Michigan Ranks Second in Exonerations Nationwide

 Recently released data ranked Michigan second in the nation for the number of exonerated prisoners in 2020. Michigan had twenty exonerations, while Illinois had twenty-one. Thirteen of Michigan's exonerations occurred in one county--Wayne County. A few years ago this county formed a conviction integrity unit specifically to evaluate and investigate evidence of wrongful convictions. It seems to be working.

Exonerations occur when prisoners who have previously been convicted of a crime or crimes are found to be innocent. But discovering wrongful convictions is a low priority for most counties. Once a conviction is final, even the courts afford strong weight to that conviction, regardless of evidence of innocence. 

Overturning a conviction is a very difficult, very expensive, very long, and very frustrating process. Many people give up on the fight because the odds are stacked so high against them. Many of Michigan's exonerations, in fact, are unlikely to have occurred without the official backing of Wayne County's Conviction Integrity Unit. 

In the vast majority of convictions, offenders are guilty and victims, especially, deserve some finality to the conviction. But when evidence is weak, circumstantial, or plain bad, convictions should be given special scrutiny in order to preserve the Constitutional aim of protecting innocent people from unlawful convictions.

Many wrongful convictions are the result of police or prosecutor corruption, bad science, and lying or confused witnesses. Some wrongful convictions are also the result of "technical innocence" versus "actual innocence." Technical innocence occurs when a person is convicted of one crime but is actually guilty of another, usually lesser, crime. For example, someone may be convicted of first-degree murder (which requires premeditation) when actually guilty of second-degree murder. Technical innocence matters because the consequences for conviction of the wrong crime are usually harsher. Most exonerations, though, involve actual innocence. 

Many Americans have lost confidence in law enforcement and the criminal justice system because of their growing reputation for injustice. Crime victims deserve to be protected, fairly represented, and to receive justice for the harms they experienced. But when the criminal justice system convicts the wrong people, it simply creates another victim rather than giving the crime victim true justice.

More counties ought to form conviction integrity units in order to demonstrate their commitment to justice, not a commitment to convictions at all costs. States, too, ought to eliminate immunity from prosecution for law enforcement and prosecutors who are found to have violated the law in pursuit of convictions. Science is always changing, but when science previously used for convictions is found to be faulty, convictions that relied on faulty science should be seriously reconsidered. Finally, people who knowingly lie or contribute to the conviction of an innocent person need to be vigorously prosecuted and held accountable. 

Without these significant changes to our law enforcement and criminal justice system, Americans will continue to find their confidence in our pursuit of justice declining. And victims of crime deserve justice, not a conviction, even of the wrong person, at all costs.