RACE

Study: Black People More Likely to Be Wrongfully Convicted

Black people make up a disproportionate share of the wrongfully convicted.

A new study claims that black people who are convicted of murder or sexual assault are more likely than white people to be later exonerated for those crimes. The study was based on 2,000 acquittals in the U.S. over the past nearly 30 years. The review, which was released on Tuesday and conducted by the National Registry of Exonerations, also showed that innocent people who were black had to wait an average of three years longer to be exonerated than did innocent convicts who were white. Samuel R. Gross, a senior editor of the registry, said, “It’s no surprise that in this area, as in almost any other that has to do with criminal justice in the United States, race is the big factor.” He added, “The causes we have identified run from inevitable consequences of patterns in crime and punishment to deliberate acts of racism.”