Wrongful Convictions

Reasons for Wrongful Convictions

The actual statistics for wrongfully convicted people in the United States is 3-5%. That means that 3-5% of the people in state and federal prisons are innocent. Some of these innocent people have actually been executed.

These are the nine (9) most common reasons people are wrongfully convicted:

1. Improper or mistaken eyewitness identification

2. Lack of adequate defense counsel

3. Improper or false police testimony

4. Loss or destroyed evidence (forensic fraud)

5. Lack of alibi for defendant

6. Fabricated evidence by the prosecution

7. Improper jury instructions

8. Prosecutorial misconduct

9. False confessions

Michael O’Laughlin was wrongfully convicted on reasons 2-8. And for this wrongful conviction he was sentenced to 35-50 years in a Massachusetts maximum security prison.

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Wrongful Conviction Web Sites

Following are some web sites supporting and helpful in understanding the plight of the wrongfully convicted:

• Association in Defense of the Wrongfully Convicted: http://www.aidwyc.org/
  

• Center on Wrongful Convictions: http://www.law.northwestern.edu/wrongfulconvictions/
  

• Centurion Ministries: http://www.centurionministries.org/
  

• Defending the Falsely Accused: http://www.allencowling.com/
  

• Truth in Justice Foundation: http://www.truthinjustice.com/
  

• Justice Denied: http://www.justicedenied.org/
  

• The Innocence Project: http://www.innocenceproject.org/
  

• The New England Innocence Project (NEIP): http://www.criminaljustice.org/public.nsf/DefenseUpdates/NewEnglandInnocence/
  

• The Wrongful Convictions Project: http://www.wrongfulconvictions.com/
  

• Truth in Justice: http://www.truthinjustice.org/
  

• Dr. Edmund Higgins: http://www.dredmundhiggins.com/
  

• The National Center for Reason & Justice: http://www.ncrj.org/
  

• Prison Talk Online: http://www.prisontalk.com/
  

• Report of the Working Group (Canada) on the Prevention of Miscarriages of Justice: http://canada.justice.gc.ca/en/dept/pub/hop/toc.html
  

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Wrongful Conviction Books

Following are some books supporting and helpful in understanding the plight of the wrongfully convicted:

• Actual Innocence: When Justice Goes Wrong and How to Make it Right by Barry C. Scheck  & Peter Peter J. Neufeld
  

• Presumed Guilty: When Innocent People are Wrongfully Convicted by Martin Yant
  

• Innocent: Inside Wrongful Conviction Cases by Scott Christianson
  

• Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States by Sister Helen Prejean
  

• The Death of Innocents : An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions by Sister Helen Prejean
  

• The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town by John Grisham
  

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Corruption in the Berkshires

Following are sites the National Center for Reason and Justice (NCRJ) is working on regarding people from the Berkshires that have been wrongfully convicted:

• Bernard Baran: http://www.freebaran.org/
  

• Bruce Clairmont: http://www.justicedenied.org/bruce.htm
  

• Paul Litchfield - Tragedies of Justice: www.freewebs.com/paullitchfield
  

• Peter Huntoon: www.freewebs.com/peterhuntoon
  

• Robert Halsey - Imaginary Crimes: http://members.shaw.ca/imaginarycrimes/halsey.htm
  

• Ben La Guer - www.benlaguer.com
  

• Berkshire Injustice: www.freewebs.com/berkshireinjustice
  

• Justice in Berkshire County: http://members.shaw.ca/imaginarycrimes/berkshirecounty.htm
  

• Harvard Law School Conference - A special Report: http://www.justicedenied.org/harvardlawschool.htm
  

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