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Publications
Publications (21)
Using DNA comparisons, the Innocence Project has shown that people are occasionally convicted based on flawed forensic science evidence. A National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report determined many areas of forensic science lack sufficient scientific foundation, and the forensic science system does not function properly and must undergo significant...
It is clear today that there is a significant phenomenon of wrongful convic-tions. Since safety theory and safety measures are not developed in the criminal justice system, we have to learn it from other areas, where mod-ern safety is common practice, such as aviation, transportation and engi-neering. The article proposes some general principles fo...
The experience of the criminal justice system in the United States in recent decades shows that mass incarceration has not achieved its goals, especially the reduction of crime. At the same time, imprisonment of many people across the country has caused suffering to many prisoners and their families and resulted in the destruction of small minority...
In many criminal law systems, eyewitness identification of a suspect is sufficient to establish that they are the perpetrator of the crime in question, without any need for additional corroborating evidence. But this lofty legal status stands in contrast to the undisputed assertion in the professional literature that an erroneous eyewitness identif...
It is clear today that there is a significant phenomenon of wrongful convictions. Since safety theory and safety measures are not developed in the criminal justice system, we have to learn it from other areas, where modern safety is common practice, such as aviation, transportation and engineering. The article proposes some general principles for m...
It is extremely difficult to correct an error after conviction. Given the Hidden Accidents Principle in criminal law, it is very hard to uncover mistakes and even harder to prove them. Time is one of the greatest enemies of reconstructing the truth. Evidence gets lost, potential witnesses forget, move away, or die. The legal rules, including the fi...
In certain fields, the meaning of a "safety-critical system" is well understood, and resources are, therefore, invested in modern safety methods, which significantly reduces the rate of accidents. For example, the aviation field abandoned the obsolete "Fly-Fix-Fly" approach and developed more advanced safety methods that generally follow an "Identi...
This article addresses the way to safety in the context of forensic sciences evidence. After presenting the current lack of safety, which this article terms “unsafety,” it raises some possible safety measures to contend with this. The suggestions presented are grounded on two bases: first, the specific analysis of each type of evidence in line with...
There is a significant risk-in safety terms, a hazard-that the wide gap between the defendant's anticipated punishment if convicted at trial and the relatively lighter punishment if he confesses in a plea-bargain will lead not only the guilty but also the innocent to confessing. In practice, only 3% of all federal cases go to trial, and only 6% of...
SAFETY FROM FALSE CONVICTIONS / Prof. Boaz Sangero – abstract
This book provides readers with an exploration of ways to reduce the rate of false convictions in the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system should be seen as a Safety-Critical System, specifically a system that deals with matters of life and death, where any error is likel...
Criminal law, unlike other risk-creating fields, currently lacks any modern safety doctrine. In light of the proven phenomenon of wrongful convictions and the severe harm it causes to both those wrongly convicted and society, this Essay focuses on the necessary preliminary stages in developing a safety doctrine for the criminal justice system. Unde...
Both case law and legal literature have recognized that all, and not just clearly statistical, evidence is probabilistic. Therefore, we have much to learn from the laws of probability with regard to the evaluation of evidence in a criminal trial. The present Article focuses on the confession. First, we review legal and psychological literature and...
Recently, Fiona Leverick published a review of my book, "Self-Defence in Criminal Law." In the same year that my book was released, Leverick published her own monograph on this subject, "Killing in Self-Defence." We basically take two different approaches to the subject of self-defense. One approach seeks only “permission” for killing and views the...
Private defense, like self-defense, has been virtually undisputed both in the past and present and even taken for granted, and perhaps particularly for this reason, sufficient attention has not always been given to the rationale underlying private defense. As a result, the legal arrangements set for private defense in the different legal systems ar...
In a criminal trial, it is acceptable to rely on scientific, specifically forensic, evidence. Forensic evidence is often produced through devices omprising both hardware and software, such as a breathalyzer - which measures the level of alcohol in an expired breath - and the equipment used to create a DNA profile. According to existing law, a perso...
This article reflects on District of Columbia v. Heller and proposes a new footing and limit to the right to bear arms: a person’s inalienable right to self defense. Self-defense is a natural right embedded in personhood and is antecedent to the social contract that sets up a state. This right consequently remains with the person following the esta...
It is seemingly possible to think that the new Israeli Combating Criminal Organizations Law, 20031 is a desirable statute. After all – how many struggles are more justified than the fight against organized crime?This Article will demonstrate that, in view of the extensive and comprehensive legislation already existing in Israel prior to the enactme...
Following research conducted in recent years - some of it regarding evidence obtained through DNA testing - no doubt remains that, in reality, innocent persons are convicted of crimes and that, in a significant number of these cases, wrongful convictions are solely based on the out-of-court confessions of accused persons obtained by police interrog...
This article illustrates a serious flaw in the conventional legal approach enabling a conviction based solely on one piece of evidence. This flaw derives from a cognitive illusion referred to as “the fallacy of the transposed conditional.” People might assume a low error rate in evidence only leads to a small percentage of wrongful convictions. We...
This book combines a careful philosophical discussion of the rationale justifying self-defence together with detailed discussions of the range of statutory selfdefence requirements, as well as discussions of numerous other relevant issues (ie, putative self-defence, excessive self-defence, earlier guilt, battered women). The book argues that before...
