Contemporary Perspectives on Wrongful Conviction: An Introduction to the 2016 Innocence Network Conference, San Antonio, Texas

Authors

Gwen Jordan
Aliza B. Kaplan
Valena Beety, Indiana University Maurer School of LawFollow
Keith A. Findley

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2016

Publication Citation

45 Hofstra Law Review 365

Abstract

Innocent people have been convicted of crimes they did not commit throughout history. The exact number of wrongful convictions is unknowable. In 2014, however, the National Academy of Sciences (“NAS”) released a study of the cases of criminal defendants who were convicted and sentenced to death and concluded that 4.1% were wrongfully convicted. The researchers explained that “this is a conservative estimate of the proportion of false conviction among death sentences in the United States.” According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1,561,500 adults were incarcerated in federal prisons, state prisons, and county jails in 2014, with an additional 4,708,100 adults under community supervision programs such as probation and parole. If we apply the NAS conservative estimate to just those who are incarcerated, there are more than 90,000 people wrongfully convicted and imprisoned in the United States.

Recommended Citation

Gwen Jordan, Aliza B. Kaplan, Valena Beety & Keith A. Findley, Contemporary Perspectives on Wrongful Conviction: An Introduction to the 2016 Innocence Network Conference, San Antonio, Texas, 45 Hofstra Law Review 365 (2016).
Available at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/facpub/3098