Racial Justice Act Under Attack

Race and Wrongful Conviction

A recent study by Earl Smith and Angela Hattery, “Race, Wrongful Conviction & Exoneration,” examines the relationship of race to exoneration and wrongful conviction. Using data from The Innocence Project, the authors analyze the ratio of exoneration to incarceration for African Americans and whites. The authors found that African Americans make up 40-50% of the incarcerated population, but 70% of those exonerated for wrongful convictions. Smith and Hattery also provide an analysis of exonerations based on race differences between victims and offenders. Though African American men are responsible for 16% of rapes committed against white women, they represent 78% of the exonerations for this crime. These data indicate that African American men are disproportionately constituted among those wrongly convicted, suggesting racial bias in criminal justice procedure and sentencing.