Mod 3 Assignment

Running head: WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS 2

WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS 2

Wrongful Convictions in the Criminal Justice System

Charlene D. Parker

Saint Leo University

CRJ 590: Applied Project in Criminal Justice Administration

Dr. Karin May

January 24, 2021

I. The Problem

Wrongful convictions among the innocent can be the cause of multiple things that went wrong during the process of their conviction. When an individual is suspected or accused of committing an alleged crime, they are rightfully deserving of a fair trial and or conviction. Receiving a fair trial or conviction is not always rendered, as there are so many people that are serving jail time as a result of wrongful convictions. A wrongful conviction means that errors occurred during the investigation or somewhere after that led an innocent person to be incarcerated. These acts inhibit justice by denying innocent people their freedom, while the guilty go free. The various causes of wrongful convictions need to be addressed to prevent errors and ensure that every individual accused of committing a crime is rightfully convicted.

II. Factors Bearing on the Problem

The factors bearing on the problem are four items that causally relates to this issue and for the purpose of this paper, I will only be dealing with these four issues.

· Eyewitness misidentification- Eyewitness misidentification occurs whereby victims or eyewitnesses are confident that a person committed a crime, yet there was mistaken identity. There is an over-reliance on eyewitnesses, however since the human mind is not like a surveillance video, eyewitnesses have wrongfully identified people which have led to wrongful convictions.

· Police investigations- Sometimes there are erroneous procedures or incomplete investigations during their processing of an incident or crime scene. Wrongful identification and tarnished evidence of an accused perpetrator can be a main factor of misleading an investigation.

· False confessions- During an investigation or trial bears a great deal on obtaining a conviction. Incidences in which perpetrators are being coached or intimidated to lie about committing a crime.

· Committing perjury – There are times where individuals will knowingly commit perjury during a trial or criminal hearing to sway the judge or jury. The offender, witness or an informant, may contribute to this by changing their story and give false testimonies while being under oath.