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Research Question and Introduction Development
Topic: Safeguarding the criminal justice system from wrongful convictions through an efficient innocence program
Research Question: What aspects of the innocence program need improvement, and in what ways, in order to guard the judicial system from wrongful convictions? (Rossi, Lipsey & Freeman, 2004)
Introduction
Wrongful conviction is an abuse of justice. It entails the sentencing and subsequent punishment of someone for crimes they never committed (Huff & Killias, 2013). Wrongful convictions can happen in civil and criminal cases alike. Many criminal justice processes have been tailored to overcome this possibility and overturn such erroneous judicial decisions. It is quite difficult to achieve this, however, due to fundamental challenges in the judicial system. Wrongful convictions may take years or decades to overturn. In some instances the discovery of innocence happens after a person has already served their time in prison, after they are dead or after they are executed. Wrongful convictions and miscarriage of justice are often times synonymous. They are phrases used to refer to an unfair trial. The exploitation of better mechanisms of collecting, handling and presenting evidence is an avenue with potential to alleviate wrongful convictions. DNA evidence has gained popularity in recent years and has been...
In what was referred to as the trial of the century the defense team in the O.J Simpson versus the People case relied on DNA evidence to exonerate him of the double murder case (Abramson, 1996). A research conducted by Irazola et al. (2014) revealed that the wrongfully convicted, the victim and the actual offender suffer psychologically at the point of conviction and exoneration of the wrongfully convicted individual. Grounds (2004) performed a descriptive study on men whose convictions were overturned after appeal after their release from a long period in prison. All men apart from two were from the U.K. the researched revealed extensive morbidity in their psychology. Fourteen men were assessed as enduring changes in personality as a consequence of catastrophic experiences, 12 of them were diagnosed with PTSD (Post traumatic stress disorder), and many of them showed anxiety and mood disorders (Grounds, 2004).
Grounds (2004) uncovered fundamental issues with social adjustments and psychology for the victims of wrongful convictions and their families. The challenges experienced by the family were similar to those experienced by families of war veterans. Grounds (2004) conclude by emphasizing the fact that miscarriage of justice and the subsequent punishment…
Equal Protection: Equal protection is a fundamental constitutional protection, that in modern times, guarantees the equal effect of law to all persons. In that regard, the Supreme Court has established specific suspect classes of individuals, such as membership in a minority race, whose rights to equal protection must be guarded most scrupulously, primarily because the need to do so has been more than adequately demonstrated by aspects of relatively recent
(iv) misconduct by the police or unintentional mistake, together with the application of suggestive identification procedures, pressuring of a confession or inculpatory declaration by a suspect, not carrying out other channels of investigation following initial detection of a powerful suspect, and being unsuccessful to give the prosecutor enough proof which is able to point to an individual other than the defendant as the person behind the act. (v) Mistake
The over-enthusiasm associated with the extensive and unrestrained caution which the prosecutors avail gives birth to the settings in which a prosecutor is able to cause the conviction of an innocent individual. Besides, the mixture of over-enthusiasm and unimpeded discretion on one side and regular non-adversarialness on the other outcomes in an irregular playing field in majority of the defendants either guilty or innocent. (Griffin, 1274) The apparent cases of
However, even with the restriction of capital punishment to crimes involving murder, several issues still remain that contribute heavily to public opinion. Specifically, the methods used for execution in several states are susceptible to errors capable of causing extreme and prolonged suffering too often. That is because lethal injection involves the administration of several different intravenous drugs in a precise order; mistakes in the sequence can cause the condemned person
Safeguarding the criminal justice system from wrongful convictions through an efficient innocence program � policy evaluation proposalExecutive summaryConvicting innocent people is a global concern. The problem has been brought to the fore in the US through DNA tests that have proven the innocence of some of the people already serving jail terms. So far, up to 138 people have been exonerated of the crimes they were accused and convicted of.
Criminal Law Foundations Evaluation Criminal Law Foundations Paper Constitution signifies different political contexts safeguarding the well-being of the citizens, as well as, the convicts in the state. The constitution gives an integrated model of a republic that dictates the roles, responsibilities of different arms of the legal and criminal justice system that ensure social equity and coercion. It is recognizable that each state has a unique political system characterized by "checks and