Page 4 - Investigating_Wrongful_Convictions-AFI-LLC_Sep_2024

Investigating Wrongful Convictions – AFI-LLC – September 2024 4 of 9

September Commentary: Wrongful Convictions and Comprehensive Investigations

False confessions and false accusations seem to be more visible now than even the
recent past. Add to the mix the tunnel vision one-angle focus the legal investigator
uncovers in law enforcement, prosecutors, and jurors – and you get wrongful
convictions. Our agency terms this “Tunnel Investigation”. These wrongful
convictions take years to undo and those years taken away from the wrongfully
convicted can never be given back. The victim, surviving or deceased, are also
wronged.

Even when a lawsuit brings monetary gains to the wrongfully convicted, the wrong
done can never be erased from their minds as well as the minds of others. Even with “exonerated” on the record, some
people believe the exonerated must have done something and are only getting off on some legal technicality. Yes, those
legal technicalities do exist although rare, and the numbers keep mounting up for the innocent victims of our judicial
system. Most often a “legal technicality” is a violation of rights, Rule of Evidence, Rules of Procedure, or legal statute.
These are the same rights and procedures every person has.

Although there is not a perfect system, simple changes can result in fewer wrongful convictions. To start, what can be
done is to conduct thorough investigations. Looking at all angles of facts and then following through until it is proven or
disproven for any evidence obtained – evidence includes direct and circumstantial, and from physical to witnesses. Too
often evidence is tossed aside because it does not fit the current mind set of the individual doing the investigation,
whether it is in the law enforcement or legal investigation. This type of investigation is not a thorough investigation, it is
a lazy one-angled investigation, and it is assisting in the devastation of the wrongfully accused.

Money seems to be an issue in conducting a thorough investigation. However, the money utilized in the investigative
process is far less than the money lost in appeals and lawsuits. Educating the public on “real” investigations and what it
truly takes to follow through rather than what they see on television, which has become known as the “CSI” effect.
These individuals watching CSI may be part of a jury one day, which could lead to either the innocent being sent to
prison or possibly death, or the guilty being set free back into society.

Not only do the wrongfully convicted live a nightmare in prison, the families and friends of the victims in these cases
have to relive their nightmare all over again. Remember, when the wrongfully convicted are put behind bars, the
families and friends of the victims believe the right person was convicted in the crime of their loved ones. Then to find
out years later the wrong person was convicted in the crime, the fight for their personal justice starts all over again.

All legal investigators should pride themselves in conducting thorough investigations no matter how big or small the
case may be. It does not matter the type of case working on, investigations need to be worked from every angle
possible. A one-angled investigation – Tunnel Investigation – is not acceptable. Think of looking through the lens of a
camera, the investigator can take a photograph which may give a few facts needed in the investigation; or a series of
photographs and get perhaps all of the facts, the good, the bad, and the ugly, needed in the investigation. This applies to
any official investigation and the legal investigator’s investigation.

Find below links to the Innocence Project as well as a few cases recently in the news of wrongfully accused and
convicted innocent human beings whose lives were unnecessarily turned completely upside down.

• www.innocenceproject.org
• www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/24/onetime-top-football-prospect-seeks-exoneration
• www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-05-20/wrongful-convictions-
exonerations/55098856/1#.T7pBTjS0Edg.email
• www.denverpost.com/ci_20591067/prosecutor-led-effort-frees-convicted-man
• www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/05/wrongful-convictions-a-new-exoneration-registry-tests-
stubborn-judges/257416

Copyright © 2024 Associates in Forensic Investigations, All Rights Reserved