Wasting Innocent Lives
Khristy R. Wheat
Kaplan University

Wasting Innocent Lives
The Criminal Justice System always had a mostly working judicial process, but there are those people who fell through the cracks. Innocent people have to go the extra mile to get their lives back. Not only have they lost time they can never get back, but they have to go through many phases before they can prove their innocence. It is a very time consuming process and they must be patient. First, when new evidence is produced, it must be presented to the judge. If found just, he has the power to grant a new trial or overturn the conviction. Many innocent people have been falsely convicted of heinous crimes only to be exonerated after more evidence is produced.
DNA really changed a lot of things when it was brought to the judicial system as an evidentiary component. DNA has evolved over the years after being introduced to the courts. It has gone from needing a full sample with a great grade to be able to test, to needing a miniscule mitochondrial sample. This means the sample can be pulled from the mitochondria of the cell instead of the nucleus. After that DNA exonerated many innocent offenders. These convictions were overturned due to evidence that was or was not found in the case. DNA makes it easier to pin-point the exact individual responsible.
Had some of these procedures, like DNA, been available to the criminal justice system earlier there would have been a lot of lives that weren’t ruined by wrongful convictions. The amount of innocent people is a staggering amount considering they shouldn’t have had to spend one day behind bars. These people have spent anywhere from months to death behind bars. The lucky people in these cases are considered the people who actually get their convictions over-turned and are released from prison allowing them to spend the rest of their lives in a semi-normal state. There are the not so lucky ones, these people have actually been executed because of the nature of the crime they were convicted of only to later be exonerated after it was far too late.
In order for the state to make up to the