Enduring Harm as a By-Product of Prosecutors’ Power Over Exonerees Post-incarceration

This chapter begins with an outline of legitimacy, as understood through neo-institutional theory. We then apply the concept of legitimacy to the post-incarceration relationship between prosecutors and exonerees by establishing that legitimacy is a scarce resource post-incarceration that prosecutors and exonerees cannot both obtain. Next, we highlight power as a theoretical concept within the context of organizational literature. We then argue that prosecutors are more likely to win this scarce resource because of their power over exonerees post-incarceration. Then, we combine the concepts of legitimacy and power to argue that prosecutors and exonerees are in a battle for legitimacy, a scarce resource. In the final section, we offer examples of how the power differential favoring prosecutors is evident in several concerning but growing trends post-incarceration. We end with a discussion on how an organizational framework for understanding these complex processes provides necessary leverage for policy recommendations.