Wrongfully Convicted And The Criminal Justice System

Anderson’s lawyer at trial and on appeal provided obviously and grossly inadequate representation. The failures of defense counsel are overwhelmingly sins of omission, especially the failure to investigate. This is proven true as over half of the exonerees from the innocence project claim government misconduct throughout their trials. This also ties in with government misconduct. Common forms of misconduct made by prosecutors are : withholding exculpatory evidence from defense, deliberately mishandling, mistreating or destroying evidence, allowing witnesses they know or should know are not truthful to testify, pressuring defense witnesses not to testify, relying on fraudulent forensic experts, making misleading arguments that overstate the probative value of testimony. Government misconduct took on a major role throughout the entire case in prosecuting Anderson. The innocence project mentions this, “In the years after Anderson’s conviction, when DNA testing had become widely available, Anderson sought to prove his innocence of the crime. After his lawyers were told by the police, prosecutor, and court that the rape kit and its contents had been destroyed, Anderson contacted the Innocence Project and his case was accepted in 1994.” All the evidence had been destroyed, wonder how that happened? It is undeniable that foul play is present within

Steven Avery did not give up and tried to prove his innocence. He tried in 1995 with some evidence under Beersten’s fingernails. While it revealed that it matched an unknown assailant, it didn’t eliminate Avery (Weghorst & Warden). In 2002, an attorney from Wisconsin Innocence Project got a court order to analyze the pubic hair collected in the rape kit, which was submitted to be compare to FBI databases. The hair did not match Avery, but did match Gregory Allen, who also lived around the area (Davey, 2005). In an article written by Susan Smith, she described this revelation as a “Cold Hit” because neither the scientist nor the police were looking for Gregory Allen despise the fact that there were several factors that would make him a suspect (Smith, 2006). On September 11, 2003, this revelation also made a joint motion by Manitowoc District Attorney’s Office and the Wisconsin Innocence Project to dismiss all the charges against Avery. The motion was granted and Steven Avery was released (Possley).

Today our world is filled with crime. The people committing these crimes must have a consequence for their illegal actions. The system in place to keeping everything fair and safe is called the criminal justice system. This was put in place to ensure there is fairness and justice served to people who break the laws set up by the government.

The criminal justice system has been proven to play a very important role in society. The criminal justice system is used to keep the citizens in check and to make sure that the laws that are made are being followed. It also is there to penalize anyone who disobeys the laws. In the criminal justice system, there are 3 main parts, law enforcement, adjudication, and corrections. Law enforcement is self-explainable. It consists of the law enforcers such as police officers and sheriffs. Adjudication is made up of people in the court house such as judges and lawyers. Corrections is made up of jailhouse matters such as prison officials. In these many components of the criminal justice system, there are all put in place to help correct people to do the right thing. There are punitive efforts and rehabilitative efforts. At time, the system may lean towards one category or more, which can be dangerous in terms of disciplinary action. The criminal justice system is more punitive than rehabilitative which makes the system ineffective.

The central issue of the Duke rape case includes Duke University student, Crystal Mangum, as the accuser of several Duke University lacrosse players of having committed sexual assault during a party that the players held in their house, which allegedly followed a stripping job Crystal Mangum performed for the players. After the allegation, a sexual assault kit was conducted and processed. Following the processing, it was found that none of the Duke University lacrosse players’ DNA was found in the sexual assault test kit. However, multiple other men’s DNA was found in the sexual assault test kit. With this knowledge, Durham District Attorney, Mike Nifong, continued to pursue the case, ignoring the results of the DNA sexual assault kit.

One of several errors in the trial was a reckless omission by a forensic scientist who testified for the prosecution. Semen was found on the victim’s body, the scientist testified, and Dominguez’s blood type matched the semen sample, meaning he could have been the perpetrator. The scientist did not tell the jury, however, that two-thirds of men in America would have matched that sample. Dominguez was convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison. He was released after serving four years and sought DNA testing at his own expense. The tests proved his innocence. His case is one of many in which limited forensic science or wrong forensic testimony has led to wrongful convictions.

Wrongful convictions are common in the court-system. In fact, wrongful convictions are not the rare events that you see or hear on televisions shows, but are very common. They stem from some sort of systematic defect that lead to wrongful convictions such as, eyewitness misidentification testimony, unvalidated or improper forensic science, false confessions and incriminating statements, DNA lab errors, false confessions, and informants (2014). Bringing awareness to all these systematic defects, which result in wrongful, is important because it will better adjust the system to avoid making the same mistakes with future cases. However, false confession is not a systematic defect. It does not occur because files were misplaced or a lab technician put one too many drops. False confessions occur because of some of psychological attempt to protect oneself and their family. Thus, the courts responsibility should be to reduce these false confessions.

"Christopher Abernathy Case - Illinois Innocence Project - UIS." Christopher Abernathy Case – Illinois Innocence Project - University of Illinois Springfield - UIS. University of Illinois, n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2017.

There are some key facts that are surrounding the murder case of JonBenet Ramsey, who was 7 years old at the time she was murdered. She was found murdered between the 25th and the 26th day of December 1996. The body of JonBenet had both lethal head injuries as well as blood located in the crotch area as well as in her crotch area of her underwear. The DNA sample had indicated that she was sexually assaulted by a male assailant. The testing consisted of methodology including modern advances in science. The police department profiled anyone who had any dealings with the family. The Boulder, Colorado police used new methods in trying to gather new evidence in JonBenet’s murder, but to no avail. The District Attorney’s office of Boulder does not suspect John Ramsey, nor any members of his

Miscarriages of justices occur due to many variables including faulty or wrong confessions, faulty identifications, wrongful DNA evidence, and the police’s overreach of power. On February 9, 1978, a student from the College of William and Mary, located in Williamsburg, Virginia was sexually assaulted at gunpoint. When the police arrived at the scene, she described her assailant as an African-American male about 5’6 in height and weighing around 145. Having gathered this information, the victim agreed to identify her assailant through photo arrays at the police station. Bennett Barbour was identified arrested and in the span of about two months was charged with rape on April 14, 1978. Despite having an alibi, not matching the victim’s description, and having brittle bone disease Barbour was declared guilty by a jury. Barbour’s case is representative of the many cases in which wrongful eyewitness testimony produces miscarriages of justice. Bennett Barbour served 5 years in prison and 29 years of parole until he was cleared of his charges due to DNA evidence when the Virginia Supreme Court cleared his charges.

As defined, a wrongful conviction is a conviction of a person accused of a crime which, in the result of the subsequent investigation, proves erroneous. Persons who are in fact innocent but who have been wrongly convicted by a jury or other court of law. For this reason, wrongful convictions disrupt trust in our justice system, therefore, such convictions undermine public safety by leaving the correct or legitimate positives of the guilty in the community to carry out future offences. With this in mind, one needs to secure the society and/or families of crime victims that are caused by the incorrect or misleading errors that all humankind institutions occasionally make through accidental, unintentional, and through failures in working the system.

The topic of wrongful convictions will be discussed in this research paper. Wrongful conviction is defined as the conviction of a person who is accused of a crime in which, in the result of subsequent investigation, proves erroneous. These persons who are in fact innocent, will be wrongly convicted by a jury or a court of law.

The criminal justice system was put into place for several reasons. There are four main goals of the criminal justice system that all work together to improve and maintain justice in society. The criminal justice system aims to protect society by preventing future crimes from happening and by keeping criminals from committing more crimes. Another goal of this system is to appropriately punish those who commit a crime after it’s been determined that a crime was committed. In addition to punishment, they aim to rehabilitate criminals so that they can be returned to society in a safe manner. Finally, the criminal justice system’s goal is also to support victims of crime so that they can return to the way they were before they were affected by

The criminal justice system is a group of institutions that work together to protect a society, prevent and control crime, and maintain justice; enforcing the laws regulated by society. As the years have gone by and society has evolved; so have the criminal justice system and its methods to accomplish its role in society. This short analysis will evaluate the main facts that have been affecting the criminal justice system for decades and have influenced the evolution the justice system is enduring in a changing society (Muraski, 2009). Amongst the changes in the system, we will discuss the effect the changes have had on the citizens and how their perceptions have evolved as well.

Today, no matter where you live crime is everywhere. No matter which culture you belong to. The people committing illegal acts must have valid punishment for their actions. To ensure right treatment and justice to people a system was constructed known as criminal justice system. Criminal justice system helps to keep streets safer and protect citizens. From city police officers, to state troopers, and to psychologists the criminal justice system has become the most important part of society to keep people safe from rapists, murders, and other criminals. Justice through sentencing has become the most common way to revenge, retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, and restoration. Every person is somehow effected from criminal justice system in both negative and positive ways; some have done through experiences and some are influenced.