Did you know that thousands of people get wrongfully convicted of a crime each year that they never committed in the first place? While this may sound like nothing less than straight out of a horror movie, the consequences of such circumstances impact the victim’s life and the lives of their family and friends. Another fact that everyone needs to be mindful of is that it can happen to anyone, any time, so it is important to understand the importance of a criminal lawyer and the importance of remaining calm and silent.
Here are some of the potential reasons that people face false incarcerations:
False Confessions
About 30% of false imprisonments are due to false confessions where defendants made certain statements and pleaded guilty to crimes they never committed in the first place. It is important to note that most such false confessions are affected and brought out due to external influences, which indicates that such statements have the least to do with guilt and some sort of internal knowledge that the defendant might have.
Eyewitness Error
Wrong evidence leads to wrong imprisonments, which leads us to one of the greatest causes of wrongful imprisonments around the globe. We refer to more than 70% of false convictions that were the immediate results of mistaken eyewitness identification.
Only after proper DNA testing could things be proven in favor of the falsely incarcerated people. Nonetheless, while eyewitnesses play an undeniably significant role in court sessions, various social science research has proven that witness ID is often unreliable since human minds are prone to commit errors. Humans are humans and not robots who could have recorded scenes and taken accurate notes, such as the Knightscope Uber robot that assesses license plates and can alert law officials about potential crimes.
Compared to robots, a human can hardly recall events exactly as they were. On the contrary, human memory needs to be retrieved methodically; else, it runs at a greater risk of getting contaminated. In the history of the nationwide jailed population, you will find numerous instances where people were convicted falsely based on mistaken witness identification. After conducting DNA tests, the innocent defendants were released, and their case was proven wrong. Such eyewitness errors are most prevalent in rape cases, which can be proven wrong after DNA tests.
What to do when you get wrongly accused of something that you did not do?
Assess the seriousness of the accusations; instead of starting to defend yourself and argue with the accusing party or police officials, you will have to direct your mind to stay calm and focus on the potential seriousness of the allegations. The best thing to do is call a lawyer and let the professional expert handle the situation by using their skills, knowledge, practice, and experience.
It is essential to understand that you have the right to remain silent, and you don’t have to answer any of their questions. Also, if you get wrongly accused of a crime that you did not commit, you will be overwhelmed with all kinds of emotions, such as fear, anger, and frustration. Naturally, you would want to confront your accusers and argue your case.
However, you can ask any professional lawyers and experts. Everyone will tell you the same thing – to discuss the matter with your family alone and no one else. The lawyer is a professional who understands the complexities of different laws. And the laws are different for each region. That said, despite your innocence and the knowledge that you have nothing to lose since you haven’t done anything wrong, the best option for you would be to hire a lawyer and let them handle the case efficiently.
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