Reducing Wrongful Convictions: Practical and Procedural Strategies

This essay addresses the critical issue of wrongful convictions within the criminal justice system, exploring various contributing factors and potential solutions. It begins by highlighting the fundamental importance of fair legal procedures and the role of juries and legal advisors in ensuring justice. The essay then delves into the causes of wrongful convictions, emphasizing the role of misidentification by eyewitnesses, false confessions, and the use of snitches who may provide incentivized or inaccurate testimony. Other factors, such as flawed forensic science, police misconduct, and ineffective legal representation, are also examined. The essay proposes practical strategies to mitigate these issues, specifically focusing on the reporting stage of the criminal justice process. Recommendations include improved police policies, evidence-based practices for eyewitness identification, secure handling of informant information, and training for all officials involved. The essay underscores the need for legal reforms, improved investigation protocols, and a culture of critical reasoning within law enforcement to reduce the likelihood of wrongful convictions, referencing the Timothy Cole case as an example. The essay emphasizes the importance of reassessing closed cases when new evidence emerges and offers students a comprehensive overview of the problem and its potential solutions.

Reducing Wrongful
Conviction

TABLE OF CONTENT
ASSESSMENT 1: ESSAY..............................................................................................................1
Title: What practical and/or procedural strategies could be implemented to reduce the
likelihood of wrongful conviction? Discuss, and restrict your focus to one stage in the
criminal justice process...............................................................................................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

ASSESSMENT 1: ESSAY
Title: What practical and/or procedural strategies could be implemented to reduce the likelihood
of wrongful conviction? Discuss, and restrict your focus to one stage in the criminal justice
process.
Legal procedures are formulated with a fundamental consent of providing justice to the
individuals stuck into some prohibited act as victims. It is where they are together required to
abide by the law and accordingly carry out the activities to justifiably prove themselves at the
rime of final judgement. It is where the legal proceedings thereby has a considerable role in the
process of framing liable judgements with a prompt existence of juries and associate legal
advisers, etc., (Kent & Carmichael, 2015). However, there together exists several cases of
wrongful convictions made by the judges followed by some sort of misinterpretation in the
process of making judgement. This is together referred to be a non avoidable clause where a
wrongful conviction duly results in penalising a guiltless individual often resulting in the
conviction of their decease or lifetime imprisonment with very fewer chances of trials. This term
called wrongful conviction is together entitled as miscarriage of justice cases where in the
Australian system, there existed many such cases in which, the asserted criminal was later found
to be innocent.
It is however important to find out the real causes of such wrongful convictions that are
later required to be resolved with a due consideration of the previous trials that together results
into wastage of time of both the judges and the wrongly declared criminals. In context to which,
there exist several causes of wrong convictions with a foremost reason of misidentification by
the spectator presented in the court premises as the eyewitness of the case (Olney & Bonn,
2015). It is in accordance to severally carried studies that has proven it to be one of the leading
issue that has widely affected the entire nation and has made them suffer the atrocious
consequences of wrongful convictions. It is also with reference to the foremost stage of criminal
justice process that begins with the reporting of crime to the police investigators and continues
with several other measures required to be taken up by other concerned bodies of the case. Being
a superior reason of such wrongful convictions, some conducted researches have proved that the
mind of a human being doesn't always work like a taping machine to record exact events.
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As a result to which, it can be neither recalled nor reminded like any automatic system
such as recorders to do that. However, it is important to carefully attest any crime incident that
should in turn depict a witness memory. Herein, the perceived crime should be cautiously
preserved in the mind of the witness as a way of recovering it in a methodical manner where it
can also get pestiferous (Huff, 2016). Falsified professions are together referred to result into
wrongful convictions where many cases have represented that the guiltless suspects are making
incriminatory confessions. It is usually done by appealing to be blameable and delivering instant
declaration of crime in rage. It is where the age, capability and the situation of the confessor are
referred to be some heedless considerations where there exists a common requirement of taking
justified decisions. It is at the time of conducting the interrogation procedure, professing is more
advantageous for them at certain point rather than keeping quiet to show oneself guiltless.
Lastly, snitches are together referred to play a vital role in the formation of wrongful
convictions where some sort of incentives are being paid to the witnesses to give erroneous
statements against the innocent party. Wherein, such type of incentives are not revealed to the
panel who will be taking decisions to resolve the case in the court (Zalman, 2017). However, this
reflects as fundamental indicant to convict a guiltless individual. As a result to which, many
people are fallaciously condemned in such type of cases where snitches are being paid to prove
or acquire favours in exchange of their assertion. Also, there are distinct type of cases with a
unique existence of each and there are many such factors in them that contribute in wrongful
convictions where a combined presence of these factors are often envisioned together.
This together involves some other factors such as junk scientific discipline where it is
usually followed by such forensic measures of testing that is merely applied with unscientific
proofs to carry out sufficient appraisal of its dependability. It is where these informations are
apparent to play an important role in taking justified decisions at the end to conclude a judicial
case. However, such falsifying results that are sometimes created intentionally by the forensic
experts in exchange of incentives where they are found to be occupied in misconduct that in turn
results in an improper technical base for the discoveries (Mungan & Klick, 2016). Beside this,
misconduct of government in few cases are together referred to be a resultant outcome of
wrongful convictions. It is where some prior steps of assurance are being taken up by the
authorised officials to convict a guilt-free defendant with the help of debilitated information or
even with a precise ground of innocence. Lastly, terrible attorney is also considered to be one of
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the most contributory factor in the existence of wrongful convictions where it is referred to be
the non-accomplishment of overworked professionals to interrogate the matter by calling the
witnesses and set up trials.
All the aforesaid grounds that are found to result into wrong convictions are required to
be decreased with feasible action plans. It is hereby with a fundamental concern of lessening
down the probability of wrong convictions by referring to the Australian system of condemnable
justice procedures that refers to its one stage of reporting crime. It is with a leading role of police
department where they are required to operate with some more improved policies and a well
defined culture (Norris & Bonventre, 2015). It is where the supervisory colleagues of the small
investigatory group should not be demoralized to participate in the process of fact-finding that in
turn is proven to result into more number of wrong convictions. Here, the police officers are
together suggested carrying out evidence based practices in relation to interrogate the eyewitness
with a correct identification of those. It should be also followed by informant processes with
preserved information stored in secured channels to be handled by only accredited bodies.
Wherein, the legal implementation is together considered to play a considerable role in
the prevention and reduction of wrongful convictions. It can be done with the removal of
arresting erroneous individual. Here, they are together suggested involving several other useful
measures for the officials responsible for the enforcement of law to amend the protocols of
investigation with improved policies for the same (Jiang, 2014). Along with which, the other
concerned officials are together required to be trained, supervised and assessed to correctly apply
the changed disciplines. Also, with a special context of one stage in the criminal justice process
in Australia with a chosen step of reporting the crime, there together exists some other profound
recommendations for the elimination of wrongful convictions.
It is together on the basis of such factual depiction of the Timothy Cole's case who has
suffered 14 years of imprisonment with a final consequence of losing his life despite of being
innocence. On whose basis, proper identification measures to determine the eyewitness should be
undertaken with more lined up procedures for the same (Poyser & Milne, 2015). It must be
together followed by more inquiries with amended training to the officers to enquire the factual
scenario. Apart from this, any biased measures of investigation should be completely removed
by forming an effective culture of critical reasoning among the police force. Lastly, there must
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be an open alternative for the reassessment of closed lawsuits in case there exists any newly
surfaced data.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Huff, C. R. (2016). 10 Wrongful convictions. The Psychology of Crime, Policing and Courts.
175.
Jiang, N. (2014). Iron triangle of the gong jian fa: Lessons from wrongful convictions in capital
cases?. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice. 42(4). 406-422.
Kent, S. L., & Carmichael, J. T. (2015). Legislative responses to wrongful conviction: Do
partisan principals and advocacy efforts influence state-level criminal justice policy?.
Social science research. 52. 147-160.
Mungan, M. C., & Klick, J. (2016). Reducing False Guilty Pleas and Wrongful Convictions
through Exoneree Compensation. The Journal of Law and Economics. 59(1). 173-189.
Norris, R. J., & Bonventre, C. L. (2015). Advancing wrongful conviction scholarship: Toward
new conceptual frameworks. Justice Quarterly. 32(6). 929-949.
Olney, M., & Bonn, S. (2015). An exploratory study of the legal and non-legal factors associated
with exoneration for wrongful conviction: The power of dna evidence. Criminal Justice
Policy Review. 26(4). 400-420.
Poyser, S., & Milne, R. (2015). No grounds for complacency and plenty for continued vigilance:
miscarriages of justice as drivers for research on reforming the investigative interviewing
process. The Police Journal. 88(4). 265-280.
Zalman, M. (2017). False Convictions: A Systemic Concern in China and the World. China
Review. 17(1). 153-177.