Public Perceptions Of Evidence Exonerating Wrongfully Convicted Murderers

• In Event: Attitude towards Crime and Punishment

Abstract

Wrongful convictions can significantly undermine the integrity of the criminal justice system, making it crucial to shed light on public perceptions of exonerations, with a special focus on the most common exonerees: murderers. American citizens were randomly assigned to one of two conditions in an online survey, which described the presence or absence of prosecutorial misconduct toward a man exonerated of murder. Respondents were then asked about their degree of confidence in this exoneration across four separate common contributing factors of wrongful convictions: false accusations, false confessions, forensic evidence, or mistaken witness identification. These results raise questions about the credibility of the defendant, societal perceptions of criminality and punitiveness, and legal remedies for wrongful convictions.

Authors

• John C Navarro, Sam Houston State University

• Michael A. Hansen, University of Turku