At the National Innocence Network Conference last weekend in Portland, Oregon, Professor Frank Baumgartner at The University of North Carolina addressed the consequences of “wrongful liberty.” Wrongful liberty refers to the tragic situation in which an innocent man or woman is wrongfully convicted and incarcerated and the true perpetrator is free to commit more crimes. Baumgartner has conducted research to document crimes committed by real perpetrators during the time period from when the wrongful conviction occurred to when the true perpetrator was arrested. Baumgartner’s research on wrongful liberty reveals a serious consequence of wrongful conviction that becomes a major detriment to public safety: the failure to convict the true perpetrator of a crime leaves him or her free to commit more crimes.
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