Last but definitely not least, the single greatest contributing factor to wrongful convictions is eyewitness identification. A whopping 70% of wrongful convictions, who were later cleared by DNA testing, were due to a mis-identification of the criminal by the eyewitness, who is sometimes even the victim themselves. The table below illustrates this phenomenon. After…
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Top 6 Causes for Wrongful Convictions (Part 5) — False Confessions
When it comes to the issue of forcing out a confession, has our criminal justice system evolved much from the days of the Salem Witch Trials, during which about 50 women were coerced into confessing to have performed witchcraft? Or are there still remnants of such methods of forced confessions in existence today? Or what…
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