{"id":85313,"date":"2022-11-23T16:40:27","date_gmt":"2022-11-23T21:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=85313"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:37:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:37:08","slug":"eyewitness-misidentification-wrongful-convictions","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/eyewitness-misidentification-wrongful-convictions\/","title":{"rendered":"Eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of known wrongful convictions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of known wrongful convictions\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

This article is republished<\/a> from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. All photos provided by The Conversation<\/a> from various sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Blackstone’s ratio, developed by jurist William Blackstone, states that: “Better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer<\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Milgaard<\/a>, Leighton Hay<\/a> and Steven Truscott<\/a> have all been wrongfully convicted of serious criminal offences in Canada<\/a>. Collectively, these three spent 45 years in prison for crimes they did not commit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romeo Phillion was the longest serving wrongfully convicted defendant in Canada, serving 31 years in prison<\/a>. In 2009, the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned his murder conviction and ordered a new trial because of a missing police report that provided an alibi for Phillion. He passed away in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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