"In societies that value the freedom of their citizens and have done so much to protect that freedom, it is arguable that being convicted of a crime that one did not commit, and being incarcerated with criminals or even put to death, represents one of the worst nightmares imaginable. And yet, when we consider the two major types of errors—false positives and false negatives—we find much more preoccupation with the question of the guilty going free, probably because of the public safety implications of freeing a criminal, who might then victimize others. The irony, of course, is that these two errors are inversely related, and every time we convict an innocent person we leave the actual offender free to continue victimizing citizens."
The Wrongful Conviction Epidemic
From the US Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics:
• State and Federal prison authorities had jurisdiction over 1,570,861 inmates at yearend 2006: 1,377,815 in State jurisdiction and 193,046 in Federal jurisdiction.
• Local jails held 766,010 persons awaiting trial or serving a sentence at yearend 2006.
A total of 2,336,871 people were serving time in prisons and jails at the end of 2006.
The Breakdown:
If 0.5% of those people were innocent: 11,684 wrongfully incarcerated.
If 1% of those people were innocent: 23,368 wrongfully incarcerated.
If 2% of those people were innocent: 46,737 wrongfully incarcerated.
If 5% of those people were innocent: 116,843 wrongfully incarcerated.
ONE wrongfully imprisoned is too many.
Injustice Served Supports:
Byron Case, wrongfully convicted of the 1997 murder of Anastasia WitbolsFeugen and serving a life sentence in Missouri.
Michael Perry, wrongfully convicted of the murders of Sandra Stotler, James Adam Stotler, and Jeremy Richardson; he is innocent on Texas Death Row.
Brett Hartmann, wrongfully convicted of the murder of Winda Snipes -- an innocent man on Ohio’s Death Row.
Please visit these websites:
Save Michael Perry
Save Brett Hartmann
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