QUESTION
What Are the Differences Between Exonerated, Vacated, and Wrongful Convictions?
1:33:29
·
173 sec
Council Member Ariola seeks clarification on the distinctions between exonerated, vacated, and wrongful convictions. Speaker 6 explains that 'vacated' refers to a court's dismissal of a case from the record, 'wrongful conviction' denotes lost credibility and faith in the initial case due to various reasons, and 'exonerated' suggests good faith that the accused did not commit the crime. The discussion emphasizes that wrongful convictions can occur without NYPD misconduct, highlighting the collaborative role between the NYPD and district attorney's offices in addressing such cases.
Joann Ariola
1:33:29
We we're talking about exonerated vacated wrongful conviction.
1:33:32
Can you just clarify the differences between those those 3?
Josh Levin
1:33:37
So I was exonerated wrongful conviction, and I'm sorry, what else?
Joann Ariola
1:33:40
Exonerated, vacated, and wrongful convictions.
Josh Levin
1:33:43
So vacated is the official mechanism by which the court dismisses of the case from the record.
1:33:51
A wrongful conviction is a term of art that I think means a lot of different things to a lot of people.
1:33:56
I don't think that you can't go to, like, blacks law dictionary and say this is what a wrongful conviction means.
1:34:01
Mhmm.
1:34:02
But a wrongful conviction could mean a lot of things specifically.
1:34:05
We no longer have credibility and faith in the case that was initially done due to a bunch of reasons.
1:34:10
Either new evidence came up a witness recanted because, by the way, for the record, often I'm not gonna say often because I don't have the numbers.
1:34:16
But it is possible that there's a wrongful conviction through no misconduct of NY PD.
1:34:21
I hate to go right.
1:34:21
That does happen.
1:34:22
Right?
1:34:22
You can have witnesses that make mistakes.
1:34:24
Like, that that does happen.
1:34:27
But long story short, it's the DA has lost faith or there was contrary evidence that was presented.
1:34:32
So as a result, within the conviction itself was improper, wrongful conviction.
1:34:36
Exonorated I don't know.
1:34:38
These things a Venn diagram a little bit, but exonerated basically means we have good faith that you didn't do it, that it didn't happen.
1:34:45
Right?
1:34:46
There's attempts in between.
1:34:46
We don't have faith in the evidence.
1:34:48
And we affirmatively don't think you did it.
1:34:50
Right?
1:34:50
And do you want it?
1:34:51
Does anybody else wanna weigh in on that and see if I got it?
1:34:53
I think I think that's a lay person's way of describing that because it's not like they're literally defined, I hope, at least.
Joann Ariola
1:35:00
I appreciate that.
1:35:01
And I appreciate the fact that the one thing I wanted to really strapolate was that it's not always on the NYPD.
1:35:07
It could be on the DA.
1:35:09
It could be on the witness.
1:35:10
It could be on anybody who came in.
1:35:13
So it's not always on the NYPD.
1:35:15
And the NYPD always or and maybe most times works with district attorney's office when these cases do come up for exoneration vacation or being vacated or wrongful conviction and are standing beside the DAs when those announcements are made.
1:35:33
So it is it is not the intention of the NYPD to to arrest and convict the wrong person.
1:35:43
Because as the chair has stated, as my colleagues have stated, because that leaves the person who committed the crime on the street, and that's not what you do.
1:35:54
It is your job to put away bad actors, and we appreciate you for doing that.
1:36:00
And we're sorry that you were attacked at some points today.
1:36:05
But I'm so proud that you had all the answers, the right answers.
1:36:10
And I'm so glad to see how far the NYPD has come to make sure that these types of incidences do not happen at such a frequency anymore.
1:36:22
Thank you.
