If You Didn't Do It, Then Why Does Your "Crime" Matter? Crime Related Disparities in Time to Exoneration

• In Event: Race, Ethnicity, Age, and Sanctions: Disparate Sentencing and Biased Perceptions of Offenders

Abstract

Although unfortunate, mistaken witness identification, false confessions, official misconduct and other inaccuracies in the criminal justice system occur, and the end result is sometimes a wrongful conviction. A subsequent outcome to the wrongful conviction is that there may be an exoneration. The number of exonerations in the United States nears 2,000 and has been increasing yearly, averaging three per week (University of Michigan Law School, 2015). What this means is that there are innocent people serving time and, although there is variability in time served, research suggests that the average time to exoneration nears twelve years (Gross & Shaffer, 2012). Serving this time has personal and social implications for the innocent person. While most research on exonerations look at factors contributing to the exoneration itself, the current research looks to explore what factors influence how long it takes the system to rectify the wrong doing? Using data from the National Registry of Exonerations this study examines the relationship between a variety of factors (e.g. type of crime and evidence presented) and the time to exoneration. Results and policy implications will be discussed.

Authors

• Lauren O'Neill Shermer, Widener University

• Suzanne Mannes, Widener University