Wrongful Conviction Textbook, Compare Problems Wrongful Conviction

¶ … Wrongful Conviction textbook, compare problems wrongful conviction Canada, United States, United Kingdom. What similarities differences? Discuss

Wrongful Convictions in the International Context

In spite of the fact that the law system has experienced much progress in the recent years, wrongful convictions continue to occur as lawmen encounter impediments and are unable to use the law properly. It often happens for people who are innocent to be convicted on account of an unfortunate set of circumstances. In most cases when this happens, the individuals responsible are law-enforcement officers who are obsessed with their job and have trouble understanding matters from an objective perspective. Problems also occur due to evidence being withheld, false affirmations, lying under oath, and unproductive use of guidance. Although it is impossible to verify the exact number of wrongful convictions, it is only safe to assume that thousands of individuals are wrongfully convicted on a yearly basis. By comparing information from Canada, the U.S., and the U.K., one is likely to observe that there are a series of similarities between these countries when regarding wrongful convictions. Even with this, cultural values and various concepts are also important when considering this issue.

The concept of wrongful convictions emerged during the early twentieth century as society became acquainted with several cases during which the authorities imposed justice unprofessionally. "Both scholarly attention and public attention to this issue have been greatly accelerated by the exonerations of hundreds of wrongfully convicted individuals who had been imprisoned and, in a number of cases, sentenced to death" (Huff & Killias 3-4). Forensic science has made it possible for law to be applied more effectively, considering that it can precisely determine whether or not an individual can be considered guilty in a particular situation. A series of individuals in society have gotten actively engaged in addressing this problem and have performed complex studies meant to generate more efficient means of agreeing on a person's guilt (Huff & Killias 4).

Wrongful convictions cases are not unique and one cannot simply associate them with a single culture. While some might tend to believe that society as a whole is not affected by these convictions, the fact that the masses observe innocent individuals being convicted influences them in believing that the legal system is unjust. Wrongful conditions are damaging for society's well-being because they impose punishment on an innocent person and because they enable a criminal to walk free and actually encourage him or her to continue to commit crimes. Furthermore, the actual victim of the crime cannot be completely justified as long as his or her criminal is still free. The basic point is that not only the person who is wrongfully accused is the victim in a wrongful conviction, as many more lives are at stake.

The masses started to express more interest in the matter during the 1990s and the U.S. is one of the countries that have been involved in discussing it. The country has had a history in dealing with wrongful accusations, especially considering the time period before the moment when the Constitution was issued. "As citizens of a British colony, the colonists were often subjected to secret accusations without the right to question their accusers and were generally denied the types of due process rights that U.S. citizens have taken for granted since the development of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights" (Huff & Killias 59).

While conditions have progressed greatly ever since colonial times, wrongful convictions also occur in the present in the U.S. One of the most aggravating facts regarding this country is that capital punishment is still in effect and innocent individuals can actually end up being executed on account of legislative errors. There are probably tens of individuals who have been executed on unjust grounds in the recent decades in the U.S. Experts have actually found significant mistakes in capital punishment-related convictions that have occurred in the country's recent history.

One of the common conditions where criminals in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K. have been wrongfully convicted involved elitist law enforcement groups. These communities generally consider that it is their job to put particular individuals behind bars regardless of their culpability. Special task groups in these countries are provided with missions that they are not expected to question and are determined to do everything in their power with the purpose of apprehending a suspected criminal. They are actually capable of breaking the law and they are even likely to plant evidence on suspects as long as they believe that this would assist them in accomplishing their missions (Huff & Killias 63).

The Canadian Minister of Justice is primarily responsible for reviewing convictions and it is thus essential for him to be able to employ objective thinking in analyzing cases. While someone might regard this as being a normal task, the respective individual would be inclined to ignore the fact that the law enforcement officer would have trouble putting across unprejudiced attitudes concerning his 'colleagues'. This practically means that "one police force polices the errors and malpractices of another -- outside the realm of independent review -- something that is frowned on in most jurisdictions as violating commonsense rules" (Huff & Killias 123). Lawmen that are responsible for wrongfully convicting individuals can thus end up receiving to penalization for their act while the people who are convicted are provided with no justice. The Crown Prosecution Service in the U.K. is relatively similar to the Canadian Minister of Justice and is, as a result, predisposed to favor lawmen as a result of the fact that they basically belong to the same community. While the masses tend to believe that this makes the law system more effective, it is probable that it actually contributes to increasing the number of wrongful convictions.

The U.S. issued the Innocence Protection Act of 2004 with the purpose of helping individuals who have gone through (or are about to go through) an unfair trial. This act was created in order to reduce as much as possible the number of people who risk being wrongfully convicted. This law is meant to support suspects who claim to be innocent by providing them with a series of tools that they can use to prove that they are guiltless. It does not represent a chance to escape for criminals who want to lie under oath, considering that it provides penalties for the applicant if testing demonstrates that he or she is actually responsible for the act.

In spite of the fact that it only seems natural for individuals who are wrongfully convicted to be provided with notable compensations for the years that they lost, the compensation process is controversial, lengthy, and likely to end up unsatisfactory for the victims. Compensation in the case of the U.S. is represented by an increase in "the maximum amount of damages that the U.S. Court of Federal Claims may award against the United States in cases of unjust imprisonment from a flat $5,000 to $50,000 per year in non-capital cases, and $100,000 per year in capital cases" (Bohm 110). Many individuals might be inclined to believe that this is sufficient for the victims, as they are provided with the opportunity to build their lives from scratch. However, no one thinks about the way that these people think consequently to wasting a significant part of their life behind bars. These individuals find it difficult to reintegrate society as a result of the fact that they are well-acquainted with its unjust system. Conditions are relatively similar in the U.K., considering that the highest compensation provided to an individual who experienced a wrongful conviction was 2.1 million pounds. The law previously specified that every person who was wrongfully convicted would be compensated with two million pounds per year. However, it appears that the authorities decided that this was too much for individuals who spent a large part of their lives in a correctional facility.

The concept of compensating people who have been wrongfully convicted is seriously overestimated. While the masses can believe that a person is actually better off consequent to being awarded a large sum of money, they ignore the fact that this person suffered greatly as a consequence of staying in prison. Life behind bars is particularly stressful and it is very difficult for a person to reintegrate society after he or she has been in prison for a long time. The case of Canadian William Mullins-Johnson is especially intriguing when consider compensations. This person was wrongfully convicted and stayed in jail for twelve years before finally being acquitted. He filed a series of lawsuits against various communities and he hopes to be provided with several million dollars for his suffering. However, he considers that there is no amount of money that he would not trade in order to get his life back. Mullins-Johnson believes that prison life changed him and that he can never return to being the person he was before going to jail. He continues to isolate himself from society and has problems trusting individuals. His trust issues are most probably related to the fact that his own country betrayed him by sentencing him to jail in spite of his innocence. One might consider that if Mullins-Johnson were to have access to benefits put across by the American Innocence Protection Act of 2004 he would have had more chances of escaping prison at the time when he was convicted. Mullins-Johnson eventually managed to get $4.25 million as a form of compensation (Wrongfully convicted Ont. man gets $4.25M). In spite of his retribution, it is only safe to assume that he is unhappy with how the authorities dealt with his case.

Conditions are much more problematic in the U.S. however, when considering that wrongfully convicted individuals often end up receiving little to no compensation for the time that they spend behind bars. The case of American John Scott, a construction worker who spent 4 years in jail as a result of being wrongfully identified as a criminal during a lineup of suspects, demonstrates that some people are actually ignored when it comes to being properly compensated. Scott received $25,000 for each year that he spent in prison. This makes it possible for one to understand the gravity of this situation, considering that the authorities virtually ignored Scott's suffering and provided him with an insignificant sum of money. One of Scott's primary 'mistakes' was that his skin was black. This influenced witnesses in identifying him as the perpetrator and in expressing little to no doubt regarding his culpability (Merrefield). It is very probable that this trial contained racist elements and that the witnesses and the authorities were both inclined to charge him on account of his skin color.

Conditions are especially alarming when considering racial prejudice in law courts. Studies "have shown that among 350 cases of documented wrongful convictions in the United States during the 20th century, 40% involved a black defendant" (Grossman & Roberts 258). African-Americans and Hispanics in the U.S. are typically categorized as being predisposed to committing criminal acts and are thus provided with very little fairness when they are considered suspects. Stereotypes dominate the environment in the country and lawmen find it difficult to refrain from being influenced by them. Particular individuals can be differentiated on account of their skin color or background and the authorities are inclined to consider that it is easier to express a verdict when dealing with a person whose skin color makes him or her 'predisposed to committing crimes' (Grossman & Roberts 258).

Although racial issues are less frequent in Canada, this country has also experienced wrongful convictions issued as a result or racism. The case of Donald Marshall Jr. demonstrates that racism is a concept that is deeply rooted in the Canadian justice system. Marshall to a Mi'kmaq First Nations people community and was charged with the murder of Sandy Seale. The individuals who dealt with the trial and who were in control of Marshall's life were very unprofessional in their field of work and came to express little doubt regarding the actual criminal as a result of they believed that the man's background made him a likely suspect. Police officers considered that Marshall's criminal background and the fact that he was from a native community actually made their case easier. In contrast to Marshall, the real killer, Rob Ebsary, was an elderly white male and was as a result less probable to have committed the crime. Ebsary was practically encouraged to deny his participation in the crime because he observed how the authorities linked Marshall to the crime. What is even more surprising is that the police had managed to build a strong case against Marshall during the trial. Several witnesses emerged and claimed to have seen the adolescent murder Seale. Conditions became critical in 1983 when another witness came out and contradicted initial testimonies by saying that another man was responsible for the killing. Marshall's conviction could have been prevented if people were to behave professionally and if they focused on doing their job instead of judging individuals on account of their background. Marshall wasted 11 years of his life and received 250,000 in compensation for it. It is very disturbing that modern-day communities can simply put a price on freedom and that people who work in the law enforcement business guide themselves in accordance with prejudiced principles.