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| An increasing number of wrongful convictions has the legal system reevaluating the workings of American courts. Image: Shutterstock |
In the
last several years, an increasing number of serious convictions have been
revisited and even nullified in American courts, leading many to question just
how many wrongful convictions occur – and what can be done about it.
In
2011, for example, Governor George Ryan of Illinois pardoned 157 men on death
row, based on new evidence suggesting that they had been wrongfully
convicted. It was the first such
wide-sweeping pardon ever seen by the state.
Ryan
noted at the time that 50% of cases in Illinois were revisited after a verdict
was reached. These cases often involved
African American death row inmates who were convicted by entirely white
juries. In addition, 33% of death row
inmates were represented by lawyers who were later disbarred.
“With the stroke of
a pen, [Ryan] has taken 157 doomed men and spared their lives,” commented attorney Kendall Coffey.
Coffey suggested the cases pointed toward the increased questioning of the
reliability of American courts and the judicial system at large: “Do we really have enough reliability? And what is the risk level that is acceptable
to the American people about the possibility that an innocent person will be
put to death?”
Four years later,
wrongful convictions are still an issue, such as the case of Kenneth Ireland.
Found guilty at age 18 of raping and murdering a woman, Ireland spent 21
years in prison before a 2009 DNA test exonerated him. He was released in 2009, and in January, 2015
Ireland was awarded $6 million from the state legislature for being wrongfully
convicted.
For other cases,
the potential outcomes are even more complicated. More than 100 former FBI agents fought to
release a colleague who was convicted of corruption and helping Boston’s
Irish-American mob murder a South Florida gambling executive. The agent, John Connolly, now in his 70s, was
working undercover when the incidents occurred, leading many of his colleagues
to argue he was merely doing his job, not breaking any laws. There is also some question of Connolly being
used as a fall guy for superiors.
Connolly convicted of second-degree murder in 2008 and sentenced in 2009
to 40 years in prison. However,
petitions filed with Attorney General Eric Holder led to the overturn of the
conviction in Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal on May 28, 2014.
As more potentially
wrongful convictions are uncovered, the American legal system is being forced
to address concerns about vetting processes and making sure suspects are not
wrongly accused—or at the very least, not ultimately sent to prison for crimes
they didn’t commit.
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