Most people are unaware of the depth of the problem with wrongful convictions in our country, let alone the unique plight of wrongfully convicted women.
2x’s
The number of women in state prisons has grown at more than twice the rate of the population of men in state prisons.
300
Since 1989, nearly 300 women have been exonerated—an average of ten exonerations per year. There are an estimated 3,000-15,000 innocent women still imprisoned in the US.
Easier to Convict, More Difficult to Exonerate
Innocent women have a higher tendency to cooperate with authorities, and this is only exacerbated when she is experiencing Battered Women’s Syndrome or the victim of human trafficking. Twenty-six percent of female exonerees were convicted in cases where the victim was a child. In cases such as these, juries are prone, out of compassion, to deliver justice.
Innocent women are wrongfully incarcerated for reasons different from their male counterparts
Crimes that Never Happened: The overwhelming majority of female exonerees (73%) were convicted where no crime actually occurred (i.e. accidental fires mislabeled as arson—deaths by suicide mislabeled as homicide—crimes that were fabricated by authorities).
No Crime, No Evidence: Of the three hundred innocent women who have been exonerated, only fifteen were set free with the help of DNA evidence. If there was no actual crime to begin with, then there's scarce evidence available to help prove a woman’s innocence.