An error of impunity is a lapse in the justice system that results in
criminals either remaining at large or receiving sanctions that are below a socially optimal level. The term is used i
Brian Forsts book ''Errors of Justice'' and in Robert Bohm's introduction to a special edition of ''The Journal of Criminal Justice'' on
miscarriages of justice
A miscarriage of justice occurs when a grossly unfair outcome occurs in a criminal or civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. Miscarriages are also known as wrongful convictions. Inno ...
. If convicting an innocent person, called a
miscarriage of justice
A miscarriage of justice occurs when a grossly unfair outcome occurs in a criminal or civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. Miscarriages are also known as wrongful convictions. Inno ...
, is a
Type I error
In statistical hypothesis testing, a type I error is the mistaken rejection of an actually true null hypothesis (also known as a "false positive" finding or conclusion; example: "an innocent person is convicted"), while a type II error is the fa ...
for falsely identifying culpability (a "false positive"), then an error of impunity would be a
Type II error
In statistical hypothesis testing, a type I error is the mistaken rejection of an actually true null hypothesis (also known as a "false positive" finding or conclusion; example: "an innocent person is convicted"), while a type II error is the f ...
of failing to find a culpable person guilty (a "false negative").
Definition
Forst divides errors of impunity into two categories.
The first category consists of those that are like
car accidents: the community may be able to do more to prevent them, but generally prefers to consider that doing so is beyond the reach of the criminal justice system. About half of all felony victimizations in the U.S. are not reported to the police, and many of those that are reported are committed by skillful, elusive offenders.
The second category consists of those errors that are real, unambiguous, significant, and avoidable. Examples include failures of the police to follow up leads to capture dangerous offenders and
inmate escapees.
Causes
Errors of impunity can be caused in much the same ways as miscarriages of justice can, including, without limitation, the following:
*A skilled defense lawyer might be able to exploit a
legal technicality in order to have crucial evidence ruled inadmissible.
*A skilled defense lawyer can make an otherwise credible witness lose his or her credibility by making the witness appear mentally incompetent in other aspects of his or her daily life (e.g. a person with
autism might be labeled as mentally insane due to their neurological disorder, therefore questioning if the witness was having
hallucination
A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the qualities of a real perception. Hallucinations are vivid, substantial, and are perceived to be located in external objective space. Hallucination is a combinati ...
s).
*A type of
legal immunity
Legal immunity, or immunity from prosecution, is a legal status wherein an individual or entity cannot be held liable for a violation of the law, in order to facilitate societal aims that outweigh the value of imposing liability in such cases. Su ...
, such as
diplomatic immunity
Diplomatic immunity is a principle of international law by which certain foreign government officials are recognized as having legal immunity from the jurisdiction of another country. or
sovereign immunity
Sovereign immunity, or crown immunity, is a legal doctrine whereby a sovereign or state cannot commit a legal wrong and is immune from civil suit or criminal prosecution, strictly speaking in modern texts in its own courts. A similar, stronger ...
.
*
Corrupt
Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...
judges, or detectives or other police officers, who can be
bribed.
Effects
Forst argues that a variety of social costs are incurred as the number of culpable offenders set free increases: public safety and the quality of life are compromised, the credibility of deterrent effectiveness is lost, and citizens become increasingly inclined to perceive injustices to victims and alienation from the police and courts, if not from government generally. As a result, Forst argues, the integrity of the justice system becomes threatened both by the reality and perception of ineffectualness. These lapses can run through the entire justice system, from ineffective policing and prosecution to weak sentencing and corrections.
Notable cases
*
John Bodkin Adams was a British
general practitioner working in
Eastbourne
Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...
, UK. He was arrested in 1956 for the murders of
Edith Alice Morrell
Edith Alice Morrell (20 June 1869 – 13 November 1950) was a resident of Eastbourne, East Sussex, England, and patient of Dr John Bodkin Adams. Although Adams was acquitted in 1957 of her murder, the question of Adams' role in Morrell's death ...
and
Gertrude Hullett. He was tried in 1957 and found not guilty of the first charge and the second was dropped via a ''
nolle prosequi'', an act which the judge, Mr Justice
Devlin, later described as "an abuse of process". Police archives, opened in 2003, suggest that evidence was passed to the defence by the
DPP
DPP may stand for:
Business
*Digital Production Partnership, of UK public service broadcasters
* Direct Participation Program, a financial security
* Discounted payback period
Photography
* Digital Photo Professional, Canon software
Law en ...
in order to allow Adams to avoid the death sentence, then still in force.
Home Office pathologist
Francis Camps suspected Adams of killing 163 patients in total. Adams was only ever fined for minor offences and
struck off the medical register for four years.
*
Karla Homolka
Karla Leanne Homolka (born May 4, 1970), also known as Karla Leanne Teale, Leanne Teale, and Leanne Bordelais, is a Canadian serial killer who acted as an accomplice to her husband, Paul Bernardo, taking active part in the actual rapes and murde ...
was granted immunity in exchange for her testimony against her lover
Paul Bernardo
Paul Kenneth Bernardo (born August 27, 1964), also known as The Scarborough Rapist and The Schoolgirl Killer, is a Canadian serial killer and serial rapist. He is known for initially committing a series of rapes in Scarborough, Ontario, a sub ...
for his murders. She portrayed herself as an abused victim, but later evidence proved she was in fact equally culpable, taking part in the murders, but Canadian authorities were unable to prosecute.
*
Ronald Ebens
Ronald Madis Ebens (born October 30, 1939) is an American criminal. Ebens, with his stepson Michael Nitz as an accomplice, murdered Killing of Vincent Chin, Vincent Chin, a Chinese American man, on June 19, 1982. This led to a federal indictmen ...
, with his stepson Michael Nitz, viciously beat
Vincent Chin[Helen Zia (2000). Asian American Dreams. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. .] in the head with a baseball bat, on June 19, 1982. On March 16, 1983, after a plea bargain was reached the previous month to reduce the charge to third-degree manslaughter (which had no minimum sentence and could be dealt with by probation), Judge
Charles Kaufman sentenced Ebens and Nitz to three years probation and $3,720 in fines and court costs for the murder of Vincent Chin. Kaufman cited the defendants' clean prior criminal records and that there was no minimum sentence for a manslaughter plea as he said: "These weren't the kind of men you send to jail... You don't make the punishment fit the crime; you make the punishment fit the criminal."
[ Citing the judge's POW record as one of several reasons to invalidate the lenient sentence in favor of a more stringent punishment, advocacy groups unsuccessfully tried to vacate the original sentence. Kaufman's sentence was upheld as valid and final, due to the Fifth Amendment protection against ]double jeopardy
In jurisprudence, double jeopardy is a procedural defence (primarily in common law jurisdictions) that prevents an accused person from being tried again on the same (or similar) charges following an acquittal or conviction and in rare case ...
.[
*John Wilson, a Scottish football fan, was filmed during a game attacking Celtic manager ]Neil Lennon
Neil Francis Lennon (born 25 June 1971) is a Northern Irish football coach and former player.
During his playing career he represented English clubs Manchester City, Crewe Alexandra and Leicester City. Lennon moved to Celtic in 2000, where he ...
. He admitted the charge in court but the jury acquitted him of assault and convicted him of merely of breaching the peace. According to the Guardian, it was "one of the few occasions in Scottish legal history when an individual is acquitted of a crime that he freely admitted carrying out. A joke rapidly emerged that Muammar Gaddafi had offered to surrender to NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
if he could be guaranteed a trial in Edinburgh."''Football: Why do people want to kill Neil Lennon?''
Guardian
See also
* Miscarriage of justice
A miscarriage of justice occurs when a grossly unfair outcome occurs in a criminal or civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. Miscarriages are also known as wrongful convictions. Inno ...
References
{{Reflist
Criminal justice
Legal error