Avoiding Wrongful Convictions: Re-examining the “Wrong-Person” Defense
نویسندگان
چکیده
A criminal defendant has a constitutional right to a “meaningful opportunity to present a complete defense.” Grounded in several different constitutional provisions, this right has been invoked as a defense to criminal charges in a variety of contexts and has been sustained by the Supreme Court on several occasions. Probably no context, however, has been as controversial and difficult for the courts to administer as when a person accused of a crime seeks to prove his innocence by attempting to show that somebody else committed the crime. This “wrong person” defense was first recognized by the Supreme Court in Chambers v. Mississippi in 1976 and was reaffirmed in
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