Exonerations Categorized by Crime.
Depending on what the defendant was convicted for it is easier for a lawyer to prove their innocence due to the amount of evidence available in the case. Therefore, it’s important to look at trends related to specific crimes to understand why there are higher over-turn rates for certain crimes than others. Crimes where there’s substantial DNA evidence are more likely to have an easier trial of innocence, than someone who may have committed a ghost crime.
“Ghost crimes” are a term used by lawyers and prosecutors to describe a crime someone is convicted for but never actually occurred.
The National Registry of Exonerations created a chart of exonerations by crime from 1989–2013. The crime with the highest rate of exonerations during that time was Homicide with 47%. The registry then breaks down the crime into subdivisions, which are Murder with 45% and manslaughter with 1%. Murder cases are easier to prove a defendant’s innocence because there’s typically a substantial amount of evidence in murder cases left on the victim or around the scene.
The crime with the second highest percentage of exonerations, with 31%, is Sexual Assault. A section of the registry which talks about sexual assault cases states, “a majority of DNA exonerations are adult sexual assault cases (184/363).” The subdivisions of Sexual assault are broken into sexual assault on an adult and child sex abuse. The use of DNA evidence in these cases correlate to why it is second on the overall chart of exonerations by crime. This is because a lot of sexual assault and murder cases present enormous amounts of DNA evidence including semen, skin, and hair follicles to name a few.
Violent Crime convictions make up 13% of all known exonerations. The registry goes more into depth about the type of crimes such as Robbery, Attempted murder and Arson to name a few. These crimes are more difficult to exonerate, because some crimes such as arson may actually be accidental.
An article in Mother Jones speaks about a woman named Kristine Munch who was convicted of Arson and killing her 2-year-old son. The issue with crimes such as hers, Reddin states, is “many exoneration projects only work with convicts who can be absolved through DNA.” This is because DNA is finite and everyone’s DNA is unique providing more accuracy.
Non-Violent crimes have the least amount exonerations. This is because a lot of people are convicted of crimes that never occured (ghost crimes).
The top two types of non-violent crimes are Drug crimes and Tax/Fraud/Bribery and Corruption. A lot of drug related charges are often referenced as ghost crimes because the suspect was charge for a crime that never actually occurred with the help of faulty field tests kits and police misconduct.
As Previously stated, field test kits are often faulty and unreliable. These kits can pick up things such as candy and certain soaps and read them as a positive for illegal substances. This is why the accuracy of these tests are often used when trying to exonerate someone for drug possession. In Table 3 of National Registry of Exonerations, drug and property crimes are listed last with 0%.
Certain convictions have better rates and opportunities for over-turn, which can be an effect of the type of evidence presented in the case. Because DNA is more definite and unique to each person involved it’s easier to differentiate who was at the scene of the crime and who wasn’t.
Convictions where the suspect actually knew the victim, such as a Wife killing her husband or son is a little bit trickier. The difficulty comes into play because, “when a woman is suspected of killing her husband or her child, investigators are likely to find her DNA all over the crime scene whether she’s guilty or innocent.”
DNA plays a huge role in aiding the overturn of a conviction, but there are very few Innocence Projects that will represent a case that can’t be overturned with the use of DNA. And, although The work these projects do are great, the problem is that these aren’t the only crimes someone can be wrongfully convicted for.
Providing knowledge on these types of crimes, and creating resources like the innocence project for crimes that can’t be overturned with the use of DNA, may help correct even more wrongful convictions than before.
