Analysis of Causes of Miscarriages of Justice in Drug Crimes

The criminal justice system detects crimes and convicts the defendants by gathering evidence and holding a trial for controlling the crime. It is generally assumed that the convicted persons are factual criminals. However, some convicted persons are innocent. Main causes for wrongful conviction of the innocent are related to numerous and consistent errors and misconducts of police and judicial actors (prosecutors, police, investigators, and judges). Given the prominent features of drug crime's evidences - whether in law or in practice - are more likely to occur error and convict the innocent person than other crimes. In this qualitative study and by using case study method (29 samples) the prevailing factors that lead to miscarriages of justice (wrongful conviction and wrong arrest) in drug crimes were analyzed. According to the research findings, the main evidence of drug crimes for prosecuting and convicting is the detection of drug in possession of suspect; If the drug is discovered in someone's possession, it will be very difficult to prove innocence.The importance of analyzing the wrongful conviction in drug crimes is increasing with a significant number of death penalty in this crimes. Even if the number of wrongful conviction in drug crimes is very low, the legitimacy for the death penalty in these crimes will be more questionable than ever. Determining death penalty in the crimes that don’t even have a religious obligation for punishment and its specific type (execution), more and more undermine the legitimacy of this punishment. One of the main consequences of existing wrongful conviction in the criminal justice system is the abolition of irrecoverable punishments such as death penalty.