Your mother's boyfriend tells you that the police are looking for you in connection to a rape. You do not get nervous because you had nothing to do with such a crime. Voluntarily, you go to the police station and provide the detective, who is investigating the rape, a detailed alibi of where you were either night the crime occurred. There is only one problem. You got your weekends confused, and the date of your alibi is wrong. You never leave the police station. You are arrested; several days later, the victim picks you out of a lineup. She identifies you as her attacker at the trial. It takes the jury just 40 minutes to find you guilty and the judge sentences you to life plus 50 years. This is the story of Ronald Cotton. More that 10 years after going to prison at age 22, DNA evidence would show that he was innocent. According to the National Registry of Exoneration's, over 3500 people have been exonerated since 1989. Collectively, these people lost more that 31,900 years of their lives for crimes they did not do. This course will examine the problem of wrongful conviction. We will explore the major factors that contribute to people being found guilty of crimes they did not do. We will discuss the ripple effects of wrongful conviction on both the person who was wrongful incarcerated and on society as a whole. Instructor: Steven Hurwitz, P.h. D., Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Criminal Justice