Wrongful Convictions and Remedies to Minimize Imprisonm

Abstract

Wrongful conviction is generally viewed as the conviction of a factually innocent person. It denotes the exoneration of an individual who was convicted of a crime that he or she did not commit or have any stake in. In the present context, there are so many innocents convicted wrongfully in Sri Lanka and a large number of cases have been reported regarding wrongful conviction of innocents. Wrongful accusations (e.g., by eyewitnesses, forensic scientists, or the police) include errors in the process of administration of justice that is supposed to correct errors and prevent wrongful convictions (e.g., errors by counsel or judges or errors resulting from deficiencies in the institutional framework for the conduct of trials or review of convictions). It is evidenced that large number of innocent persons are imprisoned due to wrongful convictions not even in Sri Lanka but in comparative jurisdictions as well. Therefore, time has come to take necessary action to prevent such wrongful imprisonments and to produce real offenders to the court and to charge them accordingly for their criminal activities. Thus, this research study is focused on identifying the causes of wrongful convictions and making recommendation for mechanism to check the accuracy of the verdict or act and to catch the real offenders in criminal justice system. The qualitative research method will be used for this study. Under the qualitative research method data will be collected through secondary sources. Secondary data will be collected from published books, journals, theses and online data from websites, e-databases, e-journals, etheses and e-books. Collected data will be analyzed through its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to prevent imprisonment of innocence. In this context, it will reveal the existing strengths to prevent the wrongful convictions as well as weaknesses. In one hand, it will discuss the opportunities the victims have to prove their innocence. On the other hand, it discusses existing threats for victim, if their innocence is proved. In this research study, it is expected to find out a concrete solution to wrongful convictions and to educate public on how to escape from such convictions and to justify the criminal justice system.