There was a book released in 1933 by Edwin Borchard titled “Convicting the Innocent: Sixty-Five Actual Errors of Criminal Justice” that made a splash when it was released because it identified sixty-five cases in which an innocent people had been convicted of crimes (Gould and Leo). Eighty years after this book you can only imagine that these numbers have all but increased in number when it comes to false convictions and the vast majority of these could be attributed to false statements and false witness testimonies. Justice does not exist when someone can falsely imprison another individual on the basis of a false witness testimony. However, we as a nation has released this from early on and mainly professionals have fought to get standards
…show more content…
On July 17, 1982, a young woman was raped by a black man whom she said was a total stranger (The Innocence Project). The act committed to the young lady was beyond no doubt outrageous and sickly in nature, however a lot much attention to details and surety should have been taken in this case of such importance. When she reported this crime forensic psychology could have been of assistance by evaluating the emotional and mental stability of the victim. Such an event would be very traumatic in nature and it would be responsible to ensure the victim is in a sound state of mind to give the necessary testimony in which to incriminate the perpetrator. Often people of younger age and have been on psychiatric medicine are known to given false identifications of suspects (MORGAN). However in this case all the victim did was give a statement of the suspect which was that he “had a white girl” (The Innocence Project). Officers took this information and only knew of one African American in their community living with a white woman. Another method of that should have been used here is fingerprints. The fingerprint is very unique in nature and can very well assist in either eliminating a suspect or bringing in a …show more content…
The Innocence Project took on his case in 1994 in an effort to clear him of the crime committed. The methods they use are DNA and trace evidence. DNA is almost as unique as fingerprint evidence, the only people in the world that could have the same exact DNA are twins but this method of identification was not vastly available until the late 1990’s. Trace evidence is the small amounts of hair or skin cells that transfers from one individual to another that can be used as DNA identification in cases. With these methods combined forensic specialists are able to identify false testimonies at much higher rates because they can either eliminate or rule in suspects whenever fingerprints were not left. Trace evidence is usually left no matter how hard a criminal tries to cover themselves up (National Institute of Justice). With the methods stated above, Marvin Anderson was cleared finally on August 21, 2002 of all charges by the Virginia governor (The Innocence Project). If it was not for the last two stated forensic methods, then perhaps an innocent man would still be in jail today for a crime he did not
On July 17, 1982, a young woman was raped by a black man whom she said was a total stranger (The Innocence Project). The act committed to the young lady was beyond no doubt outrageous and sickly in nature, however a lot much attention to details and surety should have been taken in this case of such importance. When she reported this crime forensic psychology could have been of assistance by evaluating the emotional and mental stability of the victim. Such an event would be very traumatic in nature and it would be responsible to ensure the victim is in a sound state of mind to give the necessary testimony in which to incriminate the perpetrator. Often people of younger age and have been on psychiatric medicine are known to given false identifications of suspects (MORGAN). However in this case all the victim did was give a statement of the suspect which was that he “had a white girl” (The Innocence Project). Officers took this information and only knew of one African American in their community living with a white woman. Another method of that should have been used here is fingerprints. The fingerprint is very unique in nature and can very well assist in either eliminating a suspect or bringing in a …show more content…
The Innocence Project took on his case in 1994 in an effort to clear him of the crime committed. The methods they use are DNA and trace evidence. DNA is almost as unique as fingerprint evidence, the only people in the world that could have the same exact DNA are twins but this method of identification was not vastly available until the late 1990’s. Trace evidence is the small amounts of hair or skin cells that transfers from one individual to another that can be used as DNA identification in cases. With these methods combined forensic specialists are able to identify false testimonies at much higher rates because they can either eliminate or rule in suspects whenever fingerprints were not left. Trace evidence is usually left no matter how hard a criminal tries to cover themselves up (National Institute of Justice). With the methods stated above, Marvin Anderson was cleared finally on August 21, 2002 of all charges by the Virginia governor (The Innocence Project). If it was not for the last two stated forensic methods, then perhaps an innocent man would still be in jail today for a crime he did not