GLOSSARY

• Jurisdiction: United States

Glossary

Absolute immunity: a long-standing practice providing prosecutors with immunity from civil damages for conduct directly related to the judicial process

Absolute judgment: when a witness evaluates each lineup or photo array member individually to determine if that person matches his or her recollection of the offender

Alford plea: from North Carolina v. Alford, a guilty plea that allows the defendant to maintain innocence, notwithstanding evidence that might convince a judge or jury to convict

Arson: a crime involving the deliberate setting of fire to property

Assigned-counsel system: a method of providing indigent defense that involves the appointment of individual private attorneys to represent poor defendants

Bench trial: a trial in which the judge serves as the fact-finder and determines guilt or innocence in criminal cases

Blackstone ratio: from Sir William Blackstone, the declaration that, "[I]t is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer"; suggests that the wrongful conviction of an innocent person should be weighed more heavily than the wrongful acquittal of a guilty person

Blind/double-blind procedure: an identification procedure in which the officials administering the lineup are unaware of the suspect's identity

Brady v. Maryland: a 1963 Supreme Court case concerning the prosecutor's obligation to disclose to the defense material exculpatory evidence; a prosecutor's failure to do so is referred to as a "Brady violation"

The Brathwaite factors: from Manson v. Brathwaite, the factors considered by courts in determining the admissibility of eyewitness identification testimony

Capital charge: a charged crime for which the death penalty is a possible punishment

Caseload: the number of cases for which a defense attorney has responsibility

Centurion Ministries: the first innocence organization in the United States, founded in 1983, that works to secure the exoneration of innocent defendants

Certiorari: a writ or order by which an appellate court exercises its discretion to review a case that was previously decided by a lower court

Civil litigation: one method of compensation, involves the exoneree pursuing a civil lawsuit to recover damages suffered related to a wrongful conviction

Cognitive bias: systematic errors in human judgment and decision-making that derive from subconscious mental processes; includes confirmation and disconfirmation biases

Compensation: redress provided to exonerees for their experiences, loss, injury, and suffering related to a wrongful conviction

Compliant false confession: a false confession prompted by the pressure and stress of police interrogation

Confession: an admission of guilt; referring to the admission of a person to a criminal act that is made to police officers either voluntarily or as the result of police interrogation

Confirmation bias: the subconscious tendency to interpret new evidence in such a way as to confirm one's pre-existing beliefs

Contract system: a method of providing indigent defense in which attorneys agree to a contract with the government to handle a certain number of criminal cases for a set fee

Conviction Integrity Unit: a division within a prosecutor's office that reviews questionable convictions and works to prevent, identify, and remedy wrongful convictions

Corroboration: evidence that supports or confirms information, such as that provided by an informant

Courts of final jurisdiction: refers to the highest court in a particular jurisdiction, typically state supreme courts or the U.S. Supreme Court

Critical stage: according to Kirby v. Illinois, a stage of the criminal process in which formal adversarial...