Q. What are the causes of wrongful convictions?

A. Research into the underlying causes of wrongful convictions has revealed several common factors.

Many wrongful convictions overturned with DNA testing involve multiple causes: 75% involve eyewitness misidentification; in 50%, unvalidated or improper forensic science played a role; a false confession or admission contributed to 25%; in 15% of the cases, unreliable informants played a role. Prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective defense, police misconduct and racism are harder to quantify but were also factors in many of the wrongful convictions that have been overturned with DNA testing.  Read more about these issues in our Understand The Causes section.

Only 5-10% of all criminal cases in the U.S. involve biological evidence, and the underlying causes of wrongful convictions have played a role in countless cases where DNA testing is not available.

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