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The Pros And Cons Of Wrongful Conviction

1242 Words5 Pages

Wrongful convictions Unfortunately, wrongful convictions are a part of our society today and have been for a very long time. It seems as technology and science advances, more and more individuals are discovered to be wrongfully convicted. There are many things that can be done to prevent such a tragic act from happening because not only does it impact the individual, but it impacts an entire society.
This paper will discuss several approaches and changes to be made within the criminal justice system to combat this major problem. One statement I am baffled to learn is that though “race, wrongful convictions and exonerations are a major issue” (Smith & Hattery, 2011, p. 74) there is very little research that has been done about it and it has been entirely ignored by sociologists who study and research similar issues. In reality, this is very horrifying especially for someone who has a loved one wrongfully incarcerated. Future research on this topic is one suggestion of how the criminal justice system can regain strength for an important an ongoing issue.
Exonerations
A project of the Michigan law school and The National Registry of Exonerations (2016), defines exoneration as a person who has who has been “convicted of a crime and later was either: (1) declared to be factually innocent by a government official or agency with the authority …show more content…

It is important to remember that once a case has been filed with the district attorney it is a very complicated road moving forward, especially in high profile cases. Therefore, regardless of the offense, an individual’s overall criminal history should be reviewed. However, this process is for information purposes and should not be a factor when deciding if the offense will be deferred or adjudicated because many white collar criminals have little to no record at all, other than minor traffic

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