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Preventing Wrongful Convictions

Newspaper Articles, Magazine Articles, and Television Broadcasts:

  • Study of Wrongful Convictions Raises Questions Beyond DNA - The New York Times (July 23, 2007). Explore the factors known to cause wrongful convictions, presented by The New York Times.
  • The Wrong Man - The Atlantic Monthly (Nov. 1999). Read about patterns of prosecutorial and police misconduct, inept legal representation, false confessions, and mistaken eyewitness identifications in several cases in which innocent criminal defendants were sentenced to death, and then exonerated.

Reports and Reform Efforts:

  • Achieving Justice: Freeing the Innocent, Convicting the Guilty - American Bar Association (2006). Review the report prepared by the ABA Ad Hoc Innocence Committee to Ensure the Integrity of the Criminal Process, focusing on factors known to cause wrongful convictions and analyzing proposed reforms.
  • Lessons Not Learned - Innocence Project (2007). Learn about the wrongful convictions in New York that have been overturned by DNA evidence.

Journal Articles:

 

Erroneous Eyewitness Identifications

Newspaper Articles, Magazine Articles, and Television Broadcasts:

  • Eyewitness: How Accurate is Visual Memory? - CBS News 60 Minutes (2009). View a must-see report on the flaws of eyewitness identification, including interviews with Professors Gary Wells and Elizabeth Loftus.
  • Eyewitness IDs Don't Always Mean Justice - National Public Radio (2009). Listen to a conversation between Slate.com senior editor Dahlia Lithwick and National Public Radio's Madeleine Brand, discussing the reliability of police lineups and eyewitness accounts.
  • Frontline: What Jennifer Saw - PBS Frontline. Explore a PBS series special report examining how eyewitness error contributes to wrongful convictions through an in-depth case study of Ronald Cotton, who was cleared of a rape conviction by DNA evidence after serving nearly 11 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

Reports and Reform Efforts:

  • Eyewitness Evidence: A Guide for Law Enforcement - U.S. Department of Justice (1999). Explore the eyewitness identification guidelines recommended for use by law enforcement officials by a group of 34 seasoned professionals in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Justice.
  • When Our Eyes Deceive Us. - Newsweek (Mar. 23, 2009). Read an article describing the failures of eyewitness identification that have lead to widespread reforms.
  • North Carolina Adopts Lineup Reforms - Raleigh News & Observer (2007). Learn about the eyewitness identification procedures presently required of law enforcement officials under North Carolina law.

 

False Confessions

Newspaper Articles, Magazine Articles, and Television Broadcasts:

  • The Case for Videotaping Interrogations - Los Angeles Times (Oct. 24, 2008). Learn how a suspect's false confession to a murder affected a seasoned police officer's understanding of false confessions.
  • False Confessions - Washington Post (2001). Read a series of articles in the Washington Post exploring the question of why people confess to crimes that they did not commit.

Reports and Reform Efforts:

  • False Confessions - Innocence Project. Learn about the role and prevalence of false confessions in wrongful convictions.

Journal Articles:

  • The Problem of False Confessions in the Post-DNA World - (Steven A. Drizin & Richard A. Leo) North Carolina Law Review, Vol. 82, p. 891 (2004). Explore the findings of a study of 125 recent cases of proven interrogation-induced false confessions, questioning how these cases were treated by officials in the criminal justice system.
 

Jailhouse Informants and Other Unreliable Witnesses

Reports and Reform Efforts:

 

Junk Forensic Science

Newspaper Articles, Magazine Articles, and Television Broadcasts:

Reports and Reform Efforts:

Journal Articles:

 

Prosecutorial Misconduct

Newspaper Articles, Magazine Articles, and Television Broadcasts:

Journal Articles:

 

Suggestive Interview Tactics and Unreliable Memories

Newspaper Articles, Magazine Articles, and Television Broadcasts:

  • But Sweetie, You Love Lima Beans - New York Times (Aug. 31, 2004). Read about a unique study of false memories conducted by psychologists in California and Washington.

Journal Articles:

North Carolina Directories, Encyclopedias, and Maps

North Carolina Courts, Criminal Law, and Legal Research Links

North Carolina State Government

  • Encyclopedia of the State Government of North Carolina - Learn about the structure of the North Carolina State Government, including the names of all individuals currently holding positions within the government.
  • North Carolina General Assembly - Track bills, find and communicate with North Carolina State House and Senate representatives, and follow meetings and issues before the General Assembly.
  • Office of the Governor - View North Carolina Governor Bev Purdue's official website, featuring current issues in focus, public policy, news, public events and contact information..
  • The Governor's Crime Commission - Review the legislative and policy agenda promulgated by the chief advisory body to the Governor and the Secretary of the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety.
  • North Carolina Sheriffs' Association - Access a directory of North Carolina's 100 Sheriffs, as well as legislative reports detailing legislation that is of special interest to law enforcement officers and criminal justice professionals in the state.
  • North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation - Learn about the entity charged with assisting local law enforcement with a wide variety of investigations, including homicides, missing persons cases, robberies, and property crimes.

North Carolina Criminal Justice Organizations and Services

  • National Criminal Justice Reference Service - Access federally funded justice and substance abuse publications and products.
  • North Carolina Office of Indigent Defense Services - Learn about the entity charged with overseeing the provision of legal representation to indigent defendants and others entitled to counsel under North Carolina law.
  • North Carolina Advocates for Justice - Learn about opportunities for legislative and public education programming aimed at achieving a more fair, accessible and just judicial system.
  • North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services - Explore resources available to inmates in the North Carolina Department of Corrections, ranging from advice about prisoners' legal rights to representation in litigation in state and federal court.
  • The North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence - Learn about the advocacy efforts of the organization created by the Innocence Projects at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Duke University Law Schools to coordinate the activities of all of the law school-based Innocence Projects in North Carolina.

North Carolina Corrections

North Carolina Law Enforcement

North Carolina News and Media

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