Wrongful Conviction
Definition
A conviction that is later determined to be factually incorrect, usually through post-conviction DNA testing or other newly available evidence. Bite mark cases form a notable subset of DNA-based exonerations.
Related terms
- Black-Box Study
- A study in which qualified examiners are given realistic test cases with known ground truth and asked to make decisions under conditions...
- Foundational Validity
- The requirement, articulated in the 2009 US National Academy of Sciences report and taken up by courts and reform bodies, that a...
- Innocence Project
- A US non-profit organisation founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld that uses DNA testing to challenge wrongful convictions. Its...
- Inter-Examiner Reliability
- The degree to which different qualified examiners reach the same conclusion when independently analysing the same evidence. Studies of bite mark analysis...
- Skin Distortion
- The deformation of a bite mark pattern caused by the viscoelastic properties of skin, body position, postmortem change, and healing. PCAST identified...
Explained in
- The Bite Mark Controversy: NAS and PCAST CritiquesA conviction that is later determined to be factually incorrect, usually through post-conviction DNA testing or other newly available evidence. Bite mark cases...