Howard-Waddingham, W. (2018). Race, wrongful convictions, and Texas: An analysis of the impact of juror and defendant ethnicity on wrongful convictions in Texas. The Young Researcher, 2 (1), 98-111.  

Abstract
This study explored how different states are impacted by wrongful convictions, how different races are represented in Texas exonerations, and the connection between juror and defendant ethnicity in Texas wrongful convictions. This study employs a quantitative method. The study finds that Texas, New York, and Illinois are the states most impacted by wrongful convictions, that stark racial disparities exist in Texas exonerations, and that there is no connection between juror and defendant ethnicity in Texas wrongful convictions. These findings imply that House Bill 34 (a critical piece of Texas legislation that will be explored later in this study) will not be entirely successful from its lack of stipulations regarding racism, yet also clarify that racial discrimination does not originate with Texas’s jurors, providing a direction for future research.

Keywords: wrongful convictions, racism, juror discrimination, defendant ethnicity.

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