New Data, New Findings: An Updated Assessment of Wrongful Convictions

Abstract

Ten years ago, in January 2003, the American Judicature Society dedicated a conference to "Preventing the Convictions of Innocent Persons." Former Attorney General Janet Reno attended the conference and delivered a keynote address that was later reproduced in Judicature. In her address, Attorney General Reno reflected on what was then slightly more than 100 wrongfully convicted persons who had been exonerated in the preceding decade. Listening to the panels at the AJS conference and meeting the exonerated individuals, Reno called upon the academic community to provide more research about wrongful conviction and its causes-research that could be used to influence policy decisions and ultimately reform the American criminal justice system. She concluded by saying, "I think the findings are sufficiently grave, in terms of the mistakes the system has made, that we must renew our efforts...to find the truth. And what we do with the criminal justice system, which is the hallmark of the legal system for so many Americans looking in from the outside, will make a profound difference for this century".