Cheryl Beridon Research Paper

Introduction The book that I selected is called “Getting Life” by Michael Morton, who is a man that was wrongfully convicted of killing his wife in Texas in 1986. This book takes us from a happy young couple to the day of the murder, through the investigation into his wife’s murder, Michael’s trial and conviction, 25 years in prison, appeals, release from prison, and reintegration into society. One unique fact about this case is that is the first case where the prosecutor in a wrongful conviction case was subsequently convicted of prosecutorial misconduct, stripped of their law license and sentenced to serve time in jail.

This article has the potential to show the reader how often wrongful convictions actually do happen and the means that someone wrongfully convicted has to go through to try and turn there case back around. I do believe that this article is a little bias and that the reader doesn’t really get to see the amount of times that the courts actually get the cases right. It’s just a good article in the fact it shows the amount of times wrongful convictions happen and the time it takes and effort from and individual to get a case

They both stay at her brother until he joined the Confederate Army, then they went to live with her sister (forgottennewsmakers). This is where Cynthia Ann led a productive life, learning to weave, spin wool and sew. Neighbours brought hides for her to tan, and she created home remedies from local plants and herbs. She learned to speak English again and was beginning to become literate (civilwarwomenblog). Every attempt Cynthia Ann made to escape she would fail and would be caught and returned.

Connie was found guilty; she describes her life inside the prison. She was not allowed to smoke and anyone who gave her cigarette was punished. They keep her isolated from

“On July 30, 1992, an innocent person was convicted of a heinous crime”. Guy Paul Morin, an ordinary man, was arrested, imprisoned and convicted of first degree murder. The victim was Christine Jessop, a nine-year-old girl from Ontario, Canada. She was found murdered in a field about fifty kilometres from where she lived. Due to the investigation team’s carelessness and tunnel vision, the systematic failure of the justice system, and the poor handling of evidence by the crown there was not only one, but two victims in this case.

The murder of Lynne Harper was a tragic and uneventful occurrence to have taken place in the small community of Clinton, Ontario. What is also uneventful is that an innocent fourteen-year-old teenager, named Steven Truscott, was wrongly accused and charged with Lynne’s death. This was all because Steven last saw helping Lynne out by giving her a lift on his bicycle. The legal system failed Lynne, Steven, and their families because the Police and Crown did not follow proper procedures. Even after Stevens’s exoneration, the real murder was never caught and was able to continue living their life, unlike Steven who loss a part of his childhood and adulthood.

Her family lived in a one room dirt floor Cabin, and Coleman and her siblings were raised during a time of segregation and racial tension. Coleman’s grandparents were slaves. After her father left the family while Coleman was still young, she was given the responsibility of taking care of her siblings while her mother worked. Though this put pressure on

Therefore, this is an outdated claim, due to our justice system changing and adapting to public beliefs. There may be a few wrongful convictions in the criminal justice system, however that does not make it cause more harm than good. In any system there are flaws, we cannot disregard all the good the justice system does. Although this system has flaws like all others, it is what safeguards our society's

Since the founding of our judicial system there have always been individuals claiming innocence to a crime that they have been found guilty of, traditionally, after their sentencing no matter how innocent they may or may not be would have to serve, live and possibly die by the decision of their peers. The Innocence Project, founded in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck alongside Peter J. Neufeld faces this issue by challenging the sentencing of convicted individuals who claim their innocence and have factual ground to stand upon. The Innocence Project uses the recent advances in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing to prove their client’s innocence by using methods that were not available, too primitive or not provided to their clients during their investigation,

The children made massive efforts to leave Welch and the family. They were determined to not end up like their parents. Jeanette wanted to start being accepted by people, she wanted to be like everyone else. In this following quote is shows the new values Jeanette has adopted of wanting a better life, “ I was convinced that people might be more accepting of us if we made an effort to improve the way 93 Little Hobart street looked. “ , “ I had been counting on mom and dad to get us out, but I knew I had to do it on my own.”

Walter McMillan was guilty of one thing and one thing only: having an affair with a white woman. At the time, this was seen as very scandalous, the Civil Rights Movement had ended but the deeply ingrained racism in the South had not. Because of this, Walter McMillan, known by many as Johnny D., was shunned and mistreated to the point that when a murder he didn’t commit was pinned on him no one thought twice about whether or not he could have done it. The Justice Department handled the case poorly by not fact checking witness testimonies, illegally moving the prisoner to death row without a conviction, intimidating a witness before a trial to convince him to lie, and so much more. One day Walter McMillan and several other prisoners get a visit from an upstart lawyer named Bryan Stevenson, a man who had just started a federally funded program known as the Equal Justice Initiative to help men like Walter.

With millions of criminal convictions a year, more than two million people may end up behind bars(Gross). According to Samuel Gross reporter for The Washington Post, writes that also “even one percent amounts to tens of thousands of tragic [wrongful conviction] errors”(Gross). Citizens who are wrongfully convicted are incarcerated for a crime he or she did not commit. Many police officers, prosecutors, and judges are responsible for the verdict that puts innocents into prison. To be able to get exonerated many wait over a decade just to get there case looked at, not many are able to have the opportunity of getting out.

Luckily, it is known what causes wrongful convictions and how to fix them. Many wrongful convictions are due to mistaken eyewitnesses, jailhouse snitches, or false evidence. I think many of the wrongful convictions could be solved with harder evidence, more information. A case should not rely on a single eye witness but multiple.

Today our justice system has a multitude of options when dealing with those who are convicted of offenses. However, many argue that retributive justice is the only real justice there is. This is mainly because its advantage is that it gives criminals the appropriate punishment that they deserve. The goals of this approach are clear and direct. In his book The Little Book of Restorative Justice, Zehr Howard (2002), illustrates that the central focus of retributive justice is offenders getting what they deserve (p. 30).

Imagine being in a federal prison for decades for a crime that you never committed. False confessions have been a major problem in the justice system. Having these false confessions leads to innocent citizens being convicted of a crime they have never committed. Over the past two decades approximately 254 have been exonerated by DNA evidence, which also included 17 people who were on death row according to the Innocence Project. Confessions carry powerful information for the jury, judge and also the public.