A nationwide study reveals that from 1989 to 2003, there were 328 exonerations in the US, of which 145 of them were a result of DNA testing (http://www.law.umich.edu/newsandinfo/exonerations-in-us.pdf). For those wrongfully convicted, the average number of years they spent in prison was 10 years and as many as 22% of these inmates waited in death row for crimes they did not even commit. These innocent individuals endure grave sacrifices: wasted time, health deterioration in prison, social stigma of an ex-convict, forced separation from families and the inability to earn income. Here are the highlights of the study:

As many as 90% of those wrongfully convicted of rape, were convicted based on eyewitness misidentification and cross-racial misidentification.

For the crime of murder, the leading causes of wrongful conviction was perjury committed either by jailhouse snitches, police informants, police officers or state forensic scientists.

False confessions convicted many innocent juveniles (44%), mentally retarded and mentally ill individuals (69%).

The 4 leading states for exonerations of falsely convicted prisoners are Illinois(54), New York(35), Texas(28) and California(22).

The Innocence Project (a nonprofit legal clinic that helps to exonerate the wrongfully convicted through post-conviction DNA testing of evidence), cites several causes for wrongful convictions:

Mistaken identification: over two-thirds of the first 138 post-conviction DNA exonerations were a result of mistaken identification.

Police and prosecutor misconduct, in which poor investigation, coercion, evidence destruction or suppression, and the use of unreliable testimony from snitches are examples.

False confessions: obtained in duress, coercion, ignorance and mental impairment. Leo Jones was tortured during police interrogation before he confessed to murdering a police officer in Jacksonville, Florida in-spite of the fact that there were many other witnesses who came forward pointing to another suspect in the case (National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty: http://www.ncadp.org/fact_sheet4.html).

Poor lawyering: poor trial preparation, failure to call witnesses and lack of funding to public defendants. Jurors at the trial of Gary Graham admitted that they would have voted differently had the defendant lawyer called two other witnesses to testify at the trial. Gary was executed in Texas on July 22, 2000 (National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty: http://www.ncadp.org/fact_sheet4.html).

Unreliable jailhouse snitches: testimonies given in exchange for rewards, special treatment and deals question the reliability of these testimonies. David Spence, executed by the state of Texas on April 3, 1997, was wrongfully convicted of murdering three teenagers in 1982. There was no physical evidence to connect Spence to the crime. In this case, a zealous narcotics cop pursued the case against Spence, using testimony given by prison inmates in exchange for special favors (National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty: http://www.ncadp.org/fact_sheet4.html).

It is imperative that you sign this important petition - which will be forwarded to Senator Patrick Leahy – so that we can fully support the Justice for All Act(http://www.innocenceproject.org/docs/Justice_For_All.html), an important piece of legislation that supports the exoneration of the wrongfully convicted. This law gives a federal inmate the right to petition a federal court for DNA testing to support his or her claim of innocence. It also encourages each state to adopt similar provisions to allow post-conviction DNA testing where feasible, in order to prove a claim on innocence. By signing this important petition, you will be demanding that Congress gives full funding to this law in order to help give justice to the wrongfully convicted and impose the same to the true culprits of the crime.

Sources:
The Innocence Project (http://www.innocenceproject.org/)
Why Innocent People are Wrongly Sentenced to Death (http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/tows_2000/tows_past_20000928_e.jhtml)
Major Issues: Innocence Protection Act (http://leahy.senate.gov/issues/ipa/)
Exonerations in the United States 1989 through 2003 (http://www.law.umich.edu/newsandinfo/exonerations-in-us.pdf)
Testing DNA and the Death Penalty http://www.insideout.org/documentaries/dna/thestories.asp)
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
(http://www.ncadp.org/fact_sheet4.html)

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