Wrongful Convictions and the DNA Revolution: Twenty-Five Years of Freeing the Innocent

For centuries, most people believed the criminal justice system worked - that only guilty defendants were convicted. DNA technology shattered that belief. DNA has now freed more than three hundred innocent prisoners in the United States. This book examines the lessons learned from twenty-five years of DNA exonerations and identifies lingering challenges. By studying the dataset of DNA exonerations, we know that precise factors lead to wrongful convictions. These include eyewitness misidentifications, false confessions, dishonest informants, poor defense lawyering, weak forensic evidence, and prosecutorial misconduct. In Part I, scholars discuss the efforts of the Innocence Movement over the past quarter century to expose the phenomenon of wrongful convictions and to implement lasting reforms. In Part II, another set of researchers looks ahead and evaluates what still needs to be done to realize the ideal of a more accurate system.

Author: Daniel S. Medwed
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 03/30/2017
Pages: 407
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.79lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 1.13d
ISBN: 9781107129962

About the Author
Medwed, Daniel S.: - Daniel S. Medwed's research revolves around the topic of wrongful convictions. His book, Prosecution Complex: America's Race to Convict and its Impact on the Innocent (2012), explores how even well-meaning prosecutors may contribute to wrongful convictions because of cognitive biases and an overly-deferential regime of legal and ethical rules. In 2013, he received the Robert D. Klein University Lectureship, which is awarded to a member of the faculty across Northeastern University, Massachusetts, who has obtained distinction in his or her field of study. He is also a Legal Analyst for WGBH News, Boston's local NPR and PBS affiliate.