WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS: HOW CAN STATE UNDO THE HARM ?

INTRODUCTION

Wrongful conviction is a form of miscarriage of justice. The occurrence of wrongful conviction can be caused due to many different grounds like mistaken identification, false confession, unvalidated forensic science results or official misconduct.

An innocent serving a punishment for a crime he never committed, impacting both  his physical and mental health in the process. The nightmare includes depriving from family members and relatives for years, not being able to establish oneself professionally; but after proving their innocence, no compensation or insurance or health services or any kind of benefits to be respected as a person.

Article 14 clause (6) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights obliges countries to have statutory laws for granting reimbursement and reestablishment for someone who has been wrongfully convicted by the State. This provision, which has been implemented by all other countries around the world but not by India, which is otherwise a party to the Treaty – is based on a basic concept: if the State has wrongly taken away the life or liberty of an individual in carrying out sovereign functions, it must remedy it. However, the idea of remedy exhibits an intricate, prudential concern when challenged with Article 21 of the Constitution of  India – the right to life and liberty. For the State, whose existence is to guarantee the freedom of life and liberty of its citizens, can not return unless it has been wrongfully eliminated. Whereas the lawful taking away of life is not so prevalent in India, the wrongful denial of the right to freedom is pervasive.

The Law Commission of India advised the prosecution of misbehaving government officials found to have wrongfully prosecuted an innocent citizen shortly after the release of its 277th report. Most importantly, it also presented a structure for the calculation of compensation and the estimation of the monetary value of the loss to a citizen in the event of wrongful conviction. At present, given the legal statutes for remuneration in India, which are mainly limited to cases of unlawful confinement, this system is not organized.

REASONS BEHIND WRONGFUL CONVICTION

Every wrong happens because of a reason. The reasons behind wrongful conviction are as follows:-

● Mistaken Identification:- Eyewitnesses play a crucial role in the course of criminal proceeding, especially at investigation and trial. Eyewitness has to remember every detail of the suspect.  The process of identification is either through photo identification or by suspect line up. It is a memory task and an average human brain can recognize 5000 faces. But considering the surrounding where the eyewitness saw the suspect and trauma from the incident, it can lead to mistaken identification. The wrongful conviction occurs when the mistaken identity is given more importance than any other forensic evidence like DNA.

● False Confession:- Confession statement is provided by the suspect in which he admits to the crime being committed by him. Now the question is why would an innocent person confess to a crime he didn’t commit ? The answer to the question is misbehaving officers at the time of interrogation of a suspect. It plays a psychological impact on a suspect, depriving him of food and water at the time of interrogation or the factor that the suspect is sleep deprived by the long time duration of the interrogation. Sometimes the officers use third degree methods to gain confession. The statement sometimes doesn’t collaborate with forensic evidence like blood spatter or murder weapon yet the innocent gets convicted due to their admission of the offence.

● Forensic Science Problems:- Forensic science is a valuable resource, but often forensic practices utilize procedures and approaches that have not been accepted by the scientific community. Unproven forensic science, such as hair and fiber comparison and bite-mark examination, played a part in almost 50%  of sentences subsequently reversed with the use of DNA testing, showing that higher requirements for forensic proof needed to be set at court.

● Official Misconduct:- Although most legal officers and prosecutors are sincere, with the best intention of protecting society, sometimes the obligation of obtaining convictions may lead police and prosecutors to behave improperly, unfairly, or unlawfully. Such abuse can include possession of or development of evidence, investigator’s coercive questioning, or provocative techniques for extracting an identity from police. For high-profile cases with a substantial amount of news attention, police and prosecution corruption becomes more likely because law enforcement is under scrutiny to apprehend a suspect.

HOW STATE UNDO THE HARM

There aren't any compensation schemes or legal mechanisms for the state to be punished for its wrongdoing. There are no specific guidelines to provide relief to the victims of miscarriage of justice. There are numerous opinions, studies and statements on them but the legal books have not included a simple and elucidated clause.

A study of the current regulations reveals that three categories of redresses are judicially reliant on the unfair pursuit of justice. Those comprise public law remedies, private law remedies and criminal law remedies.

● Public Law Remedy:- These solutions are embedded in the region's Supreme Law of the Land, i.e. Indian Constitution. The Supreme Court in Rudal Shah v. State of Bihar[1], Khatri v State of Bihar[2],  Bhim Singh, MLA v. State of J & K & Ors.[3],SAHELI, A Women’s Resources center & Ors. v. Commissioner of Police Delhi[4], has held the State responsible for the injury and awarded compensation to the victims.

● Private Law Remedy:- Private law redress for illegal actions by state officials occurs in the context of criminal action against the state and its monetary damages officials. Accordingly, the Indian Government may be prosecuted in its name in compliance with Section 300 of the Constitution. The court in State of Bihar v. Rameshwar Prasad Baidya & Anr[5], held that it is a kind of malicious prosecution in criminal proceedings instituted by the State to assault him and that the State is liable to pay compensation to the victim.

● Criminal Law Remedy:- The crimes committed by public officials are discussed in Chapter IX of the Indian Penal Code. This also addresses offences that are not committed by public servants but connected to them. Chapter XI also addresses the issue of false evidence and crime against public justice and explains the perjury. It also punishes any case in which the prosecuting agency, such as police officers and the prosecutor, has tampered with the investigation, trial and other proceedings. In the case of  State v. Mohd. Naushad & Ors[7],  held that police officer needed to be punished because of the inappropriate interrogation tactics used by them, that led to an error in the assumption of guilt and the entire situation went to chaos.

CONCLUSION

In the case of state atrocities in the form of wrongful convictions, there is a crime against humanity. It is a sort of obstruction of justice and there must be a legal mechanism to ensure that citizens are not wrongfully convicted and detained and that proper measures should be provided for them.

[The author is Deeksha Karunakar, 4th-year law student of Law College Dehradun, Uttaranchal University.]

1. AIR 1983  SC 141
2. AIR 1981 SC 928
3. AIR 1986 SC 494
4. AIR 1990 SC 513
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