A frustrating thing about America’s criminal justice system is that some police and prosecutors seem more interested in arrests and convictions than justice. Institutional indifference to actual guilt can lead to outcomes that are, well, unjust.
This is why the report by the National Registry of Exonerations, at the University of Michigan Law School, is sobering and infuriating.
A record number of people, 149, were exonerated last year after being falsely convicted of crimes. That’s 10 more than in 2014, the previous record year. Not only were the lives of innocent people disrupted, the convictions created a false sense of closure for anyone who thought justice was done.
The fact that three wrongfully convicted people are freed from prison every week in the United States should give Americans pause. Three of 2015’s exonerations were issued to Pennsylvania prisoners: Lewis Jim Fogle of Indiana County, Zachary Handley of Northampton County and Han Tak Lee of Monroe County.
Fifty-eight of last year’s exonerees had been convicted of homicide, including 44 whose cases were marred by official misconduct. Five were on death row and 19 sentenced to life in prison, including Mr. Fogle and Mr. Lee. Twenty-seven of those freed were convicted by false confessions.
Another tragedy is that only 71 percent of those who are falsely convicted receive financial compensation, according to the Innocence Project of New York. Pennsylvania, which gives exonerees nothing, and other states must right this wrong.
Even though law students, various Innocence Projects and conviction integrity units in district attorney’s offices around the country deserve credit for unearthing these legal miscarriages, no one knows how many cases fall through the cracks.
Americans need to ask hard questions about the fairness of their criminal justice system and actively root out the practices and biases that lead to false convictions. If justice isn’t capable of standing up to scrutiny, then it isn’t justice at all.
First Published: February 5, 2016, 5:00 a.m.
