Convicted But Innocent: Wrongful Conviction and Public Policy

205 Pages·1996·16.394 MB·English

by  Clarence Ronald Huff, Arye Rattner, Edward Sagarin

Convicted but
Innocent: Wrongful
Conviction and Public
Policy

C Ronald Huff
Convicted
But Innocent

Convicted
But Innocent
Wrongful Conviction
and Public Policy
C. RONALD HUFF
ARYE RATTNER
EDWARD SAGARIN
I SAGE Publication s
} International Educational and Professional Publisher
Thousan d Oaks London New Delhi
Copyright © 1996 by Sage Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy-
ing, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher.
For information address:
SAGE Publications, Inc.
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E-mail: [email protected] m
SAGE Publications Ltd.
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Printed in the United States of America
Librar y of Congress Cataloging-in-Publicatio n Data
Huff, C. Ronald.
Convicted but innocent: Wrongful conviction and public policy /
authors, C. Ronald Huff, Arye Rattner, Edward Sagarin,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8039-5952-4 (cloth: acid-free paper).
ISBN 0-8039-5953-2 (pbk.: acid-free paper).
1. Judicial error—United States. 2. False imprisonment—United States
3. Criminal justice, Administration of—United States.
I. Rattner, Arye. II. Sagarin, Edward, 1913-1986. III. Title.
KF9756.H84 1996
364.1'092'273—dc20 95-41748
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
97 98 99 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Sage Project Editor: Christina Hill
This book is dedicated to the memory of our friend and
colleague, Professor Edward Sagarin, whose ideas and
encouragement contributed greatly to this book and to
our lives; and to the convicted innocents, whose cause
he championed.
C.R.H.
A.R.

Content s
Foreword ix
SIMON DINITZ
Acknowledgments xvii
Introduction xxi
1. With Apologies to the Prisoner 1
Defining the Convicted Innocents 10
Where Doubt Remains 13
Declared Innocent, and Still Incarcerated 16
2. Causes Celebres 21
A Nineteenth-Century Case: The Dreyfus Affair 24
The Scottsboro Boys 28
The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping 29
The Sad Saga of Isidore Zimmerman 32
Randall Dale Adams: Injustice in Dallas 33
"Ivan the Terrible," or a Terrible Case of
Mistaken Identity? 46
3. How Could This Have Happened ?
The Causes and Prevalence of Wrongful Conviction 53
How Does It Happen? 66
Eyewitness Error 66
Prosecutorial and Police Misconduct and Errors 70
Plea Bargaining 73
Community Pressure for Conviction 75
Inadequacy of Counsel 76
Accusations Against the Innocent by the Guilty 77
Criminal Records 79
Race as a Factor 80
4. What Did They Really See?
The Problems of Eyewitness Identification 83
Psychological Factors 87
Systemic Factors 93
Societal and Cultural Factors 98
Conclusion 104
5. False Confessions, Miranda Notwithstandin g 110
The Bradley Cox Case 123
6. Wrongful Conviction and Public Policy
What Can Be Done? 142
Crime Control Versus Due Process 143
What Is the Meaning of Wrongful Conviction? 146
Reducing the Incidence of Wrongful Conviction 150
Identifying and Exonerating Convicted Innocents 153
Compensating and Reintegrating Convicted Innocents 155
Capital Punishment: The Irreversible Error 160
References 162
Cases 167
Index 169
About the Authors 179
Forewor d
HHj Of the many troubled social institutions in American life—includ-
WKm ing public education, welfare, health, and the family—none is in
greater difficulty than the criminal justice system. Many billions of federal
dollars have been spent on criminal justice agencies and programs since
the introduction of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration in the
late 1960s in the "war on crime" stemming from persistent public pressure
for greater personal safety. Astronomic sums have been allocated to
upgrade law enforcement equipment; to go on-line in this computer age
so that law enforcement agencies can more efficiently collect, record,
maintain, and share information; to improve forensic science; to recruit
and train additional qualified personnel (more than 100,000 new police
officers alone in the latest crime bill, 1994-1995); to reduce racial, gender,
and ethnic biases in the system; to speed up the criminal justice process;
to rewrite the criminal codes and impose draconian sentences on those
convicted of drug offenses; to revive the death penalty; to move toward
ix