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A three-year study conducted by the Washington Institute for Public and International Affairs Research at American University has identified 10 factors common in wrongful convictions, as opposed to cases in which innocent defendants are acquitted or have their charges dismissed before trial. Funded by the U.S. Justice Department’s National Institute of Justice, the first of its kind study, “Predicting Erroneous Convictions: A Social Science Approach to Miscarriages of Justice,” sought to identify why innocent people in the United States go to prison for violent crimes they didn’t commit. read more
JUSTICE OUT OF ORDER.
“You’re out of order! You’re out of order! The whole trial is out of order” Al Pacino, as attorney Arthur Kirkland, in the 1979 film, “…And Justice For All,” tells the judge and courtroom.That was thirty years ago; now, in any courtroom in the country, Pacino would be more correct in adding, “…the whole SYSTEM is out of order!.” America must be doing some things right, though, since we imprison more than any country, where such records are available, on the planet. Per 100,000 in population, the U.S. puts away more than 700 while most other countries have imprisonment rates under 200. Even China has only 117 per 100,000; India only 29; Canada, 116; Mexico,169. The American Justice System has become the most efficient conviction machine in the known universe.
Yet, the public’s perception is that crime rates are up; that prosecutors let criminals off all too frequently, that the guilty go free on the whim of a judge or because of a rouge jury, a la O.J. Simpson. What IS going on?
All those within the justice system, from law enforcement to those in the highest justice offices, are elected, appointed, advanced, ranked, paid, based on number of convictions. Convictions are the currency of justice. Too many acquittals translates to “soft on crime.”
At the core of the system is the trial, by judge or jury. Conceived as a forum to to dole out justice to seekers of truth, the trial has morphed into a diabolical arena of conflict, where anything goes.  read more
For more detail on Michael Goodwin’s wrongful conviction, go to FRIENDS OF MICHAEL GOODWIN.
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WRONGFULLY CONVICTED MAN 
Last Friday a federal jury awarded $13.2 million in compensation to David Ayers, who served 13 years of a life-without-parole prison sentence for a murder that DNA eventually proved he didn’t commit. This should certainly get the attention of Cleveland and Ohio taxpayers if the horror of an innocent person languishing in prison while the true murderer escapes justice is not troubling enough. It should also motivate voters to signal zero tolerance for official misconduct. 
Thompson is asking the question, “Does anyone know, or care, who really killed Mickey Thompson?” Goodwin stated from his cell at Corcoran California State Prison, where he’s serving two life sentences without possibility of parole, “Prosecutors never connected me to the murders because I had nothing to do with them.” Goodwin has always maintained his innocence and his conviction was a surprise to many legal professionals familiar with the case. Regarding the prosecutors’ assertion of who the shooters were, Goodwin says, “If they caught and questioned the actual shooters, it would be obvious that I was not involved. The D.A. alleged that the shooters were two African Americans and, following my wrongful conviction, they promised to pursue the killers but have not, because they can’t be certain that the shooters were Black. In interviews at the time of the murders, every witness stated that the shooters were White.” 
Michael Goodwin, creator of the sport of Supercross, was convicted in 2007 of the 1988 murders of off-road racing legend, Mickey Thompson and his wife. In Goodwin’s 472 page appeal, he alleges “prosecutorial misconduct, on an unprecedented scale,” led to his wrongful conviction. Goodwin has always maintained his innocence. At no time during Goodwin’s trial were prosecutors unable to connect Goodwin with the killings yet despite considerable “reasonable doubt” about his having any connection with the murders, he was convicted of “ordering the them.”