The Problem of Race in Wrongful Convictions and ExonerationIntroductionThe primary purpose of this article is to examine the possible connection between race and exoneration, and how race and wrongful convictions lead to exonerations. The authors chose this research topic for three reasons. The first reason was that previous research in the field showed racial bias in the criminal justice system. This article examines how this affects a wrongful conviction and subsequent exoneration. The second reason is that if there is an innocent person in prison, that means the real culprit is still out there and most likely committing other crimes. The third reason is the racial composition of the dyad, victim and aggressor. This article is the first to mention the dyad and the authors focus on this in their discussion of wrongful convictions. This article is a very insightful look at the problem of racial bias in the system that leads to wrongful convictions and how this leads to exoneration. It effectively explains the causes of wrongful convictions and how race affects these causes, particularly how the dyad is incorporated into it.SummaryThe first section of the article concerns people already fortunate enough to be exonerated. This article uses the 250 exemptions obtained as of January 1, 2010 (as of November 19, 2013, 311 had been exempted). This article mainly talks about men since 90% of those exempted are men. Similar to the percentage of men to women, approximately 75% of those exempted are minorities. The most common way for exonerees to gain their freedom was through DNA testing. Unfortunately, not everyone has this path to take to prove the middle of the article...unlike the research, data, and conclusions, so it complicated the overall understanding of the article. Most outcomes are predictable, at least for someone working in the justice field. The general public does not always understand that most homicides and rapes are intraracial, but most justice actors do. After reading this article, I decided to research the authors to see if there might be such hidden bias. Earl Smith is an African-American man and Angela Hattery is a white woman. After knowing that I still didn't believe there was any bias in the article. The only part that could have been biased in the emphasis was the fact that rape and homicide are intraracial crimes, but the data was clearly represented so there still didn't seem to be any bias in the conclusions.