Wrongful Incarceration Of The United States - 2936 Words

Front-Line and Predisposing Contributors to Wrongful Incarceration The United States prides itself on having robust, deeply entrenched measures implemented across its core agencies, including the police and criminal justice system, to safeguard against wrongfully convicting people who, after further reflection, are factually found to be innocent. As citizens, we have been educated to trust, among other things, that our systems protect the notions that one is innocent until proven guilty and that prosecution must prove any charges beyond a reasonable doubt. Yet, wrongful convictions are more prevalent than we might think. In particular, the publicity of hundreds of cases over the last few decades has put a spotlight on this indisputable†¦show more content†¦Throughout the chain of events involved in the identification of a suspect, wrongful incarcerations occur as a result of various unintentional errors, flaws and abuses made by the key government agencies that each have a stake in this process. The police serve as the initial point of contact for crimes, generally speaking, because they operate on the front lines. Even if we assume that the police do not catch the criminal red-handed, in their duty to promote public safety, the police will typically be responsible for following a set of pre-trial, investigative procedures that aim to yield identification of the perpetrator. Their main function in pursuit of this goal is to find out what happened overall by determining all facts and collecting all information relevant to the case. Most commonly, the police will rely upon eyewitness identification and testimony as the primary means to identify suspects. For instance, eyewitnesses can be brought to a local police department and led into a room, where a photo lineup of possible suspects takes place (O’Connor, 2010). However, historically, there have been numerous flaws in how law enforcement officials tend to handle these interactions. These arise repeatedly while administering lineups because of various, unintentional missteps taken by either a police officer or a detective. As an example, in a photo lineup, the administrator merely knowing some small, yet key pieces of