Miscarriages of Justice in Canada: Causes, Responses, Remedies

by Kathryn Campbell

Overview

Innocent people are regularly convicted of crimes they did not commit. A number of systemic factors have been found to contribute to wrongful convictions, including eyewitness misidentification, false confessions, informant testimony, official misconduct, and faulty forensic evidence. 

In Miscarriages of Justice in Canada, Kathryn M. Campbell offers an extensive overview of wrongful convictions, bringing together current sociological, criminological, and legal research, as well as current case-law examples. For the first time, information on all known and suspected cases of wrongful conviction in Canada is included and interspersed with discussions of how wrongful convictions happen, how existing remedies to rectify them are inadequate, and how those who have been victimized by these errors are rarely compensated. Campbell reveals that the causes of wrongful convictions are, in fact, avoidable, and that those in the criminal justice system must exercise greater vigilance and openness to the possibility of error if the problem of wrongful conviction is to be resolved.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781487514570
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	06/12/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	544
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Kathryn M. Campbell is an associate professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa. She is also the faculty director of Innocence Ottawa, a pro-bono, student run innocence project that assists individuals who have been wrongly convicted.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 – Introduction

Chapter 2: Eyewitness Identification and Misidentification

Chapter 3: The Role of Legal Professionals in Contributing to Wrongful Convictions: Police

Chapter 4: The Role of Legal Professionals in Contributing to Wrongful Convictions: Prosecutors, Defense Counsel, and the Judiciary

Chapter 5 - False Confessions

Chapter 6 – In-custody Informants

Chapter 7 – DNA Evidence: Raising the Bar

Chapter 8 –Forensic Evidence and Expert Testimony

Chapter 9 – Conventional Remedies through the Courts and Conviction Review

Chapter 10 – Commissions of Inquiry: Lessons Learned

Chapter 11 – Compensation: The “Obstacle Course”

Chapter 12 – The Impact of Public Lobbying on Wrongful Convictions: The Role of the Media, Lobby Groups and Innocence Projects

Chapter 13: Lessons from Other Jurisdictions

Chapter 14 – Final Conclusions

What People are Saying About This

Christopher Sherrin

"The breadth and scope of Miscarriages of Justice in Canada is impressive. Kathryn M. Campbell's extensive background in criminology adds a welcome perspective to a discussion that can, in other contexts, be overly legalistic. Miscarriages of Justice in Canada is the first book-length, comprehensive academic analysis of wrongful convictions. Several other authors have published informative books on the topic but rarely with the scholarly approach taken by Campbell."

Alan Young

"A valuable addition to the field, Miscarriages of Justice in Canada is lucid and easy to digest."

Editorial Reviews

" Miscarriages of Justice is a darkly compelling book not because it is sensational, but because it is so matter of fact."

—Holly Doan, Blacklock’s Reporter, May 16, 2020

"The breadth and scope of Miscarriages of Justice in Canada is impressive. Kathryn M. Campbell’s extensive background in criminology adds a welcome perspective to a discussion that can, in other contexts, be overly legalistic. Miscarriages of Justice in Canada is the first book-length, comprehensive academic analysis of wrongful convictions. Several other authors have published informative books on the topic but rarely with the scholarly approach taken by Campbell."

—Christopher Sherrin, Faculty of Law, Western University

"A valuable addition to the field, Miscarriages of Justice in Canada is lucid and easy to digest."

—Alan Young, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University

From the Publisher

"Miscarriages of Justice is a darkly compelling book not because it is sensational, but because it is so matter of fact."

Blacklock's Reporter, May 16, 2020 - Holly Doan