Every Year, Around $800M Spent on Wrongful Convictions
Adnan Syed’s case caught the nation’s attention thanks to its feature in the popular podcast “Serial,” and led to the once-convicted murderer having his conviction overturned, being released from prison after 23 years, with a promise from Baltimore prosecutors not to retry the case.
His is one of thousands of wrongful convictions every year that cost hundreds of millions of dollars annually, according to a report from MarketWatch.
Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby successfully asked for a judge to overturn his conviction for the 1999 murder of ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee because there were “major red flags” in the initial proceedings, The Hill reported.
The defense had uncovered new evidence that prosecutors had two alternative suspects, at least one of whom was kept from Syed's attorney during his trial.
Concealed exculpatory evidence is the most common type of official misconduct driving wrongful convictions, accounting for 44 percent of exoneration cases through 2019, according to a report from the National Registry of Exonerations.
The most serious crimes, like Syed’s murder conviction, account for the highest instances of official misconduct “when the pressure to secure a conviction is greater and the consequences of a wrongful conviction are most severe,” MarketWatch reported.
While it’s almost impossible to know how many people in prison are innocent of their convictions, estimates range from 1 percent to 6 percent.
Not only do the wrongful convictions mean that innocent people are in prison and criminals are getting off free, but hundreds of millions of dollars are being wasted.
The cost of incarceration in a federal facility was estimated to be $39,158 in 2020, according to the federal register.
An estimated 2 million people are in federal, state and local detention centers in 2022 — when the cost to house them is even higher. With even one percent of them being wrongly convicted, that means 20,000 innocent people are in prison, with a cost of at least $783 million annually.
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