Trial by Errors
A look at the crisis of wrongful convictions in the United States, one miscarriage of evidence at a time.
About Trial by Errors
Our Purpose
In the fall of 1973, a young man named Peter came home from his church group to find his dead mother splayed out on the floor in their tiny, blood-splattered home. Within minutes he was swept into the back of a police car. Before he could blink, he was confessing to the crime.
I learned about Peter in high school. He lived about 20 minutes from me in rural Connecticut. I wrote my final paper on Peter's wrongful conviction for Ms. Moran's Political Science class. I couldn't get over that an innocent man was sent to prison for something he so clearly did not do. All the right clues were there. But the right people weren't looking at them. Some of those people were even hiding the clues.
Wrongful convictions happen over and over and over. Like all industries, the American Justice System is not perfect. It needs to be better. We need to be better. This collection of stories shows there is still so much more to learn.
Elements of a Trail By Errors
The Wrongfully Convicted
So many people are victims when a person is wrongfully convicted of a crime. Read their stories here:
Our Injustice System
The American justice system is constructed of very breakable links.
Errors of Evidence
The term Forensic Science is a bit of an over-reach. If there's no actual science involved, should we still call it Forensic Science?
Sometimes People Suck
People lie. People forget. Some people are even manipulative, vengeful, or power hungry. The system doesn't work without them; but sometimes the system doesn't work because of them.
Crimes That Weren't
A bank deposit that wasn't stolen. A house fire that wasn't arson. A baby that wasn't shaken. A rape that was never committed. All these and more make up the stories of crimes that didn't happen.