There are many prisoners in prison today for a crime they did not commit. Sometimes, the law rushes to make convictions before getting full facts. Maybe a small town needed revenge that could have led to a wrongful conviction. It could be “ignorance of the law”. Most are unaware of their rights and what they might say that could falsely incriminate a person. There are also forced confessions by the police who threaten or use intimidation tactics to obtain a false confession. Most of those wrongly convicted find themselves in prison due to misidentification of witnesses. Police who did not take the time to obtain actual evidence of guilt ruined innocent lives. Is it fair for a person to serve time for a crime they did not commit? Why is a person still serving a sentence when there is evidence proving his innocence? Today, DNA testing has become more useful in solving cases and proving guilt or innocence. I'm focusing on the case of three boys convicted of murder without substantial evidence to prove guilt and how DNA evidence could help them receive an acquittal they've been waiting for eighteen years. According to the Innocence Project website, there have been 272 cases of post-conviction DNA exonerations in the United States (“Innocence”). Since the late 1980s, DNA testing has exonerated more than 250 wrongly convicted people, who spent an average of 13 years in prison for crimes they did not commit (Rosen, New York Times, 2011). There are a total of 205 exonerations obtained in 34 states since 2000, and 35% of those confessions were made by a person eighteen years of age or younger (“Innocence”). An example of a false confession by a person under the age of eighteen is the case known as the “West Memphis Three.” The case concerns... center of paper... children.Works CitedSteel, Fiona. "The West Memphis Three." July 1, 2011. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/memphis/index_1.html.InnocenceProject.org, “The Fact Sheet.” Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University. July 13, 2011. http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Facts_on_PostConviction_DNA_Exonerations.php.Rosen, Jeffrey. “Unjust conviction as a lifestyle”. May 26, 2011. The New York Times. July 12, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/books/review/book-review-convicting-the-innocent-where-criminal-prosecutions-go-wrong-by-brandon-l- garrett.html.Parker, Suzi. "Three Men in West Memphis: Three Men Convicted, DNA Evidence Reopens Case." November 26, 2010. The Christian Science Monitor. July 12, 2011. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2010/1116/West-Memphis-Three-Three-men-convicted-DNA-evidence-reopens-case.