The Affects of Wrongful Convictions on Crime Victims

Timothy Cole spent almost two decades in prison for a rape he did not commit. He died in prison and was later exonerated by DNA evidence. Michelle Mallin, the victim in the rape case, writes about how this affected her:

Later, I learned that I was the fifth victim of a serial rapist on campus. A man named Timothy Cole was convicted of raping me and sentenced to 25 years in prison. I was relieved that he had been apprehended, that he would pay for what he did to me, and that our criminal justice system had gotten him off the streets. But I also knew my life would never be the same again. I spent years in counseling and tried to move on with my life.

Then, last summer, I was forced to relive the entire nightmare — this time with the added tragedy of knowing that Timothy Cole had been innocent and died in prison before he could be exonerated. New DNA testing proved that another man, not Cole, raped me. I was stunned. And I was determined to get answers.

I put my faith in the criminal justice system, and it failed me. I am back in counseling to grapple with the renewed trauma of the rape and the knowledge that I played a role in Cole's wrongful conviction by identifying him as the man who attacked me.

She then goes on to talk about faulty forensics:

One of the most troubling things I've learned is that juries often hear evidence that is not as solid as it sounds.

In case after case, scientists testify that a hair from a crime scene is similar to the defendant's hair, or that markings on a bullet match a particular gun. These and other forms of forensic science can be persuasive to a jury, but nobody knows how accurate the science is (including the forensic analyst who conducted the tests).

Michelle also talks about the real rapist and how he spent the time he remained on the streets because the wrong man was serving time for his crimes:

One of the most troubling things I've learned is that juries often hear evidence that is not as solid as it sounds.

In case after case, scientists testify that a hair from a crime scene is similar to the defendant's hair, or that markings on a bullet match a particular gun. These and other forms of forensic science can be persuasive to a jury, but nobody knows how accurate the science is (including the forensic analyst who conducted the tests).

Read More: Forensic science institute could spare future victims

Yet another case where wrongful convictions, prosecutorial misconduct and false eyewitness identification caused two other human beings, one a teenaged girl, to become victims of violent crimes.

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