Newly pub­lished research exam­in­ing 340 exon­er­a­tions in the United States between 1989 and 2003 found that a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of those who were wrong­ly con­vict­ed had been sen­tenced to death. Researchers note that this find­ing appears to reflect two pat­terns: cap­i­tal defen­dants are more like­ly to be con­vict­ed in error, and false con­vic­tions are more like­ly to be detect­ed when defen­dants are on death row.

The paper, authored by Professor Samuel Gross of the University of Michigan Law School along with oth­er assis­tants, reveals clear pat­terns asso­ci­at­ed with false con­vic­tions. The lead­ing cause of wrong­ful con­vic­tions is per­jury, includ­ing per­jury by police offi­cers, by jail­house snitch­es, by the real killers, and by sup­posed par­tic­i­pants and eye­wit­ness­es to the crime who knew the inno­cent defedants in advance. The research revealed that false con­fes­sions, espe­cial­ly among vul­ner­a­ble defen­dants such as juve­nile offend­ers and those with men­tal retar­da­tion, also played a large role in mur­der con­vic­tions that led to exon­er­a­tion. Almost all of the juve­nile exonerees who false­ly con­fessed were African American, and 90% of all exon­er­at­ed juve­nile defen­dants were African American or Hispanic.

Based on their review of these exon­er­a­tions, the paper notes that ​“any plau­si­ble guess at the total num­ber of mis­car­raiges of jus­tice in American in the last fif­teen years must run to the thou­sands, per­haps tens of thou­sands, in felony cases alone.” 

(​“Exonerations in the United States, 1989 through 2003,” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Vol. 95, No. 2, 2005). See Innocence.

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