About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

14 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 753 (2016-2017)
What We Think, What We Know and What We Think We Know about False Convictions

handle is hein.journals/osjcl14 and id is 765 raw text is: What We Think, What We Know and What We Think We Know About False Convictions Samuel R. Gross* When one man dies it is a tragedy. When thousands die it's statistics. Joseph Stalin, 1945' Abstract False convictions are notoriously difficult to study because they can neither be observed when they occur nor identified after the fact by any plausible research strategy. Our best shot is to collect data on those that come to light in legal proceedings that result in the exoneration of the convicted defendants. In May 2012, the National Registry of Exonerations released its first report, covering 873 exonerations from January 1989 through February 2012. By October 15, 2016, we had added 1,027 cases: 599 exonerations since March 1, 2012, and 428 that had already happened when we issued our initial report but were not known to us. In this paper I discuss what can and cannot be learned from the exonerations that we have collected. The cases we find and list are not a complete set of all exonerations that occur-not nearly-but it's clear from the patterns we see in known exonerations that false convictions outnumber exonerations by orders of magnitude. We cannot estimate the rate of false convictions or their distribution across crime categories. We can confidently say, however, that they are not rare events-and other research has estimated the rate of false convictions among death sentences at 4.1%, which provides an anchor for estimates * Thomas & Mabel Long Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School. This is a revised version of the 26th Annual Walter C. Reckless-Simon Dinitz Memorial Lecture, which I was honored to give on April 17, 2015, at The Ohio State University. In order to retain as much of the lecture format as possible, I have only provided footnotes where absolutely necessary. The original data in this paper are all from the National Registry of Exonerations, which I edit. Information about individual exonerees or their cases can easily be found on the Registry website under their names. I would like to thank Professor Emerita Ruth Peterson and the Ohio State University Criminal Justice Research Center for inviting me to give the Reckless-Dinitz Memorial Lecture and for being gracious hosts, Professor Joshua Dressler for arranging for this publication and the editorial staff of the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law for their patient help. The research that is discussed in this article is based on the impressive work of the staff of the National Registry of Exonerations, past and present: Michael Shaffer, Alexandra Gross, Shannon Leitner, Kaitlin Jackson, Klara Stephens, and, more than anybody, Maurice Possley. I am deeply grateful. I DAVID MCCULLOUGH, TRUMAN 420 (1992). 753

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most