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82 Alb. L. Rev. 843 (2018-2019)
An Analysis of Issues at Pre-Trial Proceedings Leading to Wrongful Convictions in No Crime Cases: There Was No Crime, but They Did the Time

handle is hein.journals/albany82 and id is 863 raw text is: 








    AN  ANALYSIS OF ISSUES AT PRE-TRIAL PROCEEDINGS
    LEADING TO WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS IN NO CRIME
    CASES:  THERE WAS NO CRIME, BUT THEY DID THE TIME


                            Irina Zakirova*

                            I. INTRODUCTION

   Wrongful   conviction is a term used to describe a situation when  an
 innocent individual  is wrongly accused  and convicted  for a crime that
 he or  she  did not  commit.'   However,   there  are  cases where   an
 innocent  individual was  wrongly   accused  and  convicted  of a crime
 that did not even occur.2 To  date, such cases fall under the umbrella
 of wrongful convictions  and  are known   as the no crime  cases.3 So
 far, more   than  a  third  of wrongful   conviction  cases  and   later
 exonerations   were  for a  crime  that  did  not  take  place.4   This
 illustrates the flaws of the criminal justice system: not only are those
 within the system  blind to who is innocent and who  is guilty, but they
 are also blind as to whether or not a crime occurred. Thus,  this paper
 seeks to define the no crime phenomenon and further explain how an
 accident, suicide, or a fabricated crime can be wrongly  determined   to
 be a crime before adjudication  leading to a wrongful  conviction.


 *  Adjunct Assistant Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York. Holds a
 Ph.D. in Legal Studies with a concentration on compensation for damages. In addition, she
 attained a First Professional Degree in Law and Master Degrees in Journalism and Criminal
 Justice. The first attempt to analyze issues related to wrongful conviction was in the Master's
 thesis (Compensation for Damages Caused by Wrongful Conviction) in 2015 in John Jay College
 of Criminal Justice, which was further extended through an article published in the Albany
 Law Review. See Irina Zakirova, Forensic Evidence in Wrongful Conviction Cases: From Being
 a Right-Hand Man to Becoming a Snake in the Grass, 81 Alb. L. Rev. 877 (2018). All values
 and numbers herein have been calculated as of February 13, 2019, and may be subject to
 change.
 1  See SERI IRAZOLA ET AL., STUDY OF VICTIM EXPERIENCES OF WRONGFUL CONVICTION 14
 (2013), https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffilesl/nij/grants/244084.pdf.
 2  See, e.g., Exoneration Detail List, NAT'L REGISTRY EXONERATIONS, http://www.law.umich.e
 dulspecial/exoneration/Pages/detaillist.aspx (last visited Feb. 13, 2019).
 3  See Glossary, NAT'L REGISTRY EXONERATIONS, https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoner
 ation/Pages/glossary.aspx#NC (last visited Feb. 13, 2019) (The exoneree was convicted of a
 crime that did not occur, either because an accident or a suicide was mistaken for a crime, or
because the exoneree was accused of a fabricated crime that never happened.).
  4 See Exoneration Detail List, supra note 2.


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