Four leading causes of wrongful convictions

There is a growing movement of people in the Twin Cities fighting for the 20,000+ wrongfully incarcerated individuals in the United States. The Wrongfully Incarcerated and Over-Sentenced Families Council-MN hosted the first Day of Empathy at the North Commons Community Park Center in Minneapolis. Community gathered to raise awareness about wrongful incarceration, over-sentencing, and racial injustice in Minnesota’s criminal legal system. 

Day of Empathy in Minneapolis highlighted voices from across movements, including advocates for police accountability, immigrant justice, the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls movement, and LGBTQIA+ liberation and Free Palestine movement.

“We are here to remind lawmakers and the public that real people are suffering because of unjust laws and broken systems. Our loved ones deserve freedom, support, and a chance to come home,” said Alissa Washington, founder of the organization.

Here are four leading causes of wrongful incarceration, according to the Innocence Project .

Eyewitness Misidentification

Eyewitness misidentification contributes to an overwhelming majority of wrongful convictions that have been overturned by post-conviction DNA testing.

Eyewitnesses are often expected to identify perpetrators of crimes based on memory, which is incredibly malleable. Under intense pressure, through suggestive police practices, or over time, an eyewitness is more likely to find it difficult to correctly recall details about what they saw. 

False Confessions

False confessions occur more than most people think and result from a variety of factors, including the use of coercive and deceptive tactics during an interrogation.

Research shows that false confessions can take place due to law enforcement’s use of intimidation, force, coercive tactics, isolation during interrogations, deceptive methods that include lying about evidence, and more. An innocent person may also falsely confess because of increased stress, mental exhaustion, promises of lenient sentences, or challenges with understanding their constitutional rights.

Forensic Evidence Errors

Misapplied forensic science has contributed to more than half of Innocence Project wrongful conviction cases and nearly a quarter of all wrongful conviction cases since 1989.

Over the years, DNA testing and advances in forensic science disciplines have revealed weaknesses in the scientific foundations of several methods that were once widely accepted by the criminal legal system and used to help secure earlier convictions.

Official Misconduct

Police misconduct has disproportionately contributed to the wrongful conviction of people of color, many of whom live in communities that are more heavily policed. 

Prosecutorial misconduct occurs when a prosecutor seriously violates the law or a code of ethics while prosecuting a case. In a majority of cases where wrongfully convicted people have experienced this kind of misconduct, prosecutors have been accused of making improper arguments at trial, purposely withholding evidence of innocence or other favorable evidence (in what is known as a Brady violation), and more.

According to the Innocence Project, over 3,660 wrongfully convicted and imprisoned individuals have been exonerated in the United States since. These exonerations have collectively resulted in more than 32,000 years of unjust imprisonment.