Advancement of Wrongful Conviction Prevention Strategies in Forensic Science

The National Registry of Exonerations (NRE) has identified 1,051 of its logged cases to involve forensic evidence in some way, nearly one-third of the total 3,600 exonerations in its database. Analysis of the NRE and Innocence Project databases revealed the most common factors in forensic-related wrongful convictions: expert testimony, flawed methodologies (most of which are no longer in use), and statistical misinterpretations of results. The majority of scholars agree that oversight in forensic casework must be improved in order to meaningfully resolve issues. Creation of commissions in each state would address all of the identified errors, though not a catch-all solution.. Commissions would be able to review casework as it is performed, perform audits of potential wrongful conviction cases, address testimony errors by providing guidelines like the federal Uniform Language for Testimony and Reports in each state, and conduct research studies on methodological problems like the use of appropriate statistical methods in serological and DNA testing. Commissions could also reduce the time between conviction and exoneration in wrongful conviction cases, benefiting countless individuals and their loved ones.