What can we learn from other nations about the problem of wrongful conviction?

Judicature

Volumn 86, Issue 2, 2002, Pages 91-97

  Huff, C Ronald ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0036761535     PISSN: 00225800     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (23)

1. Bedau and Radelet. Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases, 40 Stanford L. Rev. 21-179 (1987). Also see Radelet, Bedau, and Putnam. In Spite of Innocence (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1992).
2. Bedau and Radelet. Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases, 40 Stanford L. Rev. 21-179 (1987). Also see Radelet, Bedau, and Putnam. In Spite of Innocence (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1992).
3. Liebman, Fagan, West, and Lloyd, Capital Attrition: Error Rates in Capital Cases 78 Tex. L. Rev. 1839-1865 (2000).
4. The Law Commission (New Zealand), Compensation for Wrongful Conviction or Prosecution (Preliminary Paper 31) (Wellington, New Zealand, April 1998).
5. Council of Europe, Protocol No. 7 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as amended by Protocol No. 11 (Strasbourg, France, November 1, 1998).
6. Huff, Rattner, and Sagarin, Convicted But Innocent: Wrongful Conviction and Public Policy 10 (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1996).
7. Note that there are informal estimates such as one cited by a senior analyst in the Research Branch of Canada's Library of Parliament: "⋯It has been claimed that in Great Britain, the wrongful conviction rate may be as high as .1%-or one out of every thousand people. Another estimate is that there may be 15 cases of wrongful conviction each year in Great Britain... There are no similar estimates of the number of wrongful convictions in Canada. An official with the Department of Justice recently estimated that the Department receives about 30 applications a year for the review of criminal convictions ⋯"(Rosen, Wrongful Convictions in the Criminal justice System, Ottawa, Canada, January 1992, at 1). The estimate of 15 cases per year in Great Britain appears to correspond fairly well with the known cases of wrongful conviction reported by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. infra n. 20. (67 convictions quashed in four years).
8. Huff, Rattner, and Sgarin, supra n.5. Also see Huff, Wrongful Conviction and Public Policy: The American Society of criminology 2001 Presidential Address, 40 Criminology 1-18 (2002).
9. Huff, Rattner, and Sgarin, supra n.5. Also see Huff, Wrongful Conviction and Public Policy: The American Society of criminology 2001 Presidential Address, 40 Criminology 1-18 (2002).
10. Scheck, Neufeld, and Dwyer, Acutual Innocence (New York: Doubleday, 2000).
11. See, for example, data provided by Great Britain's Criminal Cases Review Commission, infra n. 20, and by a senior analyst for Canadian Parliament (supra n. 6).
12. U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, World Fact Book of Criminal Justice Systems (Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistic, 1993; revised 2001).
13. Based on Biles, World Factbook of Criminal Justice Systems: Australia (Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1993).
14. Note that electronic recording of interrogations is now either common or mandatory in England and Canada, as well as Australia. One issue that has arisen, however, involves the decisions as to when the videotaping is to begin and whether it must be continuous or may be interrupted. These, of course, are very important decisions. See Westling and Waye, Videotaping Police Interrogations: Lessons from Australia. 25 Am. J. Crim. L. 493-543 (1998).
15. Based on Borricand, World Factbook of Criminal Justice System: France (Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1993).
16. Based on Canivell, World Factbook of Criminal Justice System: System Spain (Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1993).
17. Supra n.3, at 1.
18. Gross, Update: American public Opinion on the Death Penalty - It's Getting Personal, 83 Cornell L. Rev. 1448-1475.
19. Scheck and Neufeld, DNA and Innocence Scholarship, in Westervelt and Humphrey, eds., Wrongly Convicted: Perspectives on Failed Justice (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001).
20. Reno, remarks at National Symposium on Indigent Defence, Washington, DC, June 29, 2000.
21. Griffin, The Correction of Wrongful Convictions: A Comparative perspective. 16 Am. U. Intl. L. Rev. 1241-1308 (2001).
22. Criminal Cases Review Commission, Annual Report 2000-2001 (London: Criminal Cases Review Commission, June 18 2001).
23. A colleague Martin Killias (University of Lausanne), and I are organizing an international network of researchers and policy makers who are interested in conducting research on wrongful conviction. Interested persons may contact either of us at: rhuff@uci.edu or Martin.Killias@ipsc.unil.ch.