An exoneration happens every three days in America. What this really says about our justice system

[Veilex]

According to the National Registry of Exonerations at the University of Michigan, 1,569 men and women in the United States, most of them African American, have been completely exonerated after being wrongfully convicted and sent to prison. The number of people exonerated for wrongful convictions actually broke a record high in 2014 with 125 exonerations, including six people who were actually on death row awaiting execution.

Less than every three days in our country, some man or woman is released back into society after spending a tragic portion of their life behind bars for a crime they never committed. Few injustices can compare to the horror of spending one hour in prison for something you didn't do.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/24/1372956/-An-exoneration-happens-every-3-days-in-America-What-this-really-says-about-our-justice-system?detail=facebook_sf

[bravenak]

1. Profit System. We named it wrong it what that says.

More criminals in congress/wall street/MIC/The Bush/Cheney estates than in prisons.

[Hoppy]

2. That's why we need the new Utah system in every state.

No more exonerations.














Yes, Martha, it's scarcasm.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

3. That's a very low number indeed, which would be encouraging if it were meaningful.

That's about 10^2 people exonerated every year.

By contrast, the number of people sent to prison every year in the USA is probably closer to 10^6 than 10^5.

So, to an order of magnitude (i.e. "Very, very roughly; do not place faith in this number&quot 1 in 1000 criminals sent to prison is subsequently exonerated.

That's a very low rate indeed by any reasonable standard. If the only evidence of wrongful convictions you had to look at was exonerations, you'd conclude that the USA was doing an excellent job of not convicting innocent people.

But, of course, if there's enough evidence against someone to sent them wrongly to prison, there's probably also enough evidence to stop them being subsequently acquitted. Most people who are wrongfully convicted will never be exonerated, so this number doesn't tell us very much.