Legal System, The | Introduction
“Truth-seeking is an imperfect process. . . . If mistakes are to be made, they should be made in the direction of making sure that an innocent person is not convicted.” —Jay M. Feinman, Law 101: Everything You Need to Know About the American Legal System
One of the keystone responsibilities of the American legal system is to ensure that every defendant receives a fair trial. However, the perfection of DNA tests have recently proven that on numerous occasions people were arrested and convicted of crimes they did not commit. The results of these tests point out that the legal system is imperfect.
DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the genetic code that determines an individual’s physical characteristics. It can be found in the nucleus of every cell. Because everyone has a unique DNA code (except identical multiple births), forensic testing on hair, semen, or blood left at a crime scene may determine whether a defendant committed the crimes for which he or she has been accused.
Law professor Barry Scheck has advocated using DNA in ambiguous cases in a nationwide effort he calls the Innocence Project, which provides free legal assistance for inmates who have proven that DNA testing may make a difference in the outcome of a retrial. The project has helped exonerate more than thirty-five prisoners. In an interview with the television program Frontline, Scheck stated, “This is total system failure. We’re not talking about some procedural due process matter, some matter of unfairness in the way the trial was conducted. We’re talking about people who are actually innocent. And that has to command our respect and attention and concern unlike any other kind of case.”
DNA testing has, in effect, called into question more traditional evidence in determining guilt such as eyewitness testimony. Eyewitness testimony leads to an average of seventy-seven thousand arrests every year. Studies have found that faulty eyewitness testimony is a leading cause of false convictions. A 1997 report by the Constitutional Rights Foundation states, “Researchers at Ohio State University examined hundreds of wrongful convictions and determined that roughly 52 percent of the errors resulted from eyewitness mistakes.” According to Boston defense attorney James Doyle, thirty-six of the first forty prisoners who were released after DNA testing had been convicted because of eyewitness testimony.
Several ways that eyewitnesses have been asked to identify suspects may compound the inaccuracy of their testimony. Criminal lineups, for example, seem to result in the witness selecting the person who most closely resembles the person he or she saw, regardless of whether the actual perpetrator is in the lineup. Other factors include the amount of time that passed between the crime and the identification, as well as police and prosecutors influencing the eyewitness. Race also affects an eyewitness’s ability to successfully identify a suspect. Studies have found that people are 15 percent more likely to accurately identify suspects of their own race.
The behavior of police can also affect a person’s ability to receive a fair trial. Despite the presence of Miranda laws— which have largely eliminated physical and psychological torture of suspects—many critics of the police contend that defendants are compelled into confessing to crimes they did not commit. For example, Earl Washington was convicted of murder in 1984 and sentenced to death; he was later exonerated by DNA testing. Washington’s lawyers argued during his murder trial that his IQ of 69 had made it easier for police to lead him into a false confession. In an article for American Prospect, Alexander Nguyen writes, “[The] tactics police departments have developed are so effective that police have even been able to extract false confessions from innocent suspects—a baffling phenomenon, but evidence that interrogations have continued to be psychologically compelling.” These tactics can include lying to a suspect about an accomplice’s confession or the existence of witnesses and evidence.
The problem of wrongful convictions is one of the many issues facing the American legal system. In The Legal System: Opposing Viewpoints, the authors examine these issues in the following chapters: What Is the State of the American Civil Justice System? Does the Jury System Work? Is the Criminal Justice System Fair? What Should Be the Role of the Media in the Legal System? In those chapters, the authors consider how to achieve the idea: treating all citizens equally in the eyes of the law.
