The American Bar Association’s Criminial Justice Section has released a new report on pre­vent­ing wrong­ful con­vic­tions. The report, Achieving Justice: Freeing the Innocent, Convicting the Guilty, includes com­men­tary and res­o­lu­tions that address­es top­ics such as false con­fes­sions, eye­wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­ce­dures, use of foren­sic evi­dence, jail­house infor­mants, and com­pen­sa­tion for the wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed.

The report is the result of a three-year ABA effort led by an ad hoc group of defense attor­neys, pros­e­cu­tors, judges, aca­d­e­mics, and rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the foren­sic and law enforce­ment com­mu­ni­ties. The rec­om­men­da­tions have since been adopt­ed by the ABA House of Delegates, the orga­ni­za­tion’s pol­i­cy-mak­ing body.

The ABA is the nation’s only enti­ty rep­re­sent­ing pros­e­cu­tors, defense attor­neys, and judges. The orga­ni­za­tion’s Criminal Justice Section drafts and seeks adop­tion of ABA poli­cies to ben­e­fit its mem­bers, the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem, and the nation.

(American Bar Association, 2006) See addi­ton­al infor­ma­tion regard­ing this report. See also Innocence and Resources.

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