Achieving justice: freeing the innocent, convicting the guilty

The Ad Hoc Committee to Ensure the Integrity of the Criminal Process was created by the Criminal Justice Section of the American Bar Association in 2002 in response to the growing number of DNA exonerations. The Committee, made up of prosecutors, defenders, judges and academics, has researched the many practices that result in wrongful convictions. Based on their research, the committee drafted nine resolutions that were adopted by the American Bar Association which include recommendations for improvements in the problem areas identified: eyewitness identification, reliance on inaccurate forensic evidence, jail informants and false confessions as well and defense and prosecution practices. A chapter is devoted to each resolution developed by the committee and includes a discussion of the problem being addressed and recommendations and procedural guidelines to correct the problem. The final resolution covers compensation for the wrongfully convicted.