African Americans Wrongly Convicted of Sexual Assault Against Whites: Eyewitness Error and Other Cas

By Matthew B. Johnson , Shakina Griffith & Carlene Y. Barnaby

A total of 35 African American men who were wrongly convicted

of sexual assault against Whites were identified through review

of journalist, scholarly, Web-based, and published legal decisions.

Most of the cases occurred during the 1982–1992 decade and in-

volved postconviction DNA exonerations. Consistent with the lit-

erature on wrongful convictions, erroneous eyewitness identifi-

cation by the assault victim was a major source of error. Other

factors that contributed to the wrongful convictions were coerced

false confessions, all-White juries, discounted alibis, misconduct...

Johnson, Griffith, & Barnaby 2013

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