Convicting the innocent: Analyzing Wrongful Convictions - Research Paper Example

It is simply an unspeakable horror to be sentenced wrongly to serve a prison sentence, yet it is not a problem that happens only in isolated cases. It occurs with alarming regularity and steps certainly need be implemented moving forward that reduce the numbers significantly. Convicting the Innocent: Analyzing Wrongful Convictions Introduction We all make mistakes. Some are major and others are minor, but errors are a part of life that all sectors of society have learned to with through the ages.

When those mistakes adversely impact another person, however, a sharper look is taken. This is perhaps no better illustrated than in the case of wrongful convictions. Imagine being entirely innocent of a crime, no matter how big or small, yet being found guilty anyway and sentenced to time in prison. It does not matter if it is one day or one hundred years, the simple fact of the matter is that a grave wrong would have been committed against an innocent person. This is compounded even further in areas with the death penalty and an innocent person is sentenced to die for a crime that society later discovers they did not have anything to do with.

There is another side to this issue as well, which covers the reality that truly guilty people go free in exchange for an innocent person taking their place (Tan, 2011). . In some instances, it was simply a travesty of justice whereby a corrupt system ‘railroaded’ an individual into being convicted of a crime, when they had nothing to do with. This could be a result of variety of factors, such as race, poor police and detective work, false witness statements, corrupt judicial officials, and the list goes on.

It is a system that is inherent in all forms of the judiciary, not only in America. Whenever a person is wrongfully convicted, however, multiple people are impacted. Obviously, the innocent person loses months or years off their life as a ‘free’ person. This is time that they can never get back. Society also suffers. Every time a person is wrongfully convicted, the public loses a bit of trust in their judicial system. Not only do they question if they, themselves, will become a victim of such an injustice one day, but they wonder how many truly guilty people are roaming the streets, with an innocent person in their place.

The problem of wrongful convictions has been quite severe and magnified in recent years with the advent of DNA testing. Decades old cases are being reopened in instances where DNA evidence has been preserved. In many instances, a guilty person that is pleading his or her innocence is firmly found to be guilty as a result of new testing procedures. There have been many instances, however, where such DNA evidence has proven that the cries of the inmate have been accurate and that they are innocent.

Again, those are years that cannot be won back, and the integrity of the entire system suffers. In actuality, however, the actual number of cases that are proven on the basis of biological