Conviction

• January 27th, 2020
• in Capstone Commentary

by Jaleel Washington

In a typical conviction, members of the police force gather evidence and eventually arrest the perpetrator. Prosecutors use this evidence to try to prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt the perpetrator committed the crime. If they are found guilty, sentencing follows, and the rest is history. We do a good job of punishing the right people, but what happens when we punish the wrong person?

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, wrongful conviction, also known as miscarriage of justice, is defined as “a situation in which someone is punished by the law courts for a crime that they have not committed”. Sounds bad, right? Unfortunately, many people in the US have no idea what a wrongful conviction is or how much of an impact it actually has on our society. To fully understand the contents of this post, it is important that I explain three things: 1) what is a wrongful conviction, 2) how it happens, and 3) things being done to help exonerate these innocent people.