There is no greater failure of the criminal justice system than a wrongful conviction. In order for a person to be found guilty of a crime they did not factually commit, the justice system must have made gross errors at every step of the process. A wrongful conviction is not only harmful to the innocent person who is accused, but it does an injustice to the victim and society as a whole by allowing the guilty party to remain at large. In Canada, there have been many high-profile wrongful convictions uncovered in the past two decades. However, even more concerning are the "less serious" wrongful convictions that happen every day. The factors which combine to produce a wrongful conviction are not exclusive to high-profile cases of murder - they function on a daily basis to put innocent people in jail for crimes which they did not commit.

Wrongful Convictions in Canada

[prepared by Moheb Tewfik, class of 2008]

Further Reading:

(coming soon)