By Keith Burbank
Bay City News

Fewer people may be wrongfully convicted in California following the launch Friday of a post-conviction justice unit in the state Department of Justice.

The unit will in part work in concert with district attorneys’ offices around the state to resolve wrongful or improper convictions as well as identify people who could have their sentences reduced.

The unit also plans to promote the best practices for post-conviction justice work across the state. Some jurisdictions already have post-conviction or exoneration units.

“Our criminal legal system is not infallible,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said at a news conference Friday morning in Oakland. “It is not perfect.”

The new effort is about seeking the public’s trust, Bonta said.

The California Department of Justice has never had such a unit and it has been something Bonta has been working on since he was appointed to the office in 2021. The unit will start its work by reviewing cases in which state prosecutors won convictions.

Since 1989 more than 3,000 exonerations have occurred nationwide, Bonta said, citing The National Registry of Exonerations.

More than 280 exonerations have occurred in California since 1989, according to the registry. The people exonerated lost a total of more than 2,000 years behind bars.

Tens of thousands of people nationwide have been falsely convicted and are wrongfully incarcerated, according to estimates, Bonta said.

People wrongfully convicted often come from racially and economically disadvantaged or marginalized communities and “do not have the resources to mount a meaningful defense,” Bonta said.

Two people from the criminal law division in the California Department of Justice currently make up the post-conviction unit. Bonta is hiring for the unit.

It is not taking any cases now until more staff members are in place, Bonta said.

New evidence may come to light, mistakes may surface and sentencing rules may change, leading to the need to reevaluate a case, state prosecutors said.

“Nobody should serve time for a crime they didn’t commit,” Bonta said.

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