Annotated Bibliography: Policing And Wrongful Conviction

Alex Campos
Mr. McCanne
ERWC-I, Period 5
16 January,2015
Annotated Bibliography
The main topic of this research paper will be policing and wrongful convictions. How is someone wrongfully convicted? What impact does this have on their life? On the community? And how are Police departments working on putting wrongful convictions to an end? There are several reasons as to why a person can be wrongfully convicted which are are eyewitness misidentifications, junk science, false confessions,government misconduct, snitches, and bad lawyers. California has wrongfully convicted two hundred and thirteen people. Technology and DNA testing have soared and greatly lowered the number of

people becoming falsely convicted. The National Institute of Justice funds a group of researchers and criminal justice officials to work together and find ways to minimize these convictions. People who have been wrongfully convicted often have psychological problems such as panic disorders, depression, and paranoia. Things that will lower the possibility of false conviction are better communication, improved assessments, stronger investigation protocols, more supervision, frequent training, and improved case reviews.
• "Causes of Wrongful Convictions." Causes of Wrongful Convictions. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2015. . There are several reasons as to why a person is wrongfully convicted but these are the most occurring ones. Eyewitness misidentification is when a witness mistakes a person for the criminal and identifies them to the police. Junk science refers to the evidence and forensic tests not being ran with validity and inaccurate assessments therefor their credibility is low. False confessions happen when a person confesses to doing a crime they did not commit because it seems easier than being interrogated. Government misconduct occurs when government officials push to find the defendant guilty even without strong evidence. Snitches are people from outside party's who testify with the wrong intentions or have the incentive for this person to be convicted. Lastly, having a bad lawyer who fails to prepare completely and do all of the investigation that they should do
• "The Cost of Wrongful Convictions." Community Alliance. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2015. .
It is unjust when someone is wrongfully convicted and this has a major impact on the community, families, and individual people.

“ The California Wrongful Convictions Project has found that 213 innocent Californians spent a collective 1,311 years in state or federal prisons before their convictions were reversed or dismissed since 1989. It cost the taxpayers more than $120 million for incarceration, settlement and compensation.” Americans pay taxes on prisons and etc. so we pay for people sitting in jail when they should be at home with their families and be free. Technology in DNA have soared but wrongful convictions are still occurring due to negligent attorneys and false evidence. People lose so much of their lives due to these unjust

actions.
• "Death Penalty Focus : Stories of Wrongful Conviction from California." Death Penalty Focus : Stories of Wrongful Conviction from California. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2015. .
“More than two hundred men and women have been wrongfully convicted of serious crimes in California, six of whom where sentenced to death”. One example is a man named Herman Atkins. He was in school to receive his doctoral degree in psychology but something got in the way of that. He was accused of raping a women during a robbery in 1986. Since technology did not yet have DNA testing they found him guilty and was sentenced to forty-five years in prison. In 1993 the innocence project asked for his DNA to be tested and it came back negative. Herman was released in 2000 having served eleven and a half years in prison. Gloria Killian was convicted of 1st degree murder in 1986. She was a victim of a false testimony from an informant when a man named Gary Masse wanted to lower his sentence so he swore under oath and admitted that Gloria helped plan the robbery and murder. She had no money for a lawyer but was lucky when a women named Joyce took interest in her case and funded it all herself. Gloria was released in 2002 after spending eighteen years in prison.
• "Department of Justice, Law & Criminology." Preventing Wrongful Convictions Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2015. .
The National Institute of Justice funds a group of researchers and criminal justice officials to work together to find a system that avoids wrongful convictions. They gathered 460 wrongful conviction cases and studied them. They looked into the location, nature, defendant, facts available to the police, and the defenses quality of work. “Other factors traditionally suggested as sources of erroneous convictions, including false confessions, criminal justice official error, and race effects, appear in statistically similar rates in both sets of cases; thus, they likely increase the chance that an innocent suspect will be indicted but not the likelihood that the indictment will result in a conviction”. Their review shows how statistically related these causes are and helps to show what the leading reasons are. They also try to view the cases from different perspectives.
• The Emergence Of Forensic Dna Analysis In The Late 1980S Has Enhanced The Criminal Justice System's Ability To Find, The Truth. In Addition To Facilitating The Identification And Conviction Of The Guilty, The Dna Testing Has Also Exposed, A Large And Growing Number Of Cases In Which Innocent People Were Convicted Of Crimes They Did Not Commit. For, and The First Time, The Criminal Justice System Now Has A Body Of Cases In Which There Is Scientific Proof That The Truth-. "Wrongful Conviction." WRONGFUL CONVICTION (n.d.): n. pag. Wisc.edu. Web. .
DNA forensics were enhanced greatly in the late 1980's.

This has helped convicting people of crimes much easier and efficient. “For the first time, the criminal justice system now has a body of cases in which there is scientific proof that the truth finding mechanisms of the system failed.” The American justice system takes great precautions to make sure people are not falsely convicted band say that “ It is better to let 10 (or 100) guilty people go free than to convict one innocent person”. However nothing is perfect and even our justice system makes mistakes. Without DNA testing Edwin Borchard identified sixty-five cases of wrongful convictions in 1932. Not everyone who is falsely convicted is completely innocent either. They could have just been convicted of a greater charge than what they actually deserved. Most people like this live with

guilt.
• Grounds, Adrian. "The First Psychiatric Assessment Of The Psychological Effects Of Wrongful Conviction And Imprisonment." Provinginnocence.org. N.p., n.d. Web. .
Adrian Grounds tested eighteen males of which sixteen were from the United Kingdom and two were from other countries. Fifteen of them were wrongly convicted of murder and served at least eleven years in prison. Grounds did not expect to find psychiatric problems since none of them had a background of psychological problems. Most of the men had inquired “enduring personality change after catastrophic experience”according to grounds. Sixteen of the eighteen were diagnosed with other disorders such as paranoia, depression, and panic disorder. This had a huge impact on their families as well because they became accustom to living without that person therefore many feelings weren’t the same. They were also released without support so it didn’t open up many opportunities for them and made it quite difficult for them to get back on their feet. Most of the men found it easier to keep their emotions in and isolate themselves. This caused years of trauma and these men never received true “justice”
• International Association Of Chiefs Of Police. "National Summit on Wrongful Convictions." National Summit On Wrongful Convictions: (2013): n. pag. Innocentproject.org. Web. <
“Due to the inherent pressure on the justice system to quickly identify, arrest, prosecute, and convict violent offenders, the investigative environment in which both law enforcement and prosecutors work is not always conducive to healthy skepticism of evidence or the direction of an investigation.” Law enforcement must be thorough and not feel pressured to make an arrest. They also need to make sure there is no emotion involved so that they can give there full effort on making the right choice. To prevent wrongful conviction officers need to be trained accordingly however some departments aren't equipped with the appropriate funding needed to attend these classes. Things that will lower these arrests are better communication, improved assessments, stronger investigation protocols, more supervision, frequent training, and improved case reviews. “Due to the inherent pressure on the justice system to quickly identify, arrest, prosecute, and convict violent offenders, the investigative environment in which both law enforcement and prosecutors work is not always conducive to healthy skepticism of evidence or the direction of an investigation.” Law enforcement must be thorough and not feel pressured to make an arrest. They also need to make sure there is no emotion involved so that they can give there full effort on making the right choice. To prevent wrongful conviction officers need to be trained accordingly however some departments aren't equipped with the appropriate funding needed to attend these classes. Things that will lower these arrests are better communication, improved assessments, stronger investigation protocols, more supervision, frequent training, and improved case reviews.