COMPENSATION FOR THE INNOCENTS THAT ARE WRONGFULLY CONVICTED By : Jesika Althea ALSA LC UNAIR 2016
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND An act which is prohibited, prosecuted, and punished by criminal law is the definition of crime. Bentham explained that actions which harms one or many others are the ones called criminal offense.1 Based on the definiton of crime, it is clear that the perpretator of every crime wil recieve sanctions. The range of punishments, not only from one crime to another but also from one country to another, is vast. Although, mostly but not always, legally the perprator must go through trial before they are convicted if proven guilty. The purpose of giving sanctions for every violation of law are intended to give the culprit a detterent effect, to discourage others of doing crime and most importantly to give justice to the victim. All of the above are all positive intentions of punishment when the proceedings are done right. Unfortunately, mistakes and imperfections are inevitable. As a consequence, innocent people could be a victim of wrongful convictions. Wrongful Conviction is an issue all around the world. Wrongful convictions are a tragedy which caused huge consequences not only to the innocents sent to prison but also to society. The innocents will be striped from their right to freedom, from their right to spend time with their family and friends, and a whole lot of other things. Meanwhile, the real perpretator remains at large and at liberty to do other crimes. In addition, wrongful conviction doesn’t merely happen in cases with light punishment but as well as cases with death penalty. 1 Stuart Henry and Mark M. Lanier. What is Crime?:Controversies over the Nature of Crime and What to Do about It. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2001.
CAUSES OF WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS This picture of injustice, which is not uncommon, is a result of several unfortunate factors. Such factors are misidentification, tunnel visions, plea bargains or false confessions. 1. MISIDENTIFICATION Misidentification can happen either from the victim or eyewitnesses which is influenced from different aspects such as cognitive and psycology. In detail, trauma, lighting, the duration of looking at the perpretator among other things, can cause misidentification.2 Fear of being pointed at with a weapon can also cause a person to lose focus on the perpetrator and make them see unclearly. Another reason is that sometimes victims or witnesses compare a person who look like the perpretaro as the perpretator themselves.3 There are some cases of wrongful convictions caused by misidentification which are revealed years later with the help of DNA tests. Identification of the offender from the victim is the easiest way to solve the case and supposedly reliable. However, as a result of various factors, the certainty of it shoulds be doubted. 2. TUNNEL VISIONS It is not uncommon to find tunneled visions in criminal cases. This can happen when prosecutors or the police are convinced with a conclusion of a case that can cause them to focus on a suspect which might be innocent. They are too focused on trying to prove that suspect guilt that they often not consider the facts which point to other directions. The will to close a case as soon as possible is also one of the reason of tunneled visions. A prosecutor and the police should make justice and finding the real perpretator their first priority.
2 Jeffery Mark Deskovic. Wrongful Convictions-Systematic Causes and Sugested Remedies. 2013.
3 Jon B. Gould. One Hundred Years Later : Wrongful Convictions After a Century of Research. Journal Criminal Law and Criminology. Vol.100. Issue 3. Art.7. 2010.
3. PLEA BARGAINS as well as FALSE CONFESSIONS Plea bargain and false confessions are two things which in some cases could be one and the same. A person who is under an investigation is not seldom to find themselves being treated poorly or tortured by the investigator. The invsetigators would cut back their meals and drinks, give them an endless interogation or give them false promises and threats. All of those things are done to trick the suspect to give false confessions. 4 In another hand, the innocents think that there is no hope in proving their innocence that they would rather choose to take a plea bargain in order to recieve lighter sanctions.5 These innocent people would often choose to give false confession of a crime they did not commit not only due to the stress they are recieving, but also due to the believe that it is better to take a plea bargain with the likelihood of lighter sanctions rather than face a long trial which will not guarantee the proof of their innocence. CHAPTER II DISCUSSION Compensation for the Wrongfully Imprisoned Innocents Wrongful convictions, normally, are revealed and proven after decade of imprisonment. Those times are precious time but also wasted time that could have been spent with family and friends, building a carrier od doing things that they love. Moreover, even they have been proven not guilty, it will stil be difficult for them in reentering society. Despite their proven innocence, their crimnal records are rarely cleared and also they would have no money, housing, jobs and health care as they walk free out of prison. It is inevitable that no system is perfect, but ssing the injustice that happens to these people. It is a responsibility for society and state to provide an aqual compensation and a compassionate assistance for those who are wrongly convicted in reentering society.
4 Jeffery Mark Deskovic. Wrongful Convictions-Systematic Causes and Sugested Remedies. 2013. 5 Paul Craig Roberts. The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy. Vol.7. No.4. 2003.
Here are a few things that the state and society could do 1. Financial Support Considering that these people did not work all the years they spent in prison and might not be recieving money, the first thing state could do is give them financial support. The state should give them an amount of money for each year these innocents spent in prison. This should be a non-deducible tax money so that these people could recieve the whole sum of money. 2. Help Securing Affordable Housing Just like every person, these people need a place to stay. The state could help them find or even provide them a temporary place to stay until they could own a place of their own. Furthermore, the state should also help them on finding a decent and affordable place to stay. 3. Counseling Service This tragedy that happend to these people is not a tragedy to be taken lightly. They had faced a terrible event in their life. Even more, the life in prison is a nightmare on its own. In consideration of those things, the state should help them on facingand relieving those stress or trauma. 4. Health Care Health is one of the essential things in life. Every person needs to take care of their health. The state could give free health care for the innocents that are wrongfully convicted or they could be given a health insurance for the rest of their life. 5. Education and Development of Work Skills After years of spending their time in prison, they might not be used to what the world is at the moment of their release. They might need help in getting used to how the world is. State should educate or help them in getting used and fitting in to the world they know now. Those people should also recieve education on developing their work skill so that they could land a job and live properly. 6. Expunge Criminal Records
The criminal records of these innocents are rarely cleared altough their innocence have been proven. In this situation, state should guarantee that their criminal records be expunged and annouced it to society.
CHAPTER III CONCLUSION Every nation must form some kind of law to ensure order, peace and prosperity in their country. Although, it is inevitable that some citizens will violate those law and do harm to others. To uphold justice, the state must give sanctions or punishments to those offenders. These proceedings must be done carefully to prevent mistakes such as wrongfully convicting an innocent person. These misfortunes have happened in the past until now in various country and only to be revealed decades later. In some cases, the wrongfully convicted victim has been excuted with death penalty which only to be proven later that they were innocent. This is a horrible event that could happen to anybody. Society has an obligation to give some compensation to these innocents after a lifetime of being punished for something they have been worngfully accused of. Even then, these compensations might not be comparable to the stress or trauma they might have endured, moreover when they recieve no compensation at all from the state. LIST OF REFERENCES BOOKS Stuart Henry and Mark M. Lanier. What is Crime?:Controversies over the Nature of Crime and What to Do about It. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2001. JOURNALS Paul Craig Roberts. The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy. Vol.7. No.4. 2003. Jon B. Gould. One Hundred Years Later : Wrongful Convictions After a Century of Research. Journal Criminal Law and Criminology. Vol.100. Issue 3. Art.7. 2010 Jeffery Mark Deskovic. Wrongful Convictions-Systematic Causes and Sugested Remedies. 2013.
INTERNET REFERENCE http://www.innocenceproject.org/compensating-wrongly-convicted/