Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States 2022

Gross, Samuel R.; Possley, Maurice; Otterbourg, Ken; Stephens, Klara Huber; Paredes, Jessica; O’Brien, Barbara

doi:10.2139/ssrn.4245863

Cited by 31 publications

(51 citation statements)

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“…Kleider-Offutt et al (2017) further found that Black men with stereotypical facial features were at increased risk for witness misidentification and concluded racial bias extends beyond cross-racial identification. Gross et al (2017) revealed among 228 sexual assault cases where suspect identification was in question, 88% involved mistaken witness identifications and was higher for Blacks than Whites (79% vs. 51%). This other-race effect phenomenon may partially explain the pattern where Blacks were at greater risk of mistaken witness identification.…”

Section: Other Race-effectmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Garrett (2011) noted that many of the cases in which Blacks were exonerated for rape and murder involved cross-racial identification, most of which were White women who misidentified Black men. Gross et al (2017) further noted that many innocent Black defendants who were exonerated for sexual assault had been convicted of assaulting White women. Considering that mistaken witness identifications were found in a large percentage of sexual assault cases suggests errors were made when Whites were asked to identify Black strangers (Gross et al, 2017).…”

Section: Other Race-effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Gross et al (2017) further noted that many innocent Black defendants who were exonerated for sexual assault had been convicted of assaulting White women. Considering that mistaken witness identifications were found in a large percentage of sexual assault cases suggests errors were made when Whites were asked to identify Black strangers (Gross et al, 2017). Doyle (2001) cautioned against the application of lenient criteria by witnesses who identified a Black suspect and Garrett (2011) noted judges are now more careful when examining cross-racial identifications than in the past.…”

Section: Other Race-effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

A conjunctive analysis of false accusations, official misconduct, and race in violent and sexual exonerations cases

Mogavero

Hsu

Bolger

2022

Behavioral Sci & The Law

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The National Registry of Exonerations tracks cases of individuals who have been convicted and exonerated in the United States since 1989. The objective of the current study was to explore the misconduct patterns in violent and sexual offense cases using a novel method with a focus on cases where suspects were falsely accused, either deliberately or by mistaken witness identification. A conjunctive analysis of case configurations (CACC) was conducted using 1690 males convicted of murder/manslaughter, rape/sexual assault, and child sexual abuse. The results showed that compared to Whites, Blacks had a disproportionate amount of official misconduct in both sexual and non‐sexual homicide cases. Blacks also had a disproportionate amount of misconduct by multiple actors and multiple types. Blacks had more cases of mistaken witness identification and a disproportionate amount of official misconduct in sexual assault cases. Implications and recommendations are discussed.

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Section: Other Race-effectmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Other Race-effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Other Race-effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A conjunctive analysis of false accusations, official misconduct, and race in violent and sexual exonerations cases

Mogavero

Hsu

Bolger

2022

Behavioral Sci & The Law

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“…There is no reason to prefer the current status quo. For instance, Black Americans are wrongfully convicted at a rate which is seven times higher than White Americans (Gross et al, 2017). If permitting defense-introduced statistical evidence led to Black Americans being acquitted at a higher rate than White Americans, perhaps the overall conviction rates by race would actually be more accurate.…”

Section: Uneven Acquittal Ratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Statistical evidence and the criminal verdict asymmetry

Fried

2022

Synthese

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Epistemologists have posed the following puzzle, known as the proof paradox: Why is it intuitively problematic for juries to convict on the basis of statistical evidence and yet intuitively unproblematic for juries to convict on the basis of far less reliable, non-statistical evidence? To answer this question, theorists have explained the exclusion of statistical evidence by arguing that legal proof requires certain epistemic features. In this paper, I make two contributions to the debate. First, I establish the Criminal Verdict Asymmetry, a previously-unarticulated asymmetry between the epistemic norms of guilty and not guilty verdicts. I argue that the prosecution and defense’s different epistemic burdens influence whether statistical evidence can generate the type of verdict each side pursues. Second, I point out a mistake in how theorists have understood the role of statistical evidence in criminal trials. Though epistemologists have primarily focused on whether statistical evidence can generate specific epistemic features required for convictions, I consider whether statistical evidence can demonstrate a lack of such features. I find that there are epistemic advantages to allowing the defense to introduce statistical evidence which can reveal the prosecution’s failure to prove the defendant’s guilt.

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“…Suppose that J is aware that in the past X testified falsely that p. Call a speaker sincere insofar as they tend to testify only to propositions that they believe, and competent on a topic insofar as they tend to form true beliefs on that topic. Either X did not believe that p, demonstrating a lack of sincerity, or X falsely believed that p, demonstrating a lack of competence on the topic of p. If sincerity and competence can be inductively projected, then X's false testimony indicates that in the future 13 See for instance Gross et al (2017): "African Americans are only 13% of the American population but a majority of innocent defendants wrongfully convicted of crimes and later exonerated" (p. ii). Of course injustice can arise out of the legal system in other ways, as with laws that are unjust or that have unjust effects.…”

Section: Beyond Crude Inductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Credibility-Backed Norm for Testimony

Weiner

2020

Episteme

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I propose that testimony is subject to a norm that is backed by a credibility sanction: whenever the norm is violated, it is appropriate for the testifier to lose some credibility for their future testimony. This is one of a family of sanction-based norms, where violation of the norm makes it appropriate to lose some power; in this case, the power to induce belief through testimony. The applicability of the credibility norm to testimony follows from the epistemology of testimony, in that false or unjustified testimony weakens the reason for belief that is provided by the speaker's future testimony.

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Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States 2022

Cited by 31 publications

References 0 publications

A conjunctive analysis of false accusations, official misconduct, and race in violent and sexual exonerations cases

A conjunctive analysis of false accusations, official misconduct, and race in violent and sexual exonerations cases

Statistical evidence and the criminal verdict asymmetry

A Credibility-Backed Norm for Testimony

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