Social Justice Commons^™

In Pursuit Of Innocence: A Study Of Race And Ethnicity Differences In Time To Exoneration., Virginia E. Braden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Wrongful convictions take years from an individual’s life, rob them of the comfort and presence of their family, rip them from their place in the community, and subject them to the harsh pains of imprisonment. Exonerees can spend years and even decades in the pursuit of proving innocence and obtaining an exoneration. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of race and ethnicity upon time-to-exoneration through the lens of focal concerns theory. Focal concerns theory has been used to demonstrate that criminal justice actors are influenced by legal and extralegal factors in decision making and rely on …