An innocent man can never go to jail right? Our system has no flaws and the people that are arrested are all guilty right? Wrong. Innocent men are regularly arrested and convicted either through misidentification, or police misconduct. However hope for these innocents is not lost and groups like The Innocence Project are working to free these wrongly convicted people. One such case was the rape and murder of Lori Rosetti.
In this case four innocent teenagers, were arrested and convicted by a corrupt police system. They used beatings, and trickery to force these teens to falsely confess to a crime that they did not commit. But this was not the end of the corruption. This system also attempted to use false witnesses. In fact, the police even knew that at least one of the four was innocent, his only "crime" had been refusing to be a false witness. All of these circumstances led to life sentences for all but one of the teens had agreed to testimony against his friends for a reduced sentence. They served 15 years before they were able to prove their innocence through DNA evidence.
Advances in DNA evidence have allowed exonerations like these to take place. They have also provided new evidence on old, unsolved cases. However one of the larger changes was caused indirectly by DNA evidence. Realizing how many innocent men have been wrongfully convicted cause a re-evaluation and revision of police practices. New techniques like blind lineups have been implemented to help make sure that the witnesses aren't influenced by the police officers giving the instructions. DNA evidence has caused police reform and has improved and repaired a damaged system.
