Habe Lawson's Wrongful Conviction
In the early 1970s, a jury convicted Curtis Haybert “Habe” Lawson of a murder he claims he did not commit. Eyewitness testimonies and his previous criminal record persuaded the jury to convict him of murder. According to the Innocence Project , 2-5% of prisoners are innocent of the crime for which they were convicted. There are about 2 million prisoners in the U.S. Therefore, according to these statistics, 40,000-100,000 innocent people currently sit behind bars. Although Lawson claimed to be one of these people, he was never exonerated. Nevertheless, friends, family and Lawson himself - until his death in 2016 - have insisted he was wrongfully convicted. His story exemplifies some of the failings of the criminal justice system. According to Maurice Possley, the senior researcher for The National Exoneration Registry, there are six contributing factors to wrongful conviction. These factors are mistaken witness identification, false confession, false accusation (perju