What is the difference between being wrongfully imprisoned and wrongly convicted?
What is the difference between being wrongfully imprisoned and wrongly convicted? Tim Cella Former Paralegal at Ascent Law (2018–2021) This is a good question. There is a major and important difference. A wrongfully imprisoned person has been unlawfully detained (like put in a holding cell), while a wrongly convicted person is one who has been convicted of a crime they did not commit (like going to trial and getting sentence to serve time). Wrongful imprisonment occurs when a person is held in a jail or prison, or otherwise confined against their will, without any legal basis to do so. A wrongful imprisonment claim is usually based on the Fourth Amendment, which protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures, and the Fourteenth Amendment, which protects citizens from deprivation of their liberty without due process of law. In order for a person to successfully bring a wrongful imprisonment claim, they must show that they were deprived of their lib...