Page 26 - Delaware Lawyer - Spring 2022

FEATURE | INNOCENT, BUT BEHIND BARS
Delaware will rank as the 14th most diverse state in the country by 2060, with Northern Delaware’s racial and ethnic mix rising to the top 6% of counties nationwide. Yet, Delaware remains behind the rest of the country in enacting criminal justice reform necessary to prevent and correct wrongful convictions.
for instance, that an unnatural death of a Black child is more likely to be categorized as a homicide than that of a white child, which is more likely to be labeled an accident.20 These forms of bias are of significant con- cern here in Delaware because of our continually diversifying population. Over 23% of Delaware’s population is African American, according to the most recent Census data, repre- senting the eighth-largest percent- age in the countr y. A nationwide demographic analysis commissioned by USA Today in 2014 concluded that Delaware will rank as the 14th most diverse state in the countr y by 2060, with Northern Delaware’s racial and ethnic mix rising to the top 6% of counties nationwide. Yet, Delaware remains behind the rest of the country in enacting criminal justice reform necessary to prevent and correct wrongful convictions.
Innocence Delaware was founded in 2018, with the mission to free the innocent of Delaware and meaning- fully reform the system that wrong- fully convicted them. We began accepting cases in 2020, and were quickly inundated with requests for assistance. Unfortunately, challeng- ing potentially faulty science, many years after a conviction, is both difficult and costly. Educating the public about the real and document- ed concerns surrounding expert tes- timony enables future juries to better serve in their role of properly weigh- ing the evidence.
NOTES
1. The National Registry Of Exonera- tions, https://www.law.umich.edu/spe- cial/exoneration/Pages/about.aspx (last visited Mar. 20, 2022)
2. Innocence Project, https://innocen- ceproject.org/overturning-wrongful-con- victions-involving-flawed-forensics/ (last visited Mar. 20, 2022.
3. The National Registry Of Exonera- tions, https://www.law.umich.edu/spe-
24 DELAWARE LAWYER SPRING 2022