Wrongful Convictions
This modern tool has helped overturn hundreds of wrongful convictions since the 1990s
What is DNA evidence?
When officers use excessive or unjustified force, it’s often called this two-word phrase.
What is police brutality?
This nickname is often used for the small, barren cells where people are kept in solitary confinement.
What is “the box” or "the hole"?
This method is the most commonly used form of execution in the United States today.
What is lethal injection?
This term describes a person’s return to criminal behavior after release.
What is recidivism?
Eyewitness testimony is the leading cause of wrongful convictions, making up about this percentage of cases later overturned.
What is about 70%?
Many public defender offices face this major challenge, leading to unfair trials.
What are excessive caseloads (or underfunding)?
This Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects prisoners from “cruel and unusual punishment.”
What is the Eighth Amendment?
In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Alabama that juveniles cannot automatically be sentenced to this punishment.
What is life without parole?
roviding prisoners with this type of training or education is proven to reduce recidivism rates.
What are vocational/job skills programs?
This nonprofit organization, founded in 1992, is dedicated to exonerating wrongly convicted people.
What is the Innocence Project?
This phrase describes the police practice of targeting people based on race or ethnicity.
What is racial profiling?
Studies show that solitary confinement is disproportionately used against these two groups of prisoners.
What are people with mental illness and people of color?
This country leads the world in executions each year.
What is China?
Many released individuals face this barrier to employment, often referred to as the “second punishment.”
What is a criminal record?
This type of forensic analysis, once trusted in court, has been discredited for its high error rate in wrongful convictions.
What is hair microscopy (or bite-mark analysis)?
This 2020 case in Minneapolis sparked worldwide protests against police misconduct.
What is the killing of George Floyd?
The U.N.’s Mandela Rules prohibit prolonged solitary confinement, defining it as longer than this number of days. Any time further than this amount is considered torture.
15 days(+-2)
This U.S. Supreme Court case (2005) banned the execution of people who were under 18 at the time of their crime.
What is Roper v. Simmons?
This model emphasizes treatment, education, and reintegration instead of punishment.
What is rehabilitation or reeducation?
his U.S. Supreme Court case set the precedent that prosecutors must turn over evidence favorable to the defense.
What is Brady v. Maryland (1963)?
The right to legal representation in criminal cases was guaranteed by this 1963 Supreme Court decision.
What is Gideon v. Wainwright?
This U.S. federal prison, sometimes called the “Alcatraz of the Rockies,” is infamous for keeping inmates in near-total isolation.(No one's getting this one)
What is ADX Florence?
The U.S. Supreme Court case Atkins v. Virginia (2002) banned the execution of individuals with this condition.
What is intellectual disability?
According to RAND Corporation research, every $1 invested in this program for prisoners saves taxpayers about $4-5 in reincarceration costs.
Prison education programs