Righting a Wrongful Conviction: A Mixed Method Approach to Examining Exonerees’ Reintegration

Whether an individual is rightfully or wrongfully convicted, they experience a range of difficulties upon their release back into society. While rightfully convicted individuals are eligible for programming to assist them with their reintegration, wrongfully convicted individuals are currently ineligible. The goal of this program of research was to examine exonerees’ post-release experience. In Study 1, through qualitative interviews, exonerees (N = 14) shared their stories to raise awareness of the reality of their reintegration needs, with specific attention to their priorities of receiving support, treating deinstitutionalization, and promoting community acceptance upon release. Studies 2 and 3 were designed to examine exonerees’ priority of community acceptance. In Study 2, we experimentally examined mechanisms (i.e., criminal status, factor contributing to the conviction, crime, race) that may influence stigma that exonerees experience. Undergraduate students’ (N = 317) reported negative perceptions of false confessors, however, participants believed all exonerees deserved reintegration services and financial compensation. In Study 3, we surveyed members of the Canadian public (N = 206) to assess their perspectives of exonerees’ reintegration; we found they support the government funding reintegration programming for exonerees, and providing them with financial compensation. Taken together, this program of research has provided evidence to support that exonerees’ ineligibility for reintegration support deserves to be reconsidered.