Wrongful convictions happen for a variety of reasons, but they often involve errors or misconduct within the criminal justice system. Here are some common factors that contribute to wrongful convictions:

1. Eyewitness Misidentification: Eyewitness testimony is often relied upon in criminal cases, but it can be unreliable due to factors such as poor lighting, stress, or memory distortion. Research has shown that eyewitness misidentification is a leading cause of wrongful convictions.

2. False Confessions: Sometimes innocent people confess to crimes they did not commit, either due to coercion, intimidation, or mental illness. False confessions can be difficult to overcome, as juries often view them as strong evidence of guilt.

3. Forensic Errors: Forensic evidence such as DNA, fingerprints, or ballistics can be powerful evidence in criminal trials, but it is not infallible. Mistakes can be made in the collection, analysis, or interpretation of forensic evidence, leading to wrongful convictions.

4. Police and Prosecutorial Misconduct: Police and prosecutors have a duty to uphold the law and protect the rights of suspects, but they can also engage in misconduct such as fabricating evidence, coercing witnesses, or withholding exculpatory evidence. This type of misconduct can lead to wrongful convictions.

5. Inadequate Legal Representation: Defendants who cannot afford their own attorneys are often provided with court-appointed attorneys who may not have the time, resources, or expertise to mount an effective defense. This can result in wrongful convictions if key evidence is not challenged or if alternative suspects or theories are not investigated.

Overall, wrongful convictions are a tragic and all-too-common occurrence that can have devastating consequences for innocent people and their families. It is important for the criminal justice system to constantly strive for fairness, accuracy, and accountability to minimize the risk of wrongful convictions.

By implementing these measures, we can work to prevent wrongful convictions and ensure that our criminal justice system is fair and just for all.

1. Ensuring fair and impartial trials: Prosecutorial misconduct, judicial bias, and inadequate jury instructions can all lead to wrongful convictions. Ensuring that trials are fair and impartial can help prevent wrongful convictions. This involves Oklahoma Judges, the Oklahoma Bar Association, and the Public holding prosecutors accountable when they commit misconduct.  

2. Improving police training: Police misconduct, including coercion of confessions, is a common cause of wrongful convictions. Improving police training on interrogation techniques and constitutional rights can help prevent wrongful convictions.

3. Creating conviction integrity units: Conviction integrity units are specialized units within prosecutor's offices that are tasked with reviewing past convictions to ensure that they were obtained fairly and justly. These units can help prevent future wrongful convictions by identifying and addressing issues that led to past wrongful convictions.

4. Improving the quality of forensic evidence: The use of unreliable or inaccurate forensic evidence can lead to wrongful convictions. Improving the quality and reliability of forensic evidence can help prevent wrongful convictions.

5. Strengthening eyewitness identification procedures: Eyewitness identification is often unreliable, and mistaken eyewitness identification has led to many wrongful convictions. Strengthening eyewitness identification procedures by using double-blind lineup techniques, having trained administrators conduct lineups, and ensuring that witnesses are aware of the potential for false identification can help prevent wrongful convictions.

6. Providing adequate legal representation: Many individuals who are wrongfully convicted do not have adequate legal representation. Providing access to competent and experienced legal counsel for all defendants, regardless of their financial resources, can help prevent wrongful convictions.

7. Increasing access to DNA testing: DNA testing has proven to be a powerful tool for exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals. Increasing access to DNA testing can help prevent wrongful convictions.

Prosecutors:  Fern L. Smith, Connie Smothermon, & Gary Ackley

Richard Glossip is a former hotel manager who was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death in Oklahoma in 1998 for the murder of his boss, Barry Van Treese. Glossip maintained his innocence and claimed that he was framed by the actual killer, Justin Sneed, who was a maintenance worker at the hotel where Glossip worked. Sneed had confessed to the murder and implicated Glossip as the mastermind behind the crime. 

Currently the world is waiting for SCOTUS to decide if they will hear his case, after granting a stay of execution in May of 2023

Many Oklahoma State Officials were involved in varying degrees of misconduct through out the history of Glossip TWO murder trials.  Read more...

Prosecutors:  Sandra Howell-Elliott; 

Julius Jones was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Paul Howell, a businessman in Edmond, Oklahoma, in 1999. The lead prosecutor in his case was Bob Macy.   Jones has maintained his innocence and has presented evidence to support his claim.  The case against Jones was largely based on the testimony of a co-defendant, who received a plea deal in exchange for testifying against Jones.  There are also allegations of racial bias in the jury selection process and other irregularities in the investigation and trial.  

The case has garnered national attention, with many people, including celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, activists, and legal experts, calling for a new trial and for Jones' execution to be stopped.  Such advocacy and public pressure  in 2021 resulted in Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt barricading himself in the Governor's Mansion just prior to commuting Jones' sentence form death to life in prison without parole.

In 1988, Debra Sue Carter was found raped and murdered in her Ada, Oklahoma, apartment. Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz were convicted of the crime in 1988 and sentenced to death. However, in 1999, DNA evidence proved their innocence, and they were released from prison. Williamson had spent 11 years on death row and died of cirrhosis of the liver a few years later.

In 1986, Jeff Pierce was convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and sentenced to 65 years in prison. However, in 2009, DNA evidence proved that he was not the perpetrator, and he was released from prison after serving 23 years for a crime he did not commit.

Jeffrey Todd Pierce was prosecuted in Oklahoma by the District Attorney's office of Oklahoma County. The lead prosecutor in his case was Bob Macy.  Macy did not seek the death penalty in Pierce's case, but he secured a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Pierce was convicted based largely on circumstantial evidence and the testimony of witnesses who were given leniency in their own criminal cases in exchange for testifying against him.   At Trial, Joyce Gilchrist testified to hair analysis against Pierce.  He had been found guilty despite a clean record and plausible alibi largely because of Gilchrist's analysis of hair at the crime scene.

Her analysis was later disputed in a 2001 FBI review and DNA testing was then conducted on evidence, conclusively proving that Pierce was innocent.  It was then discovered that another man as the likely perpetrator.  Based on this new evidence, Pierce was exonerated and released from prison in 2018 after serving 20 years behind bars. Pierce lost 15 years, his marriage and the chance to see his twin boys grow up due to the misconduct of Macy & Gilchrist.

In 1984, Denice Haraway, a convenience store clerk, was kidnapped and murdered in Ada, Oklahoma. Two men, Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot, were convicted of the crime and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. However, in 2016, after new evidence came to light, a federal judge ordered a new trial for the two men. They were eventually released in 2019, after spending more than 30 years in prison.

Curtis Edward McCarty was prosecuted in Oklahoma by the Oklahoma County District Attorney's Office. The lead prosecutor in his case was Bob Macy. He was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of an Oklahoma City woman in 1982. He spent more than 21 years on death row before being exonerated in 2007. 

The case against McCarty was based largely on flawed forensic evidence and the testimony of a jailhouse informant who later recanted.  At trial in March 1986, the prosecution relied on the testimony of Joyce Gilchrist, an Oklahoma City Police chemist, who said that hairs from the crime scene belonged to McCarty.  Relying on the hairs as evidence, Gilchrist said McCarty “was in fact” at the crime scene.  She also testified that McCarty’s blood type matched the blood type of sperm found on the victim’s nude body. Macy was found to have committed misconduct in presenting the case to the jury and withholding key evidence. The jury convicted McCarty and he was sentenced to death.

After years of legal battles, DNA testing conducted in 2001 proved McCarty's innocence, and he was finally released from prison in 2007.  Despite the lack of physical evidence linking McCarty to the crime, Macy pushed for his conviction and secured a death sentence. 

The case highlighted the problem of wrongful convictions and the need for reforms in the criminal justice system to prevent such injustices from happening in the future.