Wrongful Convictions Exonerations and Race

A vastly accepted principle of the justice system is that bringing the guilty perpetrators to justice. Consequently, the danger of a guilty person remaining free dominated public attention (Bjerk & Helland, 2018). However, the justice system has been flawed for robbing of life experiences and freedom of wrongfully convicted individuals (Gould & Leo, 2010). The flaws in the justice system have attracted public opinion and research interest. Empirical interest in wrongful convictions dates back to research work by Borchard (1932).

The introduction of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing technology in the justice system brought to light the flaws in the system by revealing the innocence of convicts in prison with some serving death or life sentences (Bjerk & Helland, 2018). Wrongful convictions occur when factually innocent persons are convicted of crimes; a miscarriage in the justice system. The handful convictions of innocent persons challenges the efficacy of the US justice system.

The National Registry of Exonerations (2019) records 2439 exonerations in the US between 1989 and 2019, equivalent to more than 21290 years lost by the innocent convicts. While non-DNA exonerations amounted to 1895, DNA exonerations accounted for 484 cases. Homicide cases are the leading cases of exonerations which amounted to 945 cases, sexual assault, 322 cases, child sex abuse; 266 cases and other 846 cases. The increasing prevalence of exonerations in the US has attracted both public, academia and policy interest as people push for an infallible justice system.

While recent strand of literature has been case studies (qualitative research), another strand of literature has focused on regression analysis of multiple cases (quantitative research). Another line of research has focused on the causes of wrongful convictions. Smith & Hattery (2011) and the consequences of wrongful convictions (Zalman et al., 2012). Smith & Hattery (2011)) identified false or coerced confessions; class and race; careless forensic work; mistaken eyewitness testimony; unethical police and prosecutor misconduct; insufficient defense counsel; and juror bias as the causes of wrongful convictions.

Gould & Leo (2010) observes that wrongful convictions yield psychological traumas, irreversible physical injuries (knife stabs, sexual assault, incarcerated), post-traumatic stress disorder, missed opportunities, severed family ties as well as undermining the public trust in the legitimacy of the justice system. Smith and Hattery (2011) notes that wrongful convictions have monetary implication to the economy and estimates $42 million in lost wages, 7 million lost work hours and $87 Million expenditure on 250 exonerees by 201. Researchers have constructed conceptual frameworks on wrongful convictions and exonerations with the dominant construct being system errors and errors of impunity.

Forst (2004) models basis of wrongful convictions and exonerations on two constructs; legal innocence or factual innocence. The popular faced “innocent until proven guilty” is the foundation of legal innocence. A convict whose trial was marred with errors due to violations of rules of evidence or poor jury instructions could claim legal innocence. Factual innocence is established where a defendant was convicted for a crime he/she didn’t commit or didn’t play any remote role.

Accordingly, Forst (2004) notes that the difference in the two constructs as errors of impunity and errors of due processes. Failure of the justice system to acquit factually guilty defendant or apprehend perpetrator results in errors of impunity while violations of factually innocent defendants’ rights manifest from errors of due process. Modeling the causal factors of wrongful convictions, Colvin (2009) identifies that errors that result in wrongful convictions occur at two stages; investigative stage and adjudicative stage.

According to Colvin (2009) post investigations wrongful accusations by law enforcement, forensic scientists, mistaken eyewitnesses result to investigative errors while errors by adjudicative process occur when the adjudicative framework fails to correct the flaws in the investigative stage resulting in failure of the justice system. Racial Disparity Wrongful convictions are associated with violations of rights and deprivation of rights of innocent victims. While wrongful convictions is a flaw to the justice system, research identifying a race differential compounds the flaw (Smith and Hattery, 2011). Wrongful convictions are disproportionately linked to racial orientation.

According to Gould and Leo (2010), the justice system has been identified to have pervasive race effects in suspects identification, prosecution, and sentencing. Smith & Hattery (2011) identifies that the National Exonerees Registry data demonstrate that 75% of exonerees consists of African Americans that account for up to 50% of the prison population and 70% of exonerees. According to Smith & Hattery (2011), the court system, the police and the public attitude in the US have for decades reinforced black rapist myths resulting to a disproportionate number of African- American men sexual assault exonerees.

According to Bjerk & Helland (2018), juries/judge bias in convicting people of a particular race due to strong beliefs of guilt regarding the defendant race increases the probability of a wrongful conviction. A racially biased judge adopts a relatively lesser evidence threshold for a conviction for particular races. Wrongful convictions arise from the bias from the prosecution and police.

Bjerk & Helland (2018) prevalence of the myths that some races have higher propensity to commit crime increases law enforcers, prosecutors, jury or judge bias which subsequently increases the cases of wrongful convictions. Therefore, the current study seeks to empirically explore the existence of race differentials in wrongful conviction with a key interest in sexual assaults crimes. The study expands the scope of the study by Bjerk & Helland (2018) by focusing on a particular set of crime; sexual assault.

The research inference will build on the literature on DNA exonerations and wrongful convictions. The current study is founded on two hypotheses; Hypothesis 1: · Black convicts have a higher probability of exoneration from a sexual assault conviction Hypothesis 2: · Post-Conviction DNA Testing increases the likelihood of sexual assault black convicts exoneration Methodology The study population entails cases of sexual assault exonerated since 1989 to 2019. The study adopts a quantitative data method to establish the effect of race differential in wrongful convictions.

The National Registry of Exonerations provides an expansive database of wrongful convictions since 1989 which includes parameters such as crime type, race, state, age, gender, year of conviction and exoneration and well as application post-conviction DNA testing. The data will be analyzed using both logistic regression analysis and ordinary least squares regression model will establish the relationship between wrongful convictions and racial difference, age and the length of the sentence. Table 1: Summary of Sexual Exoneration Statistics National Registry of Exonerations Year Exonerated 1989- 1999 58.