ST Alpha - "I have a question and it's not trying to be all fighty...it's that I don't know. Are there a lot of innocent people being convicted every year?" (Reading a Post)

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I have a question and it's not trying to be all fighty...it's that I don't know. Are there a lot of innocent people being convicted every year?

Posted by Jim (aka Jim) Oct 20 '09, 08:24

I ask because in the movies the guy is always innocent and wrongly convicted.

But in real life...is there anywhere you can find some sort of study/percentages/WAGs of how many innocent people get convicted on a yearly basis?

Responses:

That David Gale movie sucked ass and spoils - Beaker Oct 20, 08:45 1
- I think there's general agreement here that that movie is the worst possible argument against the DP. -- nm - Reagen Oct 20, 08:46
I find sites quoting 8-12% of state prisoners, 4% of federal prisoners, are innocent. Nobody links to the source, though -- nm - mara Oct 20, 08:32 3
- 8-12% my ass. -- nm - Jovian Oct 20, 08:43
- I would have doubts about any numbers claimed. how can they know? -- nm - loosilu Oct 20, 08:41
- Kinda makes you wonder how we can get it wrong so many times, doesn't it? -- nm - Jim Oct 20, 08:40
not a full picture by any means, but there have been 244 convictions overturned through DNA evidence in the last 20 years. -- (link) - znufrii Oct 20, 08:29 18
- 17 of which were on death row. -- nm - TFox Oct 20, 08:31 7
  - maybe not if it was a one week stay there. nm -- nm - groiny Oct 20, 08:32 4
    - uh, yeah. Then these innocent people would be dead. -- nm - Reagen Oct 20, 08:35 3
      - they probably would have stopped looking at evidence. - groiny Oct 20, 08:37 2
        
        so we need the DP in order to get people to look harder at whether we've convicted the right people, but they only get a week to do it? - Reagen Oct 20, 08:40 1
        
        *laughing* - groiny Oct 20, 08:43
  - [deleted] 1
    - nope, i'm not trying to imply anything of the sort. i know that the reason for the ratio is how few death row convictions there are. -- nm - TFox Oct 20, 08:32
- Of course, in many cases there won't be any DNA evidence. -- nm - Don Homer Oct 20, 08:30 5
  - this is why I leave traces of my seed everywhere. nm -- nm - groiny Oct 20, 08:30
  - I believe in *most* cases there is no DNA evidence. which means there are probably a great many innocent people in prison. -- nm - loosilu Oct 20, 08:30 3
    - "� 22 percent of cases closed by the Innocence Project since 2004 were closed because of lost or missing evidence." -- nm - znufrii Oct 20, 08:31 1
      - so 78% were overturned for DNA evidence, which means DNA evidence is the best basis for overturning. -- nm - loosilu Oct 20, 08:32
    - No doubt. -- nm - Don Homer Oct 20, 08:31
- so 12 a year...... nm -- nm - groiny Oct 20, 08:29 3
  - of those are just the ones that get overturned, not a full measure of everyone wrongly convicted. -- nm - znufrii Oct 20, 08:31
  - the majorit of them are in the last 10 years. -- nm - loosilu Oct 20, 08:30
  - oh, that's not so bad then... -- nm - Don Homer Oct 20, 08:29
In a recent poll of prison populations, the number came out at 101%, plus or minus a percent. -- nm - Ender Oct 20, 08:27 1
- actually, that number is way too high. There are plenty of inmates who admit guilt. - groiny Oct 20, 08:28
some numbers here from the Innocence Project. -- (link) - loosilu Oct 20, 08:27
my bad. Are we all good? - lawyer Oct 20, 08:26 4
- in general, wrongful convictions are worth millions in settlement. - Reagen Oct 20, 08:29 3
  - more tax dollars well spent. nm -- nm - groiny Oct 20, 08:30 2
    - "Gee, you're kind of all over the place there, Homer." -- nm - Reagen Oct 20, 08:32 1
      - lol. nm -- nm - groiny Oct 20, 08:32
Not many, but we'll never know for sure in some cases. One recent one though in Texas... -- (link) - Don Homer Oct 20, 08:26 3
- [deleted] 1
  - Yes. Agreed on both counts. -- nm - Don Homer Oct 20, 08:33
- Here is a long - but very good - recent article in The New Yorker about it. -- (link) - Don Homer Oct 20, 08:27

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I have a question and it's not trying to be all fighty...it's that I don't know. Are there a lot of innocent people being convicted every year?

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