This week: I didn’t do it! Edited by: Arakun the Twisted Raccoon  
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Quote for the week:
"Mystery spread its cloak across the sky.
We lost our way.
Shadows fell from trees.
They knew why."
~From "House of Four Doors" by the Moody Blues |
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Every now and then the justice system makes a mistake, and an innocent person gets convicted of a crime. This might happen if the innocent person is just in the wrong place at the wrong time. For example, they might be seen running away from the area near the crime scene for totally unrelated reasons.
The person who was wrongfully convicted might be a family member or someone else who is close to the victim and has a motive for committing the crime. Since murders are often committed by someone close to the victim, investigators usually consider family and friends as suspects first.
Since eyewitness testimony is often inaccurate, witnesses may have incorrectly identified an innocent individual or picked the person out of a lineup.
Police and prosecuting attorneys are often under great pressure from the public and politicians to solve crimes quickly. For this reason, they may get "tunnel vision," focusing all their efforts on one suspect who initially looks guilty while ignoring other possibilities.
In the United States, a person who is found guilty of a crime may appeal the decision, but an appeal may not always be granted. Procedure may vary in different states and districts, but they usually must be able to show that some error was committed in the original trial. An appeals court does not retry the original case, but considers if the law was violated in the original trial. If the law was found to be violated in a way that interfered with the defendant's right to a fair trial, the appeals court will reverse the decision and send it back to the lower court. The lower court may hold a new trial, modify its original judgment, or reconsider the decision based on additional evidence. If your story includes an appeal, do research to make sure you portray the procedures and events accurately.
One real life case of wrongful conviction involves Russell Faria, who spent three and a half years in prison for the murder of his wife, Betsy. The wrongful conviction in this case was partly due to incompetence and corruption on several levels, including the investigating officers, prosecuting attorney, and the judge. Faria was granted a second trial after a successful appeal. During the second trial, Faria's defense attorney was allowed to present evidence that was excluded during his first trial, some of which led to a different suspect who had actually framed Faria for the crime.
Some older convictions have been set aside due to advances in forensic science. Before the late 1980's for example, DNA analysis was not available as a tool that could be used in crime scene analysis. However if evidence was collected from an older crime scene and properly preserved, it can still be analyzed today. According to data presented by the Innocence Project, 375 previously convicted individuals in 37 states have been exonerated due to DNA analysis.
Something to try: Write a mystery story that includes a wrongful conviction. |
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| Question for next time: What subjects would you like to see covered in future Mystery newsletters? |
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Mystery: March 08, 2023 Issue [#11847]
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