Posts Tagged ‘northwestern university’

The National Registry of Exonerations Reveals Newly Freed Prisoners Were Systematically Imprisoned

natl registry of exonerations

Photo courtesy of natl registry of exonerations

The National Registry of Exonerations Also Reveals Newly Freed Prisoners are African Americans

Two universities have compiled a registry that revealed more than 2,000 prisoners were incorrectly imprisoned for serious crimes since 1989. The astonishing news is more than half of the newly exonerated prisoners were African American, according to Newser.

Newser reported:

The National Registry of Exonerations claims to be the largest database of its kind, and it covers the era since DNA testing began to be commonly used. Many of the wrongful convictions can be traced to police corruption and witnesses who lied or later recanted, but there has also been a surprising number of people who confessed to crimes they didn’t commit while under intense interrogation.