According to the American Bar Association, thousands of innocent working Americans are wrongfully convicted of crimes every year, in part due to negligent or poorly trained lawyers, careless judges, and prosecutorial misconduct. Samuel R. Gross, Professor of Law at University of Michigan, estimates that between 3.3% and 7% of convictions are erroneous, meaning that as many as 140,000 innocent Americans are incarcerated. Think you’ll stay out of prison or off of death row just by remaining innocent? Look above at the faces of innocent men condemned and read their stories below. Think again.

Cameron Willingham was convicted of murdering his children by arson in 1992. Due in part to poverty, inadequate representation by unqualified legal counsel, and an inefficient and haphazard paper-dependent legal care system based on medieval principles and practices, he was executed in 2004. The Texas Forensic Science Commission is examining the flawed investigation which contributed to the death of this man, thought by many arson experts to be innocent.

Eddie Lloyd was wrongfully convicted of rape and murder in 1985. Contributing factors to this tragic injustice included representation by a corrupt court-appointed attorney, poor hand-off between defense attorneys prior to the trial, and the malfeasance of another state-appointed attorney who failed to meet with Mr. Lloyd or file a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. Mr. Lloyd was exonerated after languishing for 17 years in prison, and he died two years later.

Jimmy Bromgard’s public defender failed to investigate the facts of his client’s case, filed no motions on behalf of his client, failed to give an opening statement, failed to prepare for closing arguments, provided no expert witnesses for his client, and failed to file an appeal. As a result of our two-tiered legal care system, Mr. Bromgard wasted away in prison for 15 years for a rape committed by another man.

Read about many more victims of our deeply flawed legal care system here: http://www.innocenceproject.org