Houston Criminal Defense Lawyer Recommends Report on Wrongfully Convicted Persons Exonerated Through DNA Testing
Not even a Houston criminal defense lawyer would be able to tell you what it must feel like for a person wrongfully convicted of a serious crime, to be finally exonerated through DNA testing. Yet, wrongful convictions are more frequent than we care to think about.
The Innocence Project profiles 250 wrongfully convicted people who have been exonerated through DNA testing, in a report called “250 Exonerated. Too Many Wrongfully Convicted.” These people had been wrongfully convicted for various crimes including rape, sexual assault, abductions, sexual abuse, robbery, and murder.
There are several stark facts in the report that jump out at us. According to the report:
- These persons spent a total of 3,160 years in prison for crimes they never committed.
- That works out to an average of 13 years in prison for each person.
- 60% of those who were exonerated were African American.
- 8% were Latino.
- 29% were Caucasian.
- 47% had spent at least 1/3rd of their lives in prison or on parole.
- 84% had been convicted of sexual assault
- 29% had been convicted of murder.
- 16% had been convicted of both sexual assault and murder
- 70% were convicted based on misidentification by witnesses. So much for eye witness accounts.
- 53% of those wrong identifications involved a person incorrectly identifying a black person.
- 52% were convicted based partly on improper forensic science.
- 21% were convicted partly because of improper use of microscopic hair analysis.
- 5 people were convicted based on the wrong use of DNA.
We highly recommend you read the report. It’s not something that criminal defense lawyers in Houston like to think about – an innocent man being put away for a crime he didn’t commit – but these are 250 examples that force us to face the ugly truth. This is exactly why we fight these cases so aggressively.
If you or a loved one has been charged with a serious criminal offense, contact the Husband & Wife Legal Team at the Kahn Law Firm today for a free, confidential consultation at 713-226-9900.
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