Exoneration
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Exoneration occurs when the
The term "exoneration" also is used in criminal law to indicate a surety
Based on DNA evidence
Monday, April 23, 2007, Jerry Miller became the 200th person in the United States exonerated through the use of DNA evidence.[1] There is a national campaign in support of the formation of state Innocence Commissions, statewide entities that identify causes of wrongful convictions and develop state reforms that can improve the criminal justice system.
As of December 2018, 362 people in the U.S. had been exonerated based on DNA tests. In nearly half of these cases, faulty forensics contributed to the original conviction.[2]
Per February 4, 2014 NPR article, Laura Sullivan cited Samuel Gross, a University of Michigan law professor stating that exonerations were on the rise, and not just because of DNA evidence. Only one-fifth of the exonerations in 2013 relied on newly tested DNA, a little less than a third of exonerations occurred due to further investigating by law enforcement agencies.[3]
According to a 2020 study, DNA exonerations in rape cases "strongly suggest that the wrongful-conviction rate is significantly higher among black convicts than white convicts."[4]
Exonerees after exoneration
Wrongful conviction has many social, economic, and psychological consequences for people later exonerated, especially for death row exonerees.[5]
After exoneration, some exonerees publicly have joined or formed organizations like Witness to Innocence and the Innocence Project to tell their stories as a form of advocacy against the death penalty, prison conditions, or other criminal justice issues.[6]
See also
- National Registry of Exonerations
- List of exonerated death row inmates
- List of wrongful convictions in the United States
References
- ^ [1] The Innocence Project - Know the Cases: Browse Profiles:Jerry Miller Archived April 3, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Colloff, Pamela (20 December 2018). "Bloodstain Analysis Convinced a Jury She Stabbed Her 10-Year-Old Son. Now, Even Freedom Can't Give Her Back Her Life". propublica.org. ProPublica. Archived from the original on January 16, 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
- ^ Sullivan, Laura (4 Feb 2014). "Exonerations On The Rise, And Not Just Because Of DNA". NPR. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
- S2CID 51997973.
- ^ Grechenig, Nicklisch & Thoeni, Punishment Despite Reasonable Doubt – A Public Goods Experiment with Sanctions under Uncertainty, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies (JELS) 2010, vol. 7 (4), p. 847-867.
- ^ Rajah, Valli (2021). "Enhancing the tellability of death-row exoneree narratives: Exploring the role of rhetoric". Punishment & Society: 1–19.
External links
- National Registry of Exonerations, a registry of exonerations in the United States since 1989; a joint project of the Northwestern University School of Law