The Meaning and Significance of Celebrating “Wrongful Conviction Day": Analysing Positive Emotions in Narratives of Exonerees, Legal Actors, and Activists

• In Event: Narrative Criminology #1: Narratives Doing and Undoing Crime

Abstract

Research shows that emotion plays various roles in social movement activity. Yet, the role of positive emotion talk at social movement events that unite a coalition of organizations and actors is unclear. This study helps fill this gap by examining the emotion talk and overall emotional registers expressed across events held to commemorate International Wrongful Conviction Day (WCD) an event initiated by the Innocent Network, a coalition of 69 organizations that work to raise awareness about wrongful convictions and exonerees' challenges. Using dialogic narrative analysis, it seeks to understand how stories function in the context of WCD and how they affect those who tell and hear them. The study addresses three specific questions. 1) How do positive emotions figure in narratives told on WCD? 2) What broader cultural resources do WCD narrators utilize when making positive emotional appeals? 3) How are the messages of these emotion-laden stories likely to affiliate and/or distance narrators from other movement actors and/or audience members? Our discussion considers the significance of emotional narratives within the context of social movement activity among individuals working to change the criminal-legal system. It also raises specific questions about emotional talk's relevance to narrative criminology.

Authors

• Valli Rajah, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY

• May Pascaud, John Jay College of Criminal Justice / CUNY Graduate Center