Wrongful conviction

Wrongful Conviction
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Wrongful Conviction
“Justice delayed is justice denied” is one of the famous legal maxims. It means that legal redress should take place promptly because it loses its meaning if it takes too long. Guided by this maxim, courts have hurriedly convicted even innocent people. Darryl Hunt is among the wrongfully convicted individuals. The prosecution accused hunt of raping and killing a copy editor of The Sentinel, Deborah Sykes. Hunt’s girlfriend provided an alibi, but she changed her testimony after the police arrested her and threatened to try her on larceny charges unless she ‘cooperated.’ On hearing this, Hunt’s girlfriend said that Hunt had confessed to killing Sykes. However, she recanted this false information later, but the prosecution used it to secure a conviction. Ten years after conviction, Hunt provided DNA evidence but was not exonerated until ten years later characterized by legal appeals.
Corrective punishment is crucial for the well-being of the society. However, in Hunt’s case, there were obvious flaws that led to wrongful conviction. One of the components of corrective justice is Substantive justice, which deals with the determination of a fair punishment for a particular offense (Pollock, 2010 p. 58). When proved guilty, Darryl Hunt was given a life in prison sentence. There was substantive justice here because the crime of murder deserves a harsh punishment. Procedural justice is the second component of corrective punishment.

It deals in the steps that should be followed before administering punishment. In my opinion, justice was not served in Hunt’s case because of the failure of the stakeholders in ensuring procedural justice. For example, the interrogation was done incorrectly, which made Hunt’s girlfriend lie about Hunt’s involvement in the case. Without the threats, Hunt’s girlfriend would have stuck to her alibi. Also, the court ignored DNA evidence provided that would exonerate Hunt. Therefore, failure of procedural justice led to wrongful conviction.
The Innocence Project is an excellent idea because it gives a chance for the reopening of a trial if it believes that someone was wrongfully convicted. People of goodwill should support this non-profit organization because of what it stands for.

References
Pollock, J. M. (2012). Ethical dilemmas and decisions in criminal justice. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.