The Importance of Innocence for the Criminal Justice System

Abstract

If you were to ask the ‘person in the street’ what he or she wants from the criminal justice system, the reply is more than likely going to be that it should convict the guilty and acquit the innocent; and, if it should happen that an innocent person is convicted in ‘error’, then most people would probably think that the appeals system should operate to overturn the conviction in a speedy fashion to reduce the harm that was caused to the victim and his or her family and friends and restore the legitimacy of the criminal justice system. The idea that the criminal justice system should be about convicting the guilty and acquitting the innocent is reflected in political statements about how the system should function and it is transmitted in portrayals of wrongful convictions and wrongful acquittals in the media. Perhaps most significantly, the history of the criminal justice system is peppered with high profile media campaigns for alleged victims of wrongful convictions who were believed to be innocent, which have helped to shape some of the most significant changes to the structures that govern how the system operates.KeywordsCriminal Justice SystemReal PossibilityCriminal OffenceLegal GroundAppeal SystemThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.