Summary: The Innocence Project

Imagine spending nearly 20 years in a prison for a crime you did not commit. Well that was the case for Angel Gonzalez. Angel was arrested and convicted of sexual assault and kidnapping on June 16, 1995. Angel was later then exonerated on March 10, 2015. The victim identified Angel from the back of the cop car and never got out the car to get a closer look at him. The evidence that was used to convicted Angel was that the victim told the police that the assailant had the same car as Angel. After 20 years in prison, The Innocence Project opened up his case and reviewed it. The organization brought up DNA testing that provided he wasn’t one of the assailants. After a day, Angel was released out of prison and walked as a free man. These types

During the year of 2015, a case that the Innocence Project was working on at the time was the Joseph Buffey Case. Joseph Buffey was convicted in 2001 in West Virginia of rape and robbery. Mr. Buffey pled guilty to the crimes based on the advise of his counsel and witness misidentification which was the heart of this investigation. On May 11, 2015, Mr. Buffey was excluded by DNA and the real perpetrator was later found. Mr. Buffey served a total of 15 years in prison for a crime that he did not commit. DNA Exonerations makes up 334 total cases that the Innocence Project has worked on. The following numbers overlap with the 334 cases. 237 cases involved misidentification by witnesses, 154 were the result of improper forensics, 92 were due to

Unfortunately, wrongful convictions of innocent people sometimes happen in the criminal justice system. According to a new report from the University of Michigan Law School 's National Registry of Exonerations, 2015 set a record for the number of wrongly convicted Americans who received justice; 149 people who were either declared innocent or cleared of their convictions or guilty pleas. Many of them had already served long prison terms for crimes they did not commit (Mencimer, 2016.)

Most states in the United States and Australia don’t have a provision for rehabilitation or compensation for being wrongfully convicted. An innocent person can spend a surmountable amount of time in jail for a crime they did not commit and not receive proper help when exonerated. Some states in the United States offer a type of compensation money, but no state admits their mistake or even offer an apology. Almost never will a state admit wrong doing involving a wrongfully convicted case. In most cases the prison just gives 20$ and the belongings you came into prison and send you on your way. I feel a provision or a reform should be put in place to compensate the exonerated. Although no money can amount to the time spent in jail and away from family, the state should provide a sufficient amount that can help and ease a person back into society. I also believe the prosecutors should publicly admit their wrong doing. This can possibly help clear their name with the public, of the wrongfully

This Organisation is a non-profit Legal organisation dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustices. The Innocence Project was established in a landmark study by the United States Department of Justice and the United States Senate in conjunction with the Benjamin N.Cardozo School of Law, which found that incorrect identification by eyewitnesses was a factor in over 70% of

Even when people do terrible things, such as Carter, who received the death penalty because he was accused of rape, I still feel that our prison system does nothing to help these people become better citizens, but rather only pushes them towards more corruption. In prison, the atmosphere does very little to promote rehabilitation, which I believe is something that all prisons should focus on the most. If the people in prison are not taught how to return to society as improved citizens, but are rather sent to a place where their personalities become more corrupted, the system will continue to be stalled. This is where Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative can help because they are fighting against mass incarceration, which tries to prevent unreliable convictions and excessive

Debated as one of the most misrepresented cases in American legal history, Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald still fights for innocence. Contrary to infallible evidence, prosecution intentionally withheld crucial information aiding MacDonald’s alibi. Such ratification included proof of an outside attack that would have played a major role in Jeffrey’s case.

The Casey Anthony trial was a controversial and a media-encompassed case that followed the disappearance of Caylee Anthony – a two year old girl who lived in Orlando, Florida. The case began on terms that were less than adequate, when Casey’s mother, Cindy Anthony, called authorities on the basis that she had not seen her granddaughter for over 30 days. It should also be acknowledged that the mother had even stated, in her own words, that Casey’s car “smelled like there’d been a dead body,” in it. Investigation led to portion after portion of evidence, along with even more questions on what had befallen Caylee after it turned out that her mother had falsified a slew of information. The original story that Casey offered stated that she had left

All throughout this novel, Gene is in a constant battle with himself about the nature of his friendship with Phineas. This arguably was the war that Gene dealt with prior to World War 2. In war, you have enemies. There are many different interpretations of who or what Gene’s enemy was. Gene mentions his enemy in the quote “My war ended before I even put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there.” This quote from the novel A Separate peace by John knowles states that Gene had an enemy, and it is up to us and our wise judgement to decide whether this enemy is his own youth and innocence, or his guilt.

We hear in the news about police misconduct, use of excessive force, embezzlement, but one thing I found while researching what I should write this paper on is the Wrongful convictions of innocent men and women, that spend years in prison being innocent, and there is nothing that gets done till it’s too late. Some wrongful convictions are honest mistakes, but many times law enforcement and prosecutors lose sight of the obligation of ensuring truth and justice, and are focused on their conviction rates. As with any job, they are honest people and ones that just don’t care and are corrupt, this exists in the criminal justice system. One way to prove someone is innocent now is through DNA testing, but even at all levels of a criminal investigation there could be misconduct or mishandling of evidence, which then causes the evidence to become compromised.

This Organisation is a non-profit Legal organisation dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustices. The Innocence Project was established in a landmark study by the United States Department of Justice and the United States Senate in conjunction with the Benjamin N.Cardozo School of Law, which found that incorrect identification by eyewitnesses was a

In the summer of 1994 an Illinois woman’s buzzer rang at her apartment complex in Waukegan. She went downstairs to check after nobody went upstairs to her apartment. As soon as she reached the door downstairs, two men forced her into a dark colored sedan, kidnapped her, and raped her. Distraught after her attack, the victim wandered until she ultimately found a Seven Eleven close by and the police were called. When the police arrived, the victim said she was attacked by two Hispanic men that looked to be in their mid-twenties and a bit taller than her height of five feet and seven inches. The car that she was forced into was described as dark colored, older, having four doors and tinted windows. The victim’s boyfriend saw Angel Gonzalez’s car in the apartment complex parking lot and it matched the characteristics that the woman used to describe the assailant’s car. Police later stopped Gonzalez’s car and the victim acknowledged that the car was the one she described. She was then asked if Gonzalez was one of her attackers, and she was certain that he was, despite her being in the backseat of the police car while he was in front of it. Not only was he not close enough for her to get a clear view, but he also had facial hair and a birthmark, both characteristics that she did not use to describe her attackers. This led to Gonzalez being in police custody for interrogation where they did not allow him to sleep. When he was interrogated, he

The Innocence Project was established in the wake of a landmark study by the United States Department of Justice and the United States Senate with help from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (Schneider, 2013). This study found that there were numerous reasons why people are wrongfully convicted including, but not limited to eye witness identification, perjured testimony, improper forensic science techniques, and government misconduct (Roberts & Weathered, 2009) The original Innocence Project was founded twenty two (22) years ago as a part of the Cardoza School of Law of Yeshiva University in New York City, New York (Davis, 2012). The Innocence Projects primary goal is to exonerate those whom have been convicted of a crime when there is DNA evidence available to be tested or re-tested (Mitchell, 2011). DNA testing has been possible in five (5) percent to ten (10) percent of cases since 1992 (Risinger, 2007). On the other side, other members of the Innocence Project help to exonerate those have been convicted of a crime where there is no DNA evidence to test. A goal of the Innocence Project is to conduct research on the reasons for wrongful convictions, how to fix the criminal justice system, as well as advocate for those who have been wrongfully convicted (Steiker & Steiker, 2005). The members of this organization strive to teach the world about the dangers of wrongful convictions. To date, this non-profit legal organization, has freed three hundred eighteen (318)

Roughly, two thirds of released prisoners are rearrested within three years of release, 47% were reconvicted, and 41% were re-incarcerated (National Center for Policy Analysis, 1998). Those are just the ones who get caught. If you return an individual to the community with $10 and a suit of clothes and no support systems, you can just about guarantee that that person is going to resort to some kind of criminal behavior. Because these numbers are so disproportionately high, we have to think in terms of doing something drastic with these offenders before they are released back into society. If no constructive plan of action can be formulated, invariably our society will falter at the hands of these men and

The tutor just once in a while shows that she is apprehensive the apparitions will physically damage or execute the youngsters. Actually, Miles' passing comes as a stun to us as perusers, in light of the fact that we are ill-equipped to think about the phantoms as a physical risk. Until she sends Flora away, the tutor never appears to consider expelling the kids from the phantoms or attempting to remove the apparitions from the house. Rather, the tutor's reasons for alarm concentrate completely on the potential "defilement" of the kids—whether they were adulterated by Quint and Jessel when the last were alive and whether they contiue to be comparatively ruined by the phantoms. Before she even thinks about Quint,