False convictions is a failure of justice where a person is punished for a felony which he or she is not responsible. In other words, it is a conviction of a person to a crime where the subsequent investigations that led to the incrimination are erroneous ( Donovan & Klahm 2018) . False conviction is a major problem that has raised alarm in the United States. One recent study approximated that around 10,000 people are convicted wrongly yearly in the USA. Another research in 2014 reported that around 340 innocent people have been executed due to false convictions since 1973. The largest number of wrongful incriminations in the US is composed of people who have been falsely accused to have committed less serious felonies. The National Registry of Exonerations in the United States in 2012 reported that around 873 false convictions had been reversed with many others remaining unaddressed ( Koppl & Sacks, 2013) . The Exoneration agency noted the number of falsely accused individuals exceeds the witnessed exonerations. The rates of exonerations have been increasing every year implying that there is a huge number of falsely convicted people in US penitentiaries. In 2013, a Massachusetts drug store admitted to doctoring evidence and issuing false results on over 21,000 cases of drug convictions between 2004 and 2013. The tampering of evidence outrightly led to false convictions of individuals who were found guilty of crimes they never committed ( Gross, O’Brien, Hu & Kennedy, 2014) . The Innocence Project estimated that more than 120,000 people have been incarcerated in the United States due to false convictions, cases that have been rising every year. A woman in Nevada was compensated to the tune of $3 million after serving a jail term of 35 years for wrongful conviction ( Donovan & Klahm, 2018) . DNA evidence found on the crime scene led to her clearance in 2015. In 1993, Christopher Williams received a death penalty for three murder counts in Philadelphia. He was however found to be falsely convicted in 2019 after physical evidence undermined the attestation given by eye witness account. In 1981, a jury in Detroit Michigan found Gerry Thomas guilty of sexual assault and attempted murder leading to his sentencing. However, after being handed 40 to 60 years in prison, new evidence surfaced in 2020 which linked another man to the crime consequently leading to exoneration of Gerry Thomas. In 2008, Norman Graham was accused of raping and killing her girlfriend in Todd County 1980. In 2019 however, uncovering of new evidence by Graham’s friends connected the killing to another man consequently leading to exoneration of Norman Graham. David McCallum served 28 years in prison after being accused falsely of kidnapping and murder. Similarly, Kirk Bloodsworth received a two year term on death row for child rape and murder committed by another criminal ( Gross et al., 2014) . Gerard Richardson was falsely convicted of a murder, a case led to his imprisonment for twenty years. A man named Suarez received a three years sentencing in Tucson for a vicious felony committed by another man in 1997. The cases are enough evidence confirming that false convictions are common cases in the United States. In a prison population of 2.3 million, the number of falsely convicted people is believed to be between 46,000 to 230,000. Race is central to the conviction of innocent defendant in the United States ( Gross, Possley & Stephens, 2017) . In 2016, 47% of the falsely accused defendants were of African American decent. Common reasons that precipitate false convictions include snitch testimonies, erroneous confessions, eye witness misidentification and invalidated forensic science. Additional causes of false convictions include bad police work, faulty lawyering, sleeping judges and junk science. The high number of exonerations between 1989 and 2015 indicate that there is a staggering number of false convictions in the United States.
References
Donovan, K. M., & Klahm IV, C. F. (2018). How priming innocence influences public opinion on police misconduct and false convictions: a research note. Criminal Justice Review , 43 (2), 174-185.
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Gross, S. R., O’Brien, B., Hu, C., & Kennedy, E. H. (2014). Rate of false conviction of criminal defendants who are sentenced to death. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 111 (20), 7230-7235.
Gross, S. R., Possley, M., & Stephens, K. (2017). Race and wrongful convictions in the United States.
Koppl, R., & Sacks, M. (2013). The criminal justice system creates incentives for false convictions. Criminal Justice Ethics , 32 (2), 126-162.
