>The National Institute of Justice announced the release of a new study that sheds light on the factors that can lead to a wrongful conviction. According to the NIJ, the study Predicting Erroneous Convictions: A Social Science Approach to Miscarriages of Justice, “ compared cases where innocent defendants were wrongfully convicted to "near misses" – cases in which an innocent defendant was acquitted or had charges dismissed before trial.” The study determined that the following facts were deemed to play a critical role in wrongful convictions.
A younger defendant
A defendant with a criminal history
A weak prosecution case
Prosecution withheld evidence
Lying by a non-eyewitness
Unintentional witness misidentification
Misinterpreting forensic evidence at trial
A weak defense
Defendant offered a family witness
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