The mentally ill, and juveniles are particularly susceptible to false confessions. People without these characteristics also confess to crimes they did not commit, because of sophisticated interrogation methods and – on occasion – unethical police work. Contributing factors to false confessions include duress, coercion, intoxication, mental impairment, and fear of violence. To learn more, visit: https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/broken-trust

Eyewitness misidentification is the greatest contributing factor to wrongful convictions proven by DNA testing, playing a role in more than 70% of convictions overturned through DNA testing nationwide. Eyewitness identifications remain among the most used and compelling evidence brought against criminal defendants.

Police officers committed misconduct in more than a third of exoneration cases since 1989, according to a report by the National Registry of Exonerations. This misconduct is often the result of a lack of transparency and accountability mechanism for law enforcement. Prosecutorial misconduct occurs when a prosecutor violates the law or a code of ethics while prosecuting a case.

The National Registry of Exonerations reported that official misconduct was present in at least 118 exonerations in 2023, comprising 77.1% of all exonerations that year. Official misconduct contributed to wrongful convictions in 75 of the 88 homicide exonerations, or 85.2% of those cases.

In some of the worst wrongful conviction cases overturned by DNA testing, defense attorneys were found sleeping in the courtroom during the trial, absent at hearings, or later disbarred for a pattern of misconduct.

Jailhouse informants are people in prison who are incentivized to testify against a defendant in exchange for a benefit, which can include receiving leniency in their own case. The promise or expectation of possible benefits from the government creates a strong incentive to lie about details of a case.

Over the years, DNA testing and advances in forensic science disciplines have revealed weaknesses in the scientific foundations of several methods that were once widely accepted by the criminal legal system and used to help secure earlier convictions. The misapplication of forensic science is the second most common contributing factor to wrongful convictions.