Wrongful Conviction in Canadian Law

Preventing Miscarriages of Justice

Miscarriages of justice in wrongful conviction happen more often than the criminal court system would like to admit. Awareness of the causes can reduce the overall potential for miscarriage of justice. These causes include:

• Prosecutorial "tunnel vision"
• Failure to make full disclosure
• Suborned or concocted evidence
• Eyewitness misidentification
• False confessions
• Reliance on in-custody informers
• Incompetent "experts"
• Flawed legal representation

Wrongful Conviction in Canadian Law is the first book to review and analyze recommendations of Commissions of Inquiry into wrongful convictions. Comparative analyses reveal which recommendations have been implemented as policy, passed into legislation, or endorsed by the courts. You'll learn how the authorities could have made - or could have avoided - such major errors.

Answers to Challenging Questions

• Why are eye-witness accounts the biggest cause of wrongful conviction?
• How does "tunnel vision" affect the various parties in a criminal case?
• How has the testimony of "jailhouse rats" convicted people who were completely innocent?
• How can DNA testing eliminate suspects in cases involving murder, rape and assault?
• What evidence do police need to disclose?

Plus these time-saving features:

• Federal legislation and regulations
• Federal/provincial/territorial recommendations
• Stephen Truscott: The Kaufman Report
• Customizable forms for use in initiating an inquiry under the Criminal Code to determine whether a miscarriage of justice has occurred

A Comprehensive Reference For

• Criminal lawyers who need to effectively and efficiently cross-reference case law to help them prepare compelling arguments to establish innocence
• Criminologists who wish to learn how patterns of wrongful conviction and miscarriages of justice are repeated in criminal courts across Canada
• Academics in law and criminology looking for a textbook that points to whether the inquiry process has been effective and whether the recommendations have been met
• Judicial libraries and prison libraries that need to make information on the possibility of wrongful conviction available to their constituents, as well as the public
• Police, directors of public prosecutions, and Crown prosecutors who need to be aware of when "tunnel vision" takes over and how to avoid it
• Forensic scientists who need to be cautious about conclusions that may lead to wrongful convictions
• Federal minister of justice staff who need a handy text where all wrongful conviction recommendations are cross-referenced
• The Innocence and AIDWYK Projects dedicated to revealing the facts of wrongful conviction in past and current cases
• Coroners seeking to avoid basing conclusions on initial appearances and the early assumptions of police and pathologists