Investigating Wrongful Convictions
Texas has a responsibility to investigate serious miscarriages of justice so that they are not repeated. Unfortunately, Texas has no official mechanism for investigating wrongful convictions.
The conviction of innocent people is a profound injustice that and isolates them from family, friends and society and deprives them of their most basic liberties. Wrongful convictions also create a serious public safety issue. When the wrong person is convicted, the real perpetrator goes unpunished and remains free to commit additional crimes.
That’s why Texas should establish a formal process to objectively review cases of wrongful conviction. Most people don’t realize that such reviews are not automatic after an exoneration. Court proceedings typically focus on establishing that a mistake has been made and rarely take the next critical step of determining what policies and procedures were responsible for the conviction and punishment of an innocent person.
An objective review should not be punitive towards those who have operated in good faith and made mistakes. The primary goal must be to understand as much as possible about how and why the criminal justice system got it so terribly wrong.
Mounting official recognition that innocent people have been convicted without any official effort to avoid repeating our mistakes threatens to undermine public confidence in our system of justice. Establishing a formal procedure to objectively review cases of wrongful conviction will give Texas the ability to identify systematic problems and begin working toward solutions that will increase the fairness and accuracy of our criminal justice system.
