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For more than two decades after Gregg v. Georgia (1976), use of the death penalty greatly expanded across the United States. Since 2000, however, it has declined significantly. Perhaps the most notable explanation for this decline is the contemporary focus on wrongful convictions. In this paper, we aim to contextualize the modern death penalty decline, and its connection with innocence, through the theoretical lens of social movements and collective action. We argue that dual opportunities reshaped the modern anti‐death penalty movement. First, the McCleskey v. Kemp (1987) ruling affirmed the federal courts' resistance to abolition and inspired activists to begin shifting toward state‐level political abolitionism. Activists then took advantage of the developing interest in wrongful convictions. Specifically, innocence‐related abolitionist activities in Illinois reinvigorated the anti‐death penalty movement, expanded the advocacy network, and fundamentally reframed the debate around capital punishment in the United States. We suggest that, collectively, these dual opportunities reshaped the anti‐death penalty movement into one that emphasized strategies reaching beyond constitutionality and propelled the movement into the twenty‐first century with a foundation for successful political abolitionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to prevent tunnel vision and ultimately miscarriages of justice, police, prosecutors and judges must remain open to alternative scenarios in which the suspect is in fact innocent. However, it is not evident from the literature that people are sufficiently aware of how alternative scenarios should be employed in the decision making process. In the present research, 230 Dutch police officers read one of three versions of a case description. In the first version, there was strong evidence against the primary suspect. In the second version, the suspect additionally confessed, increasing the body of incriminating evidence. In the third version, the suspect confessed, but before deciding on their conviction, participants were instructed to consider how well each piece of evidence fitted in the primary but also in the alternative scenario (in which the crime was committed by an alternative suspect). Contrary to expectations, the confession did not increase conviction and the alternative‐scenario consideration did not suppress conviction. Implications of these null findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implications of a strategic model of plea bargaining are threefold. First, plea bargaining unequivocally increases wrongful convictions. Next, partial bans on plea bargaining reduce the frequency of wrongful convictions, and the reduction rises with the strength of the ban. Lastly, police share an important role in minimizing wrongful convictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Wrongful criminal conviction can significantly impair the mental health of exonerees. However, much less is known about wrongful accusation: the impact of wrongful legal allegations or investigations—absent conviction—on mental health outcomes. Method: To address this gap, we surveyed 101 victims of the Post Office Scandal in the United Kingdom who were wrongly accused, convicted and/or investigated for financial 'losses' that were actually caused by software errors. Results: Most respondents reported clinically significant post‐traumatic stress (67%) and depressive (60%) symptoms—irrespective of the outcome of their case. These results suggest that both wrongful accusation and wrongful conviction can significantly impair mental health. Conclusion: Our findings have important implications for victims of the Post Office Scandal and highlight the unique needs of people impacted by flawed convictions and flawed legal accusations. Our findings underscore the need to provide exonerees with holistic postrelease support and demonstrate that this support should also be extended to victims of wrongful accusation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the three previously studied categories of variables that are related to eyewitness identification accuracy: estimator (characteristics of the witnessing conditions), system (characteristics of the identification procedure that are under the control of the criminal legal system), and reflector (variables that reflect the likely accuracy of a witness). Although eyewitness scholars frequently turn to these variables and models of memory to explain why eyewitnesses make mistakes, none of these variables provides a reasonable explanation for the large racial disparities in wrongful convictions based on mistaken identifications, yet problematic policing practices might. The policies and practices guiding police efforts to develop suspects as well as the decisions of officers to place a suspect at risk of misidentification determine the base‐rate of innocent suspects that appear in identification procedures. Current police practices—from developing suspects based on hunches, through facial recognition technology, or by pressuring reluctant witnesses to make identifications—increase the likelihood that innocent suspects will be placed in lineups. An increase in lineups with innocent suspects increases the ratio of mistaken to correct identifications without changes in witness performance. Requirements for evidence‐based suspicion, video recording identification procedures, and prohibiting coercive interviewing techniques with reluctant witnesses are recommended for reducing the effect of unreliable suspect development methods on eyewitness evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of an imbalanced judiciary on the generation and rectification of wrongful convictions in China. Specifically, we investigate the influence of the Political and Legal Affairs Commissions (PLACs), which are tasked by the Communist Party with controlling judicial authorities. By analyzing 335 cases of wrongful convictions between 1990 and 2010, we have identified a significant relationship between the appointment of PLAC secretaries as chiefs of police and an increase in wrongful convictions. This arrangement disrupts the checks within the judicial system, leading to the prosecution of an additional 251 individuals each year in a given province. Our research reveals that in 81% of the cases examined, the correction of a wrongful conviction occurred after the secretary of the provincial PLAC, who held oversight over the court responsible for the conviction, had left office. Furthermore, even after the responsible PLAC secretaries had been replaced, if the successors were previously their subordinates, the likelihood of reversing wrongful convictions remained low. Our findings provide persuasive evidence in favour of judicial independence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results are reported of a study to examine case factors associated with 732 wrongful convictions classified by the National Registry of Exonerations as being associated with "False or Misleading Forensic Evidence." A forensic error typology has been developed to provide a structure for the categorization and coding of factors relating to misstatements in forensic science reports; errors of individualization or classification; testimony errors; issues relating to trials and officers of the court; and evidence handling and reporting issues. This study, which included the analysis of 1391 forensic examinations, demonstrates that most errors related to forensic evidence are not identification or classification errors by forensic scientists. When such errors are made, they are frequently associated with incompetent or fraudulent examiners, disciplines with an inadequate scientific foundation, or organizational deficiencies in training, management, governance, or resources. More often, forensic reports or testimony miscommunicate results, do not conform to established standards, or fail to provide appropriate limiting information. Just as importantly, actors within the broader criminal justice system—but not under the purview of any forensic science organization—may contribute to errors that may be related to the forensic evidence. System issues include reliance on presumptive tests without confirmation by a forensic laboratory, use of independent experts outside the administrative control of public laboratories, inadequate defense, and suppression or misrepresentation of forensic evidence by investigators or prosecutors. In approximately half of wrongful convictions analyzed, improved technology, testimony standards, or practice standards may have prevented a wrongful conviction at the time of trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eyewitness testimony is a powerful form of evidence, and this is especially true in the United States criminal legal system. At the same time, eyewitness misidentification is the greatest contributing factor to wrongful convictions proven by DNA testing. In this paper, I offer a close examination of this tension between the enormous epistemic weight that eyewitness testimony is afforded in the United States criminal legal system and the fact that there are important questions about its reliability as a source of evidence. In Sections 1 and 2, I argue that lineups and interrogations often function by way of extracting testimony from an eyewitness through practices that are manipulative, deceptive, or coercive. I then show, in Section 3, that when testimony that is extracted in these ways is given an unwarranted excess of credibility, the eyewitness in question is the victim of what I call agential testimonial injustice. I conclude that since much of the testimony of eyewitnesses is both extracted and given an excess of credibility, there is a fairly widespread form of epistemic injustice being inflicted upon testifiers in the United States criminal legal system. This calls for reforms along both dimensions—lineups and interrogations should go through a witness's epistemic agency, rather than bypassing, exploiting, or undermining it, and the weight of the resulting testimony should be viewed in the broader context of its significant fallibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we use data from interviews with 45 criminal defence lawyers to examine the reasons behind a decline in publicly funded representation in applications to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC). In doing so, we pay particular attention to the relative significance of financial and emotional factors. Our analysis finds that financial factors related to changes to legal aid are significant drivers of a decline in publicly funded representation, but that the financial unviability of CCRC work is also compounded by emotional factors. These include a sense of insecurity, low levels of satisfaction, and a perceived lack of recognition and appreciation, symbolized by low levels of remuneration and exacerbated by poor relationships with external parties. Emotional factors thus combine with financial factors to reduce the supply of publicly funded advice and deter junior lawyers from specializing in this niche area of practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Daubert skews the contribution of forensic science because it only took into account its Galilean dimension (construction of general predictive models). However, forensic science should better be classified in the historical sciences (clinical approach to reconstruct a past event of presence or activity). We therefore need a complementary approach that integrates the necessarily "clinical" part in the resolution of forensic issues. Such an evolution involves semiotics. While recognizing that the Bayesian way of thinking is the only prescriptive available model for interpretation fitting well in the Galilean paradigm, the complexity of the reconstruction of a past‐uncontrolled singular case and the robustness of available relevant data to it, invites consideration of its implementation in a semiotic line of arguments. Indeed, Bayes makes it possible to remain in a single harmonized model integrating both the clinical and Galilean dimensions, but rapidly the complexity of the modeling and its mathematization come up against more qualitative natural and legal reasoning. Two different systems of reasoning at stake are inevitably creating a "bug" that could explain the current forensic crisis and miscarriages of justice. This anomaly is reflected in the issue of transparency (misunderstandings by and between interlocutors on the nature of the expertise, if not science). Peirce offers a path to address the tension between complementary reasoning systems. This article is categorized under:Crime Scene Investigation > Epistemology and MethodCrime Scene Investigation > From Traces to Intelligence and EvidenceCrime Scene Investigation > Education and Formation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While many of us would not want to abandon the requirement that a defendant can only be found guilty of a serious criminal offence by a unanimous jury, we should not expect epistemology to give us the resources we need for justifying this requirement. The doubts that might prevent jurors from reaching unanimity do not show that, say, the BARD standard has not been met. Even if it were true, as some have suggested, that rationality requires that a jury composed of epistemic peers should coalesce around one view about the defendant's guilt, the failure to reach unanimity might be a good reason to worry about the epistemic failings of some small number of jurors but no reason to worry that we've failed to protect the defendant from an unjustified imposition of, say, the risk against wrongful conviction. The arguments for the unanimity requirement will need to come from outside of epistemology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In almost all countries worldwide, the first point of contact with the criminal justice system is with the police. A large proportion of these individuals may have vulnerabilities, such as mental health difficulties. Given the complexities associated with vulnerable suspects, such interviews may be compromised, which could lead to a miscarriage of justice. In England and Wales, the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) 1984 and its accompanying Codes of Practice lay down requirements for interviewing vulnerable suspects and provide for attendance of "appropriate adults" to support communication between police and the vulnerable suspect. To date, however, their role has been underresearched.Aims/hypotheses: To explore the role of appropriate adults in police interviews and test the hypotheses, first, that appropriate adults more commonly remain passive during interview than expected from guidance and, second, that any interventions are more likely than not to follow examples in current guidance.Methods: Transcripts of police interviews conducted with suspects with possible mental disorder and an appropriate adult present (N = 27) were analysed using a specially developed coding framework.Results: Appropriate adults were significantly more likely to remain passive than to intervene, even when current guidance would suggest intervention. When they did intervene, however, such interventions were significantly more likely than not to follow from guidance than the vulnerable suspect's needs. Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) 1984.Conclusions/implications For Practice: In our sample, appropriate adults were not fulfilling their role as outlined in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) 1984 and accompanying Codes of Practice; specifically, they appeared to know what to do but not when to do it. There is a heightened risk of a miscarriage of justice in such circumstances without improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The legal system has been ambivalent about naked statistical evidence. Addressing this ambivalence, the article explores the epistemological status of naked statistical evidence and its normative and practical implications. It is suggested that since naked statistical evidence cannot generate knowledge, it cannot be the basis for assertions of facts; and assertions of facts are practically and legally important: they are essential in order to establish the court's responsibility for its decisions and its errors. Such responsibility is needed in order to maintain the legitimacy of the legal system; to avoid unfairness to defendants; and to ensure that legal decision‐makers have no valid claims against the decision‐making arrangement. As a result, the legal system is inclined to avoid statistical evidence altogether. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author quotes testimony offered at trial and inferred that the analyst is implying that hair analysis is individualizing. However, if one would read the citation associated with this quote, the appeals for a new trial focused on new evidence involving the accident reconstruction report and the pathology report, not the hair testimony. Footnotes 1 See Original Article https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.15233 2 See Author's response https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.15364 REFERENCE 1 Morgon J. Wrongful convictions and claims of false or misleading forensic evidence. [Extracted from the article]

Abstract: In order to prevent tunnel vision, and ultimately miscarriages of justice, police, prosecutors, and judges must remain open to alternative scenarios in which the suspect is in fact innocent. However, it is not evident from the literature that people are sufficiently aware of how alternative scenarios should be employed in the decision‐making process. In the present research, participants read a case vignette and formed an impression of the suspect's guilt. Some participants were made familiar with an alternative scenario. Others were not only presented with an alternative scenario but were also instructed to score (with pen and paper) the extent to which every piece of evidence fitted in the primary and the alternative scenario. Findings suggest that this pen‐and‐paper task helped to reduce tunnel vision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been rising concern that allegations of sexual abuse, particularly non-recent abuse, have not received an appropriate response. From this has emerged a new determination to correct past and prevent further injustices, with police operations focusing considerable resources on the identification and prosecution of child abusers. Police and other services have reached out to encourage reporting, and developments in the trial process related to the rules of evidence have eroded due process protections for suspects. This article considers this changed legal and social context, and the processes entailed in responding to allegations of abuse, before presenting original empirical data, gathered from the accounts of 30 men and women who were wrongly accused of abuse related to their employment in occupations of trust. It demonstrates the considerable and lasting harms done to those who face allegations of such heinous crimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: England, Scotland and Norway have established Criminal Cases Review Commissions to review the convictions of persons who may have been wrongly found guilty of a criminal offence.Aims: The aim of this study was to explore the Norwegian Criminal Cases Review Commission (NCCRC) practice when legal insanity constitutes grounds for possible reopening of a criminal case.Methods: We identified all cases between 2004 and 2012 where an application to the NCCRC to reopen a case was on grounds of concerns about insanity. Data were extracted from records. Differences between reopened and disallowed insanity cases and variables that may explain the NCCRC's decision to reopen a case were analysed using multiple logistic regression.Results: Forty cases were allowed, and 34 disallowed. The NCCRC relied fully and unanimously on the conclusions of the expert reports in making these decisions. In 26 of the 40 cases that the Commission reopened, psychosis had gone undetected by the courts. Such undetected cases were most often discovered in the wake of a new criminal case in connection with the defendant. If the length of the sentence were short, it was less likely that insanity had been considered by the court in the index judgement.Conclusions: The NCCRC may rely excessively on the forensic psychiatric reports. The experts' conclusions may be uncertain, given that they often have to look back several years to establish mental state and its relevance at the time of the crime. As nearly two-thirds of the reopened insanity cases had been given penalties of under 6 months, it may be asked whether such further investigation of fairly low-level crimes is the best use of resources. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presidential power to recognize foreign nations and governments, exercised since the dawn of the republic, has never been viewed as exclusive. Indeed, Congress has enacted legislation that conferred recognition upon foreign countries. Recently, however, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, in Zivotofsky v. Secretary of State, asserted for the first time in American history an exclusive presidential power of recognition. This conclusion, built on a flawed historical record and faulty judicial premises stemming from United States v. Curtiss- Wright Export Corp., exaggerates executive authority and ignores the largely ministerial role assigned to the president in receiving ambassadors and foreign ministers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eyewitness misidentifications are the leading factor contributing to wrongful convictions. Black men, more than any other racial group, are disproportionately affected by this, thus elevating the importance of identifying factors that contribute to the false recollection of unseen faces. In the current studies, we tested whether misplaced familiarity and subsequent misidentification of Black faces was underpinned by the degree to which target faces were considered 'prototypical' (i.e., representative) of the Black race category. First, results revealed that Black faces with stereotypical facial features were accurately categorized as 'Black' quicker than faces with nonstereotypical features (Experiment 1). Moreover, identification errors were higher for both face recognition (Experiment 2) and line-up identification (Experiment3) for stereotypical-featured than nonstereotypical-featured faces. Overall, results suggest that stereotypical Black faces are representative of the category 'Black' and facilitated feelings of familiarity and the endorsement of memory errors that may underpin eyewitness misidentifications. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the vast transitional justice scholarship relating to prisoner release, amnesties and prosecutions when conflicts end, there is a significant gap in practice and academic literature regarding wrongful convictions. Uniquely amongst post-conflict societies, Northern Ireland has a body for investigating miscarriages of justice, albeit one designed for 'ordinary' appeals. In the absence of a formal truth-recovery process, criminal appeals are becoming a proxy for addressing the role of the state during 'The Troubles,' as well as remedying individual injustices. This article examines the approach of the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal during the conflict. It charts the developments in its decision-making following the cease-fires and the establishment of the Criminal Cases Review Commission. It concludes that the current system is unsatisfactory as it ignores the effects of the conflict on the appeal process and offers no insights into the role of the Court during the conflict. Alternative models are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article problematizes the discourse of innocence in relation to victims of wrongful conviction operating within the criminal justice system. For appellants whose convictions have been quashed by the Court of Appeal, notions of innocence are often at odds with how others perceive and understand the purpose of criminal trials and appeals. This article will examine the views of legal practitioners, journalists, and victims of wrongful conviction and their supporters regarding factual innocence and how misunderstanding can sometimes lead to miscommunication by actors operating within the same system. The article will further examine the issue of compensation in light of the recent ruling by the Supreme Court and conclude that the current debate regarding what constitutes a miscarriage of justice continues to confuse legal practitioners and prolong the anxiety suffered by victims recovering from the trauma of wrongful imprisonment and subsequent losses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gate-keeping role played by the legal profession in the judicial appointments process gives rise to the translation of entrenched group-based identity hierarchies from legal practice into the judiciary. The relationship between the composition of the legal profession and the judiciary has been almost completely unaffected by recent reforms designed to increase diversity in the composition of the judiciary. This article identifies legal and institutional defects which help to explain the failure to disrupt the reproduction of these patterns of appointment. We identify two particular defects which we call 'soft target radicalism' and 'regulatory bind' as important factors inhibiting change. We conclude that if the legal profession is to retain its gate-keeping role, equality law which directly regulates legal practice should be strengthened and the regulatory binds in which the Judicial Appointments Commission and other public entities are caught should be loosened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there has been a rapid expansion in research on police interrogations and false confessions, little is known about the beliefs of potential jurors as to these issues. In collaboration with a trial research firm, we recruited 461 jury-eligible men and women who matched the demographic characteristics of jury pools in several states. Surrogate jurors responded to questions and statements in five areas: likely rates of false confessions for different crimes, the ability to discern true from false confessions, beliefs about false confessions, beliefs about permissible interrogation tactics, and beliefs about expert testimony on police interrogations. Results indicated that jurors believed that police interrogators are better than ordinary people at identifying lies and that this ability improves with experience. Jurors believed that they would be able to differentiate a true confession from a false confession by watching a videotape, but were less confident about making such a differentiation from an audio recording. A large majority of the sample reported that it would be helpful to hear expert testimony about interrogation techniques and reasons why a defendant might falsely confess to a crime. There were no significant gender differences. Compared to whites, nonwhite jurors had significantly less confidence in the abilities of the police and gave significantly higher estimates of false confession rates. Results are discussed in light of prior research and implications for jury decision making and expert testimony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines two contrasting proposals for the reform of criminal appeals: the government's recent proposal that the guilty should no longer have their convictions quashed on ‘technicalities’; and calls by campaigners for the Court of Appeal to consider innocence rather than the ‘safety of the conviction,’ together with their associated attempts to establish Innocence Projects in the UK. Despite the rhetorical power of ‘innocence’ as a campaigning tool, it is contended that to import such a standard into the legal system would be retrogressive and counter-productive, both as a safeguard against wrongful convictions and in protecting the integrity of the system. In order to be meaningful, due process protections must apply to all. The government's proposals attack this principle directly; innocence campaigners risk unwittingly assisting their endeavours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the factors influencing the annual dissent rate on the High Court of Australia from its first full year of operation in 1904 up to 2001 within a cointegration and error correction framework. We hypothesize that institutional factors, socioeconomic complexity, and leadership style explain variations in the dissent rate on the High Court of Australia over time. The institutional factors that we consider are the Court's caseload, whether it had discretion to select the cases it hears, and whether it was a final court of appeal. To measure socioeconomic complexity we use the divorce rate, urbanization rate, and real GDP per capita. Our main finding is that in the long run and short run, caseload and real income are the main factors influencing dissent. We find that a 1 percent increase in caseload and real income reduce the dissent rate on the High Court of Australia by 0.3 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively, holding other factors constant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asch's (1956) research on group pressure to conform implied that it is difficult to be a lone dissenter. Extending this to the analysis of voting patterns in the U.S. Supreme Court's 1953-2001 terms, it was found that of 4,178 decisions, the 8-1 split was the least common (10%). Unanimous decisions were most common (35%), followed by 5-4 splits (2 1%), 6-3 splits (20%), and 7-2 splits (14%). Large differences were found among the 29 Justices serving during this period as to how often they were lone dissenters, led by Justice William Douglas, who issued lone dissents on about 6% of the decisions on which he voted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article utilizes the work of the sociologist Niklas Luhmann in order to examine the relationship between law and the media. Luhmann views both law and the media as closed systems of communication, systems which cannot duplicate the meaning of each other's communications. After introducing Luhmann's approach to media reporting, and applying this to the relationship between law and media reporting on law, the article analyses a recent miscarriage of justice case. The case is that of the solicitor Sally Clark who was convicted of a double child killing. Although her first appeal was rejected she succeeded in a second appeal. Media reporting of Sally Clark's case is contrasted with the trial and Court of Appeal judgments to demonstrate the different basis upon which law and the media each construct communications about the same events [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on 'unsafe' convictions and miscarriages of justice in Great Britain. Court of Appeal's ruling in 'R v Mullen,' that the term 'miscarriage of justice' could also apply to those situations where, although satisfied that the appellant was factually guilty, the conviction was quashed as a result of a blatant and extremely serious failure to adhere to the rule of law; Compensation under the statutory scheme which is set out in section 133(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988.