Volume 1, Issue 1 Editorial Board Editor-in-Chief Keith Findley Anat Horovitz Myles Frederick McLellan University of Wisconsin Law Faculty of Law, The Hebrew Department of Law and Politics, School, University of University of Jerusalem, Algoma University, Canada Wisconsin-Madison, Israel United States Editorial Board Richard Leo James Acker Jonathan Freedman Law and Psychology, University School of Criminal Justice, Psychology Department, of San Francisco, United States University at Albany, University of Toronto, United States Canada Bruce MacFarlane Barrister & Attorney, Winnipeg, Ira Belkin Maryanne Garry Canada and Phoenix, NYU School of Law, New York School of Psychology, New United States University, United States Zealand Institute for Security and Crime Science Carole McCartney Stephen Bindman The University of Waikato, School of Law, Northumbria Faculty of Law, University of New Zealand University, United Kingdom Ottawa, Canada Gwladys Gilliéron Daniel Medwed Gary Botting Faculty of Law, University of School of Law and School of Barrister, Vancouver, Canada Zurich, Switzerland Criminology and Criminal Justice Northeastern University, Kathryn M. Campbell Adam Gorski United States Department of Criminology, Faculty of Law and University of Ottawa, Administration, Jagiellonian Robert Norris Canada University, Poland Department of Criminology, Law and Society, George Mason Kimberly Cook Jon Gould Department of Sociology and University,United States School of Criminology and Criminology, University of Criminal Justice and Sandra Day North Carolina Wilmington, Debra Parkes O’Connor College of Law Peter A. Allard School of Law, United States Arizona State University, University of British Columbia, United States Canada Rachel Dioso-Villa Griffith Criminology Institute & School of Criminology & Stephanie Roberts Hartung Hannah Quirk Criminal Justice, Griffith Northeastern University School The Dickson Poon School of University, Australia of Law, Northeastern Law, King’s College London, University, United States United Kingdom Luca Lupária Department of Law, University of Rome III, Italy Arye Rattner Oriola Sallavaci Lynne Weathered Sociology, Center for the Study School of Law, University of Griffith Law School, Griffith of Crime, Law and Society, Essex, United Kingdom University, Australia University of Haifa, Israel Christopher Sherrin Marvin Zalman Allison Redlich Faculty of Law, Western Criminal Justice Department, Department of Criminology, University, Canada Wayne State University, Law and Society, George Mason United States University, United States Clive Walker School of Law, University of Leeds, United Kingdom Student Editorial Board Algoma University, Law and Justice Program, Sault Ste. Marie, Canada Peter Coutu, Sarah Franz, Alyssa Grondin, MiShele Lapham, Chelsey Louriero, Sophie Priddle, Lorena Scanga, Alyssa Thompson Volume 1, Issue 1 Cited as (2020) 1:1 Wrongful Conv L Rev Table of Contents Foreword The Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin Former Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Canada 1 Articles Thirty Years of Innocence: Wrongful Convictions and Exonerations in the United States, 1989-2018 Robert J. Norris, James R. Acker, Catherine L. Bonventre & Allison D. Redlich 2-58 Dealing with DNA Evidence in the Courtroom: A Plain English Review of Current Issues with Identification, Mixture and Activity Level Evidence Lynne Weathered, Kirsty Wright & Janet Chaseling 59-73 Prosecutorial Involvement in Exoneration: An Exploratory Analysis of Individual, Organizational, and Environmental Factors Rachel A. Bowman & Jon B. Gould 74-100 Unveiling Wrongful Convictions Between the U.S. and Italy: Cross-Learning from Each Other’s Mistakes Luca Lupária & Chiara Greco 101-123 Edwin Borchard’s Innocence Project: The Origin and Legacy of His Innocence Conviction Scholarship Marvin Zalman 124-146 Book Review Miscarriages of Justice in Canada: Causes, Responses, Remedies (Kathryn M. Campbell) Jonathan Freedman 147-150 (2020) 1:1 WRONGFUL CONVICTION LAW REVIEW 1 The Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin Former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada Wrongful convictions occur in every country in the world. Canada, despite its claim to be a just society, is no exception. For a very long time, people accepted wrongful convictions as an inevitable by-product of the criminal justice system. The solution, admittedly imperfect, was thought to lie in the common law principles of fair trial, cross-examination, burden of proof, and the requirement that guilt be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. This has changed. We no longer accept the occasional wrongful conviction as inevitable. We know that every wrongful conviction represents a failure in our justice system. Such failures exact a huge price, both in terms of the suffering they impose on the person wrongfully convicted and families, and the disrepute they bring on the administration of justice. And we no longer believe that the traditional common law and constitutional safeguards, vital as they remain, are sufficient by themselves to deal with the complex problem of wrongful convictions. With research, we have come to understand that despite differences in justice systems and domestic criminal laws, the causes of wrongful convictions are distressingly similar - tunnel vision, eyewitness misidentification, unreliable science, prosecutorial and police misconduct, false confession, reliance on disreputable witnesses and inadequate disclosure. With this understanding of the complex causes of wrongful convictions, has come the conviction that we can and should do better. More research and deeper shared understandings of best practices are required if we are to diminish the number of wrongful convictions and make proper restitution when they occur. Prosecutors, defence lawyers, judges and justice officials find themselves dealing with the scourge of wrongful convictions on a daily basis; they desperately need access to research and thinking on the causes and consequences of wrongful convictions. The Wrongful Conviction Law Review will provide this support, by creating a forum for the publication of research and insights into the causes of wrongful convictions and how to prevent them and deal with their aftermath when they occur. I believe this new publication will be a powerful tool in addressing the injustice of wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice throughout the world. 2 THIRTY YEARS OF INNOCENCE Thirty Years of Innocence: Wrongful Convictions and Exonerations in the United States, 1989-2018 Robert J. Norris Assistant Professor, Department of Criminology, Law, and Society George Mason University U.S.A. James R. Acker Distinguished Teaching Professor, School of Criminal Justice University at Albany, SUNY U.S.A. Catherine L. Bonventre Assistant Professor, Department of Justice and Policy Studies Guilford College U.S.A Allison D. Redlich Professor, Department of Criminology, Law, and Society George Mason University U.S.A Systematic reporting of data about wrongful conviction cases in the United States typically begins with 1989, the year of the country’s first post-conviction, DNA-based exonerations. Year-end 2018 thus concludes a full thirty years of information and marks a propitious time to take stock. In this article, we provide an overview of known exonerations, innocence advocacy, and wrongful conviction-related policy reforms in the U.S. during these three decades. First, we provide a brief history of wrongful convictions in the U.S. before turning to the modern era of innocence. We describe the key sources of data pertaining to wrongful convictions and exonerations. Then, using case data from the National Registry of Exonerations, we offer a detailed analysis of national and state-by-state trends in exonerations, including annual totals, DNA- and non-DNA-exonerations, and capital case exonerations. Our examination includes factors corresponding to sources of error, state death-penalty status, and regional differences. We then discuss innocence advocacy organizations, with a particular focus on Centurion Ministries and members of the Innocence Network. This is followed by an examination of state-by-state trends in innocence-related policy reforms on key issues as identified by the Innocence Project. The final section of the article discusses the many important matters we do not yet know about wrongful convictions and poses thoughts, questions, and ideas for continued scholarship focusing on miscarriages of justice. The Appendix provides state-by-state summaries of select information relating to wrongful convictions and innocence reforms. (2020) 1:1 WRONGFUL CONVICTION LAW REVIEW 3 I. Introduction II. An Abridged History of Innocence in The United States III. Innocence in The Modern Era, 1989-2018 A. Exonerations a. The National Picture b. State Cases and Regional Variation B. Advocacy Organizations and the Innocence Network C. Policy Reform: Changing Practices to Improve the System a. State Policy Initiatives b. Federal and Local Initiatives IV. Venturing Forth: What We Don’t Know and Future Research Issues A. Theoretical and Methodological Development B. The “Elephants in the Courtroom” a. Race b. Guilty Pleas c. Misdemeanors d. Data Limitations e. Exploring the Circles of Harm V. Conclusion VI. Appendix: State-By-State Summaries (1989-2018) I Introduction Mistakes are inevitable in all human endeavors. The discovery of errors that have haunted the investigation, prosecution, and adjudication of crimes has been at the center of an advocacy and reform movement that has