this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2023
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The infamous FBI crime statistics are probably the big one
Which are you referring to? Some like murder are pretty reliable.
Half of all murders go unsolved. So even if you assume the group making up 50% of the murder arrests is impossible to wrongfully convict, they would still only make up 25% of the murders that occurred because a whole 50% of the murders are a mystery.
And it would be insane to assume murder arrests are a perfect representative sample for all of the murders that occur in the entire United States.
Some demographics have more money and are more likely to be able to hire their own lawyers and get away with murder, even if they're guilty. Other demographics have less money and are more often forced to rely on a broken public defender system.
It's no coincidence that black people, one of the poorer demographics, are found in over 50% of exonerations for wrongful convictions despite being a much smaller portion of the US population.
The current top-rated comment in this thread explains what they meant very well if you're actually curious.
Despite being only 13% of the population...
Despite being only 13% of the population...