Burden of Innocence: Coping with a Wrongful Imprisonment

• NCJ Number: 203914
• Journal: Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice Volume: 46 Issue: 2 Dated: January 2004 Pages: 139-163
• Author(s): Kathryn Campbell; Myriam Denov
• Date Published: January 2004
• Length: 25 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: Canada
• Note: See NCJ-203912-913 and NCJ-203915-916 for related articles.

Annotation

This article reviews cases of individuals who have been wrongly convicted and imprisoned exploring their experiences with wrongful arrest, conviction, and imprisonment and examining the consequences of maintaining their innocence throughout the criminal justice process.

Abstract

In recent years, the problem of wrongful conviction has generated much attention in academic and legal circles with the focus directed at exploring the inadequacies of the criminal justice system and the errors of criminal justice professionals in the relation to wrongful convictions. Absent from the literature are the voices of the wrongly convicted and accounts of their experiences and means of coping with a wrongful conviction, especially during imprisonment. This article explores how the wrongfully convicted cope with this burden through the use of a qualitative approach utilizing interviews and content analysis. Five individuals were interviewed with each having been wrongfully convicted and imprisoned. Participants were White males, ranging in age from 31 to 65 years of age, who had spent an average of 5 years in prison for crime they did not commit. Results were gathered in the areas of experiences of arrest, coping with a wrongful imprisonment, consequences of maintaining innocence in prison, and problems following release. The wrongfully convicted conveyed that the criminal justice system did little to facilitate their exoneration and actually exacerbated the difficult process of clearing their name. While identifying the deficiencies of the criminal justice system in rectifying wrongful convictions, the study underlines the importance of listening to the voices of those who have experienced this miscarriage of justice. The wrongfully convicted have much to contribute to an understanding of how such miscarriages of justice occur, and their experiences can help in informing future policy. References