive methods of interrogation, prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective counsel. These are some of the reasons that can potentially lead innocent people to be convicted of crimes they did not commit. The thousands of exonerations in the United States has caused concern for other nations to reevaluate their criminal justice system.
These wrongful convictions occur because the criminal justice system had many flaws. It was not only the system that had flaws but also the people on the board. The prosecutors "opposed testing, arguing that it would make no difference" whether or not those being convicted got DNA tested (Garrett 1). Confessions was one of the causes that often led to the downfall of those innocently convicted. In the case of Jeffrey Deskovic, the police officer was supposed to conduct the polygraph examination.
Every day people are wrongfully convicted and imprisoned due to untested/false DNA, misconduct
With millions of criminal convictions a year, more than two million people may end up behind bars(Gross). According to Samuel Gross reporter for The Washington Post, writes that also “even one percent amounts to tens of thousands of tragic [wrongful conviction] errors”(Gross). Citizens who are wrongfully convicted are incarcerated for a crime he or she did not commit. Many police officers, prosecutors, and judges are responsible for the verdict that puts innocents into prison. To be able to get exonerated many wait over a decade just to get there case looked at, not many are able to have the opportunity of getting out.
Since the founding of our judicial system there have always been individuals claiming innocence to a crime that they have been found guilty of, traditionally, after their sentencing no matter how innocent they may or may not be would have to serve, live and possibly die by the decision of their peers. The Innocence Project, founded in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck alongside Peter J. Neufeld faces this issue by challenging the sentencing of convicted individuals who claim their innocence and have factual ground to stand upon. The Innocence Project uses the recent advances in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing to prove their client’s innocence by using methods that were not available, too primitive or not provided to their clients during their investigation,
There are many reasons for wrongful convictions, in the cases of Ronald Cotton, Christopher Abernathy, and Marvin Anderson, the main evidence that led up to their convictions were eyewitness testimonies. It is sad that people waste so many years of their lives due to false misconstrued information. Therefore, eyewitness testimonies should not be sufficient evidence to make a case. Fortunately, there have been innocent people exonerated and released from prison thanks to DNA testing. People should be cautious when making an eyewitness testimony, they should make sure that they are 100% sure that they are picking the right person.
17 year-old charged in 1969 of the rape and murder of Gail Miller, the Saskatoon nurse. This had become one of Canada’s most wrongful convictions. Gail Miller was raped and stabbed at 6:45 a.m on January 31st, 1969. She was left in a snowbank, and two 2 hours later the police found her body. The police frantically tried to find all possible sex offenders in the area, but they all came up clean, so they found no leads.
It is as simple as a DNA test to have someone released on a crime they didn’t commit. According to Huffington Post in 2015, over 149 were released on a wrongful conviction being out highest number in years. (Ferner 2016) The most common reason for the convicted is eyewitness misinterpretation, when the witness is left to decide who they thought it could've been.
However, there is no way to gather the exact percent of individuals that have been wrongfully convicted. DNA evidence has certainly decreased the number of wrongfully convicted, unfortunately, there
Luckily, it is known what causes wrongful convictions and how to fix them. Many wrongful convictions are due to mistaken eyewitnesses, jailhouse snitches, or false evidence. I think many of the wrongful convictions could be solved with harder evidence, more information. A case should not rely on a single eye witness but multiple.
Imagine being in a federal prison for decades for a crime that you never committed. False confessions have been a major problem in the justice system. Having these false confessions leads to innocent citizens being convicted of a crime they have never committed. Over the past two decades approximately 254 have been exonerated by DNA evidence, which also included 17 people who were on death row according to the Innocence Project. Confessions carry powerful information for the jury, judge and also the public.
