To the Point
How Many Innocent Americans Are Sitting in Jail?
Local district attorneys get re-elected for putting people in jail. Now some prosecutors are part of a movement to get some inmates out. An Ohio man who spent 39 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit is just one of 125 released last year — a record number of wrongful convictions.
Local district attorneys get re-elected for putting people in jail. Now some prosecutors are part of a movement to get some inmates out. An Ohio man who spent 39 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit is just one of 125 released last year — a record number of wrongful convictions. It's not just new evidence or witnesses changing their stories — it's also the pressure on innocent people to plead guilty. The Brooklyn DA now runs a "conviction review unit," part a new wave for exonerations.