CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM REFORM AND WRONGFUL CONVICTION

Criminal Justice System Reform and Wrongful Conviction

Criminal Justice System Reform and Wrongful Conviction

Introduction

The legitimacy of the criminal justice system relies heavily on its effectiveness and its fairness. The effectiveness of the system depends on its ability to discover the crime, to investigate, identify offenders and punishment to the accused should be convicted of the offense. Fairness, in turn, depends on the efforts to correct the imbalance between the resources of the accused and those of the state regarding the investigation, the pretrial proceedings, the trial and appeals, and the importance that can be given at each stage of the process. The system provides for protection of evidence and allows the use of legal counsel at all stages of the procedure (Bernard, 2005).

Wrongful convictions undermine both the legitimacy of the foundations of the criminal justice system. The person wrongly convicted suffers a penalty for a crime she did not commit, so that the real perpetrator remains at large. In addition, wrongful convictions have the effect of undermining public confidence towards the system.

Discussion and Analysis

The whole criminal justice system can be based on the presumption of innocence; a fundamental constitutional value is that an accused can be presumed innocent until proven not guilty after a trial. This principle is quite contrary to what the public expects, namely that the majority of those accused of a crime are guilty and convicted by the court. Wrongful convictions violate the fundamental legal value and public expectations as they show that the violation of the presumption of innocence highlights the importance. However, the criminal justice system does not deal only those guilty.

Wrongful convictions certainly are probably less likely it can be argued, but their number is still surprising. It seems that in Britain, the rate of wrongful convictions reached 0.1 per 100, a convicted person in a thousand. Other data suggest that there may be, each year 15 people wrongfully convicted in Great Britain. U.S. studies indicate that between 0.5 and 1 per 100 persons convicted of serious offenses are innocent. According to the Criminal Justice Research Center, 6000 people each year in the United States, wrongfully convicted of a serious crime. An official of the Department of Justice recently stated that the department received about 30 applications for review of convictions.

The Current Situation Prevailing

In addition, it also includes the lack of evidence on the identification of defendant, perjury, false confessions, inadequate or misinterpretation of legal expertise, the prejudices of judges, inadequate presentation of a case appealed and the difficulty of obtaining the submission of new evidence on appeal. Each case of wrongful conviction reveals a different combination of defects in the criminal justice system, which prevented the efficient and equitable (Denborough, 2009).

Because deemed unjustified convictions significantly affect the integrity of the criminal justice system, the review mechanisms, which apply to them, are extraordinary procedures that can rarely used successfully. For otherwise, one should question the legitimacy of the criminal justice system and in drawing attention to its shortcomings, ...