Racial Disparities Among Wrongful Convictions

#justicesystem

According to a report by the National Registry of Exonerations, black people in the United States are seven times more likely than white people to be falsely convicted of serious crimes, more likely to be the targets of police misconduct, and spend longer in prison before being exonerated. Source

The report also highlights that there are large racial disparities in the number of wrongful convictions based on eyewitness misidentifications of Black versus White defendants. In addition to the contribution of own-race biases in eyewitness identification, differences in policing Black and White suspects likely also contribute to these disparities. Source

Innocent Black people are 19 times more likely to be wrongly convicted of drug crimes.

A new report on race and wrongful convictions has confirmed some alarming racial disparities in the criminal legal system.