Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States 2022

56 Pages Posted: 25 Oct 2022 Last revised: 2 Mar 2023

See all articles by Samuel R. Gross

Samuel R. Gross

University of Michigan Law School

Maurice Possley

University of California Irvine

Ken Otterbourg

Independent

Klara Stephens

Independent

Jessica Paredes

Independent

Barbara O'Brien

Michigan State University - College of Law

Date Written: September 23, 2022

Abstract

Black people are 13.6% of the American population but 53% of the 3,200 exonerations listed in the National Registry of Exonerations as of August, 2022. Judging from exonerations, innocent Black Americans are seven times more likely than white Americans to be falsely convicted of serious crimes.

We see this racial disparity, in varying degrees, for all major crime categories except white collar crime. This report examines racial disparities in the three types of crime that produce the largest numbers of exonerations: murder, sexual assault, and drug crimes.

For both murder and sexual assault, there are preliminary investigative issues that increase the number of innocent Black suspects: for murder, the high homicide rate in the Black community; for rape, the difficulty of cross-racial eyewitness identification. For both crimes, misconduct, discrimination and racism amplify these initial racial discrepancies.

For drug crimes, the preliminary sorting that increases the number of convictions of innocent Black suspects is racial profiling. In addition, the Registry lists 17 “Group Exonerations” including 2,975 additional wrongfully convicted defendants, many of whom were deliberately framed and convicted of fabricated drug crimes in large-scale police scandals. The overwhelming majority are Black.

Keywords: Race, exonerations, wrongful convictions, false convictions, murder, sexual assault, drug crimes, criminal investigations, criminal convictions, eyewitness identifications, DNA, forensic evidence, police misconduct, official misconduct

Suggested Citation

Gross, Samuel R. and Possley, Maurice and Otterbourg, Ken and Stephens, Klara and Paredes, Jessica and O'Brien, Barbara, Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States 2022 (September 23, 2022). U of Michigan Public Law Research Paper No. 22-051, U of Michigan Law & Econ Research Paper No. 22-051, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4245863 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4245863

Samuel R. Gross (Contact Author)

University of Michigan Law School ( email )

625 South State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1215
United States
734-764-1519 (Phone)
734-764-8309 (Fax)

Maurice Possley

University of California Irvine ( email )

Division of Nephrology, University of California I
101 City Drive South, City Tower, Suite 400-ZOT;40
Orange, CA California 92868-3217
United States
312-208-0357 (Phone)

Ken Otterbourg

Independent ( email )

Klara Stephens

Independent ( email )

Jessica Paredes

Independent ( email )

Barbara O'Brien

Michigan State University - College of Law ( email )

318 Law College Building
East Lansing, MI 48824-1300
United States

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