This year, the Innocence Project celebrated its 25th anniversary. With this milestone, Time magazine observed the increasing trend of exonerations of the falsely accused: “For the third year in a row the number of exonerations in the United States has hit a record high. A total of 166 wrongly convicted people whose convictions date as far back as 1964 were declared innocent in 2016. On average, there are now over three exonerations per week — more than double the rate in 2011.” With this staggering number of false convictions, one must ask: Why are there so many falsely accused in the first place?

Originally published in Law360 - November 28, 2017.