Leonard Mack spent years in a US jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Here’s how identification procedures can, and have, led to wrongful convictions, and what can be done to prevent it.
One in three wrongfully convicted women were convicted of crimes that involved harming children. Once pardoned or exonerated, they experienced significant psychological and practical challenges.
Wrongful convictions affect people’s lives, even after they are exonerated. There are several complex reasons for wrongful convictions, and policy reform is essential for addressing them.
Criminal barristers continue to protest the problems with the UK justice system.
RichardBaker | Alamy
The inevitable consequence of a criminal justice system in crisis is people being wrongfully convicted. The media has a crucial role to play in monitoring the law.
‘No body, no parole’ laws may at first appear to be in the public interest. But there’s a lack of evidence they work and a risk they may disproportionately penalise the wrongfully convicted.
Eyewitness testimony can hold a lot of weight with jurors. But eyewitnesses aren’t always right, and poor investigative practices can make matters worse.
Keli Lane is serving an 18-year sentence for the 1996 murder of her infant daughter.
Paul Miller/AAP
An investigation by RMIT researchers shows that police failed to disclose 2,000 recordings of Keli Lane to defence attorneys. Failure to disclose evidence is a common issue in criminal cases.
Steven Truscott speaks with the media during a news conference in Toronto in August 2007. Truscott’s 48-year fight to clear his name ended when Ontario’s highest court acquitted him of the 1959 rape and murder of 12-year-old Lynne Harper.
(CP PHOTO/Adrian Wyld)
Fifty-nine years ago, Steven Truscott, wrongfully convicted for the murder of a schoolmate, was sentenced to hang. He was only 14 years old. Why did it take so long for justice to catch up with him?
Innocent people do confess to terrible crimes they had nothing to do with. Psychologists are investigating factors that contribute to false confession – including how well-rested a suspect feels.