NCJ Number
222533
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 25 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2008 Pages: 72-100
Date Published
March 2008
Length
29 pages
Annotation
This article reports on a survey of Michigan criminal justice officials that asked them to estimate the incidence of wrongful convictions in their jurisdictions as well as the United States as a whole.
Abstract
Respondents as a total group estimated that wrongful convictions in their own jurisdictions occurred at a rate of less than 0.5 percent and at a rate of 1-3 percent in the Nation as a whole. As a distinct professional group, defense attorneys estimated higher rates of wrongful convictions than judges, prosecutors, and police officials, respectively. The different estimates by professional group may be explained by the stake that each profession has in attempting to gain or prevent convictions. Taking the lower estimate of 0.5 percent of wrongful convictions for Michigan jurisdictions and extrapolating it to the Nation as a whole yields approximately 5,000 wrongful felony convictions each year and the imprisonment of approximately 2,000 innocent persons annually. The survey involved three waves of mailings sent between August 2005 and January 2006. It was mailed to all sheriffs, a random sample of police chiefs, all trial and appellate judges, and all chief prosecutors in Michigan. In order to reach defense attorneys, questionnaires were sent to the State Appellate Defender's Office and members of the Criminal Defense Attorneys of Michigan, which is a voluntary membership organization of practicing defense lawyers. Out of 853 questionnaires mailed, responses were received from 467, producing an overall response rate of 54.7 percent. The findings are compared with a recent similar Ohio survey. 5 tables, 86 references and appendix