NCJ Number
177832
Journal
ABA Journal Volume: 85 Dated: March 1999 Pages: 46-52
Date Published
1999
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This article examines statutes to compensate the wrongfully imprisoned.
Abstract
Most false convictions are not the fault of a corrupt police officer or district attorney, but of a breakdown in the justice system. Most common is witness error, sometimes errors by more than one witness. Other factors that generate false convictions include guilty persons who testify against the innocent, inadequate defense counsel, community pressure for a conviction, and honest mistakes by prosecutors or police. With no clear misconduct on the part of the prosecution, there are no grounds for a civil suit and in States with no compensation statute, lawyers for the wrongfully imprisoned can find themselves with nowhere to turn. Sometimes they take their pleas to the State legislature. The results can be dramatic, but haphazard, and can sometimes take years to achieve. Only 16 jurisdictions have statutes to compensate the wrongfully imprisoned, and only two of those do not limit damages. Virtually all compensation statutes require that claimants be found factually innocent. Usually, that means a pardon from the governor; an overturned conviction is not enough. Nationwide, there is no real push for more compensation laws and no movement to raise the caps on compensation in States that have statutes.