Wrongful Convictions In The United States Of America

Wrongful Convictions in The United States of AmericaStudent’s NameInstitutional affiliation Course Name and NumberProfessorAssignment Due DateAbstractWrongful convictions have been witnessed over the years in the United States of America. Statistics reveal that approximately 20, 000 inmates are in for crimes they did not commit. In addition, wrongful conviction based on race is common with Black Americans being the majority despite their small population in the entire demographic population of the United States of America. Among the major causes of wrongful convictions are tainted eyewitness identification, false confessions and police and prosecutorial misconduct. The most common examples of wrongful conviction cases include The Central Park Five case of 1989, The West Memphis Three case of 1994, the Ryan Ferguson case of 2005 and Brian Banks case of 2002. Wrongful conviction can affect the criminal justice system both positively negatively. The negative effects are that it leads to loss of public trust and adverse effects on the victims while the positive effects include bringing positive changes in the criminal justice such as legal reforms and improved forensic science. Several exonerations have been witnessed with improved technology, especially DNA