States Act to Prevent Wrongful Convictions
The exoneration of more than 200 inmates due to DNA evidence has spurred states to pass new laws increasing access to such material and tightening eyewitness identification procedures.
Bad IDs by eyewitnesses led to wrongful convictions in 75 percent of 207 exonerations in the last decade, the New York Times reports.
Forty-two states allow inmates to access DNA evidence after their convictions. Now states are trying to change evidence procedures to prevent unjust convictions in the first place.
Five states passed laws this year to change photo lineup techniques to make them more reliable, and bills are pending in another seven states. More than 500 state and local jurisdictions require police interrogations to be recorded. And a California bill would require testimony by informants to be corroborated; the governor has not signed it.
Some law enforcement officials fear such laws will create standards that can be used to overturn convictions of guilty inmates.
