A miscarriage of justice happens when a grossly unfair outcome occurs in a criminal proceeding that results in the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit.
As of August 8, 2022, the National Registry of Exonerations listed 3,200 defendants convicted of crimes in the United States and later exonerated because they were innocent. The Registry also reports that false confessions have contributed to at least 336 wrongful convictions, representing 4,409 years of freedom lost.