Volume
46, No. 2
January
2004
Wrongful
Conviction: Perspectives, Experiences, and Implications for Justice
Edited by Kathryn M. Campbell and Myriam S. Denov
Introduction
Myriam Denov and Kathryn Campbell
Articles
Wrongful
Convictions: The American Experience
C. Ronald Huff
Showing
Remorse: Reflections on the Gap between Expression and Attribution
in Cases of Wrongful Conviction
Richard Weisman
The
Burden of Innocence: Coping with a Wrongful Imprisonment
Kathryn Campbell and Myriam Denov
Psychological
Consequences of Wrongful Conviction and Imprisonment
Adrian Grounds
Commentaries
on Wrongful Conviction
Wrongful
Convictions and Commissions of Inquiry
The Honorable T. Alexander Hickman
Wrongful
Convictions and the Criminal Conviction Review Process Pursuant to
s. 696.1 of the Canadian Criminal Code
Kerry Scullion
Righting
the Wrongs: The Role of Defence Counsel in Wrongful Convictions
Jerome Kennedy
Book Reviews
/ Recensions de livres
Until You Are
Dead: Steven Truscott’s Long Ride into History by Julian Sher
Reviewed by Christine Gervais
Wrongly Convicted:
Perspectives on Failed Justice edited by Saundra D. Westervelt and
John A. Humphrey
Reviewed by Mihael Ami Cole
Abstracts/Résumés
Wrongful
Convictions: The American Experience
C. Ronald Huff
The increasing number of high-profile
cases of wrongful conviction, often brought to light by DNA exonerations,
and the publicity associated with those errors have increased the
salience of this issue on the public policy agendas of a number of
U.S. states, as well as in Canada. Scholarly research on this subject
has also increased over the past two decades. This article discusses
the extent to which these erors may occur; the major factors contributing
to false convictions; recent and current developments regarding legislation
in the United States; innocence projects and innocence commissions
in the United States, Britain, and Canada; and the significance of
wrongful conviction as a factor in the current challenges to the death
penalty in the United States. It is important that we develop a better
understanding of wrongful conviction and its causes so that we can
both better protect the rights of the innocent and better protect
citizens from being victimized by offenders who remain free while
the wrongly convicted are sent to prison.
Showing
Remorse: Reflections on the Gap between Expression and Attribution
in Cases of Wrongful Conviction
Richard Weisman
This paper seeks first to show
that persons who are convicted of crimes can be perceived as either
remorseful or as lacking in remorse. This division establishes a moral
hierarchy that has profound implications for the characterization
and disposition of persons who are so designated. Second, using both
Canadian and American cases, it looks at how inclusion in the category
of the unremorseful affects the characterization and disposition of
those who have been wrongfully convicted. Finally, it suggests that
remorse is a major site of conflict between persons who are wrongfully
convicted and officials within the criminal justice system, conflict
that involves the use of institutional pressure to encourage the expression
of remorse, on the one hand, and the mobilization of individual resources
to resist those expressions, on the other.
The
Burden of Innocence: Coping with a Wrongful Imprisonment
Kathryn Campbell and Myriam Denov
There has been a recent surge
of interest in the topic of wrongful conviction in Canada. Most of
the research, however, has focused on the many factors that contribute
to the problem. Those most affected by these miscarriages of justice
- the wrongly convicted themselves - have been largely ignored. This
study sought to reveal, through in-depth interviews, the voices and
experiences of five wrongly convicted Canadians, as they spoke about
wrongful arrest, imprisonment, and release. The respondents reported
that during arrest they were victims of tunnel vision and institutional
misconduct. They made use of several highly adaptive coping strategies
while wrongly imprisoned, including cooperation, withdrawal, preoccupation
with exoneration, and rejection of the label criminal. Maintaining
innocence while incarcerated entailed notable consequences, which
included being perceived by the prison administration to be at high
risk of recidivism. Furthermore, given their continual affirmation
of their innocence, respondents suffered uncertainty over their release
date.
Finally, they reported problems following their release, including
intolerance of injustice and a desire for compensation. These findings
point to the importance of including the experiences of the wrongly
convicted in future criminal justice policy and practice consideration.
Psychological
Consequences of Wrongful Conviction and Imprisonment
Adrian Grounds
There is minimal research on
the psychological effects of wrongful conviction and imprisonment.
This is a descriptive study of a sample of 18 men referred for systematic
psychiatric assessment after their convictions were quashed on appeal
and they were released from long-term imprisonment. Sixteen were U.K.
cases; two were from other jurisdictions. The assessments revealed
evidence of substantial psychiatric morbidity. Fourteen men met ICD-10
diagnostic criteria for "enduring personality change following
catastrophic experience" (F62.0), 12 met the criteria for post-traumatic
stress disorder, and most reported additional mood and anxiety disorders.
There were major problems of psychological and social adjustment,
particularly within families. The difficulties were similar to those
described in the clinical literature on war veterans. Possible explanations
for these effects are discussed: specific traumatic features of miscarriage
of justice and long-term imprisonment both appear to contribute to
the post-release psychological problems.
