Burned by The Justice System

"I didn't do it."

The statement is a common refrain for untold numbers of persons convicted and sentenced for crimes. While it is just as common to believe that the American justice system only imprisons the guilty, the fact remains that many innocent people still go to prison each year, unjustly convicted and incarcerated for crimes they did not commit.

Since 1989, when DNA testing rose to prominence, more than 2,000 individuals have been set free after wrongful convictions, according to a new National Registry of Exonerations maintained by the University of Michigan Law School and Northwestern University. More than 100 had been sentenced to death.

In addition to exonerations based on DNA evidence, many also have been set free thanks to witnesses who have recanted, police scandals, and faulty expert-witness testimony, among other reasons.

The names in the registry are just those that have been freed. The numbers that still languish in prison unjustly is incalculable, the registry-keepers contend. 

Indeed, the cases outlined in the new registry are likely just a fraction of the wrongful imprisonment cases in the United States, researchers told The Huffington Post.

"This is a beginning," University of Michigan Law School professor Samuel Gross told Huffington Post. "One of my great hopes is that this will lead us to learn more about exonerations."

A Lexington County Connection

In the registry, just two cases are from South Carolina. One of those is from Lexington. Perry Mitchell was 20 in 1982 when he was arrested and charged for rape. Convicted in 1984, Mitchell was finally exonerated and released in 1998, thanks to DNA evidence. 

Mitchell, a black man, was sentenced to 30 years for raping a white girl at knifepoint. His conviction was based on mistaken victim identification of her attacker, and "false or misleading forensic evidence." 

DNA testing proved that the semen found on the victim's underwear could not have been Mitchell's.

"The most important goal of the [criminal justice] system is accuracy," Gross told Huffington Post. "Getting the right person and not getting the wrong person are obviously the most important goals. The only way to get those are to learn how we made our mistakes."

Another step in the process of shedding light on wrongful convictions is encouraging states to adopt legislation that would enable those who were wrongly imprisoned to seek compensation. The District of Columbia and 27 states have such laws -- South Carolina is not among them.