One good way to reduce wrongful convictions is to stop passing more arcane criminal laws and funding more police officers to enforce them. But politicians in many countries have been doing just the opposite for the past 30 years.
In the United States, legislators have increased the number of federal offenses by 50 percent since the 1980s and state legislators have been following suit. They’ve also raised funding for increasingly militarized police forces to enforce those laws. This has had dubious impact on public safety while greatly increasing the chance of putting innocent people behind bars, often for mid-level drug offenses that usually don’t earn the attention of those who fight wrongful convictions. A disproportionate number of the innocents swept up in this process are minorities.
It’s time to try a different approach, according to a study released today by the Justice Policy Institute. Rethinking the Blues: How we police in the U.S. and at what cost documents how overpolicing contributes to “a criminal justice system that disconnects people from their communities, fills prisons and jails, and costs taxpayers billions.” You can read more here.
Wrongful Convictions Blog 
Persons wrongfully convicted have much to fear from the sex offender registries and their peculiar use in assisting law enforcement. Here is how.
I’m sitting at home one night and I here from my gf that a child has disappeared not to far away from our home. An amber alert is posted. Missing 9 month old!
Here is the CNN subsequent coverage http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/07/justice/wisconsin-missing-baby/index.html.
Now I didn’t know a damn thing about the Smiths, their child or the family except they lived here in town. I said to my gf, “They’ll be over here looking, what you wanna bet.” She doubted me and went to bed.
Sure enough comes 11:30 p.m. and I hear a knock at the door. It is the FBI.. two of them. At my door the first agent says to me, “You hear about what’s going on.” I said, “Kind of…my gf told me something about a missing kid but she’s in bed”. Then the agent says, “well you wouldn’t mind letting us in to search your house then.” ( I’m thinking no fargin way….) I asked if they had a warrant and the second agent says, “If you make us go that rout we can, but it will be much worse on you. We will contact your probation or parole agent or whoever is in charge of you and you will spend some time in jail.” I scoffed and said, “BS I do not have an agent… I’m not on parole or probation.” At this point the agents are getting frustrated and are inching their way through my door anyway peeking around in my front room.
At that point the dog I was taking care of for a friend on vacation starts going nuts, barking aggressively and bluff lunging at the FBI agents. I used my leg to back the dog off, Agent 2 puts his hand on his weapon, I can see he was thinking about drawing it. I then use one hand to grab the dog pulling it away for the door and as I turn my back the FBI agents enter my home behind me.
So there we all were, two FBI agents, an nervous/aggressive dog and myself standing in my front room. I knew I had nothing to do with the Smith matter at all, yet there we were. I’m glaring at the FBI agents and they are doing the same. It was like some kind or weird Mexican standoff in my living room.
My teenage sons broke the ice by trampling like a heard of elephants from upstairs (nothing new) woken up by all the ruckus
“What’s up Dad?”, one says with a worried look on his face. “These guys are looking for a missing kid” I explain, “you seen any kids around here?” “No” they said.
At that point Agent 1 says, “Well we had to check because you are on a list.” I ask, “What list is that?” but they wouldn’t answer specifically. “We’re just doing what we are told.” agent 2 said.
I then demanded their names and wrote them down. I told the agents, “Just because you are on some list don’t mean you belong there, that’s your problem.” AND “Just because you were found guilty don’t mean you were actually guilty!” “By the way I was not convicted of kidnapping so what the hell is really going on here.”
My main point is this. Every time a child comes up missing government agents canvass all SO’s in the area, the vast majority who know nothing and are completely innocent.
The SOR’s can be used to convict persons wrongly as if wrongful convictions are not a problem already! Ask me how I know.