Workshop: Examining Overlooked Issues in Wrongful Convictions

众所周知，无辜的人有时会因为他们没有犯下的罪行而被逮捕和定罪。同样众所周知的是，在许多这类错误定罪案件中，实际犯罪者继续犯下其他罪行，包括谋杀和强奸--如果没有查明错误的人，而没有起诉正确的人，这些罪行是可以防止的。虽然不同来源的错误定罪和免责的确切定义不同，但大多数学者都认为，已查明的错误定罪只是更大冰山的一角，很可能代表了涉及对无辜者定罪的相当大的案件主体。如果这一前提是正确的，那么在我们对错判的发生率、导致司法不公的因素及其后果的了解方面必然存在几个局限性。研讨会的总体目标是通过征集理论观点并集中于对司法行政的重要问题来推进错判学术，这些问题没有得到相应的研究关注。研讨会将汇集不同的学者，讨论在很大程度上被忽视或忽视的重要话题。这些错误定罪研究中的“法庭大象”包括：1)种族和司法不公的交集；2)占绝大多数定罪的认罪如何以及为什么导致司法不公；3)轻罪错误定罪，约占刑事指控的80%；4)数据需求和方法限制，对于错误定罪的科学研究和研究成果的有效传播至关重要，供政策制定者和从业者使用。具体目标是：(1)审查重大但尚未得到错误定罪学者和政策制定者足够重视的错误定罪问题；(2)汇集来自不同学科(例如法学、刑事司法、社会学、心理学、政治学)的学者和专业人员，以增进对错误定罪的了解，交流可供检验和使用的新理论；以及(3)通过对尚未探索的错误定罪问题产生新的研究方案，促进将科学转化为实践和政策，最终有助于深入了解刑事司法系统的有效性和完整性。讲习班有可能产生广泛的影响，实现预期的社会成果(例如，减少误判，纠正真正有罪的犯罪者逍遥法外时造成的相应问题)，促进跨学科合作，并向学术和非学术受众传播由此产生的工作成果。

It is well established that innocent persons sometimes are arrested and convicted for crimes they did not commit. It is also well established that in many of these wrongful conviction cases, the actual perpetrator went on to commit other crimes, including murders and rapes--crimes which may have been prevented if the wrong person had not been identified and the right person had been prosecuted. Although the exact definition of wrongful conviction and exoneration varies between sources, most scholars agree that the wrongful convictions that have been identified are the mere tip of a much larger iceberg, and likely represent a considerably larger body of cases involving the conviction of innocent persons. If this premise is correct, several limitations necessarily exist concerning our knowledge of the incidence of wrongful convictions, the factors that contribute to miscarriages of justice, and their consequences.The overarching goal of the workshop is to advance wrongful conviction scholarship by enlisting theoretical perspectives and focusing on issues important to the administration of justice which have not garnered commensurate research attention. The workshop will bring together diverse scholars to discuss important topics that have largely been overlooked or ignored. These "elephants in the courtroom" in the study of wrongful convictions include: 1) the intersection of race and miscarriages of justice; 2) how and why guilty pleas, which account for the vast majority of convictions, contribute to miscarriages of justice; 3) wrongful convictions for misdemeanors, which account for roughly 80% of criminal charges; and 4) data needs and methodological constraints important to the scientific study of wrongful convictions and the effective dissemination of research findings for use by policymakers and practitioners. The specific objectives are: (1) To examine wrongful conviction issues that loom large but have not yet received sufficient attention by wrongful conviction scholars and policymakers; (2) To bring together scholars and professionals from varying disciplines (e.g., law, criminal justice, sociology, psychology, political science) to enhance understanding of wrongful convictions and to communicate new theories to test and methods to employ; and (3) To foster the translation of science into practice and policy by generating new programs of research into unexplored issues of wrongful conviction that could ultimately provide insight into the effectiveness and integrity of the criminal justice system. The workshop has the potential for broad impact through the achievement of desired societal outcomes (e.g., a reduction in wrongful convictions and correction of the corresponding problems caused when the truly guilty perpetrators remaining at large), fostering interdisciplinary collaborations, and the dissemination of resulting work products to academic and non-academic audiences.