NCJ Number
177003
Date Published
1998
Length
144 pages
Annotation
This book presents six case studies of wrongful convictions in Canadian courts and identifies the causes and remedies for such injustices.
Abstract
The authors conclude on the basis of the case studies that wrongful convictions can be understood on two levels of analysis. The first level involves the professional and bureaucratic wrongdoing within the justice system, which includes the targeting practices of the police, the suppression of evidence, coercion and intimidation of witnesses, falsified forensic evidence, judicial malpractice, jury tampering, and prosecution and defense misconduct. The second and more important level analyzes the way Canada's persistent systemic social inequality causes certain individuals and groups to become socially, politically, and economically powerless. These marginalized people become the most frequent victims of wrongful conviction. In order to mount measures to prevent or reduce wrongful convictions, these two levels of analysis must be addressed. To prevent intentional misconduct by criminal justice professionals, laws designed to prevent the suppression and altering of evidence, witness intimidation, jury tampering, and other judicial misconduct must be better enforced. Further, there must be efforts designed to achieve legal equality for the marginalized people of Canadian society. One option is to develop a fee-for-service system for lawyers paid for by the state; clients, regardless of their ability to pay, would have the right to retain the lawyer of their choice. Poor defendants should also be guaranteed equal access to technology necessary for the kind of defense currently only available to the wealthy defendant. The book concludes with recommendations for transforming social inequality, which is believed by the authors to underlie the vulnerability of poor, marginalized defendants to wrongful conviction. 80 references