...also officers of the court. As officers of the court lawyers have an ethical duty to tell judges the truth. In the civil system the judge establishes the facts of the case, brings charges, gathers the evidence, and questions plaintiffs and defendants. Attorneys play a less active role in defending their clients, they are charged with finding the truth. In a criminal trial the decision is made by a judge or group of judges and a small group of lay assessors. Lay assessors are selected randomly from the population. They are not questioned by the prosecution or the defense, so they could be biased. A two-thirds majority is usually required for conviction. The US Constitution gives us certain rights that the civil law system does not. For example in the US, you have the Presumption of Innocence, The right to trial by jury, right to a speedy trial. In the US the states have the right to adopt whatever law system they want, as long as it doesn’t conflict with the constitution or federal law. Therefore there would be some issues attempting to apply a complete civil law overhaul in the US. In the Supreme Court case of The State of...
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...have been wrongfully convicted in capital cases. Their work inspired many people to begin researching this issue. The public plays a more important role in everyone’s everyday life then people think. Often there is a struggle for the exonerees to return back to a normal life. The things they experience while incarcerated change their lives forever and often people don’t understand that they are in fact innocent and never committed a crime. The main causes of wrongful conviction include: eyewitness misidentification, improper forensic science, false confessions, and informant misconduct. Eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of the wrongfully convicted. Research has shown that humans have difficulty recalling events that have happened, since the human brain is not videotape we cannot be certain about the details of an event that occurred. Jurors often rely more on what people say when their on the witness stand, then DNA evidence. In the case of Ronald Cotton, a young woman was raped and asked to look at six different photos. When she thought she has narrowed it down to two she said, “I think this is the guy.” This rest of this man’s life is at stake and he is put away because the girl “thinks” that it was him who committed the crime. The next common cause of...
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...“On the Witness Stand” Hugo Munsterberg in 1908 published “On the Witness Stand”, a collection of articles he had previously written explaining the need for experimental psychology in the court room. In reviewing several court cases, he was intrigued with the verdict based on the eyewitness testimony. Could these eyewitness testimonies be considered unreliable? Decisions based on the judge and jury through the questioning of the lawyers, disregarded the mental state of the witness. In his book, Hugo Munsterberg, explains the mind of the eyewitness through illusions, memories, emotions and suggestibility. Illusion is a perception. Munsterberg in his book describes several cases that make you wonder if each eyewitness was at the same scene. For example, when describing the road conditions, one witness claimed the road was dry while another said it was muddy. In another scenario, it was important to know the number of people present at a riot was larger than forty. One eyewitness mentioned there was no more than twenty while another said it was more than a hundred. So, is your mind playing tricks on you? In order to prove that everyone’s visual perception varies, Hugo Munsterberg developed several experiments. One of his experiments among 100 young men was to show a poster with 50 black squares for approximately five seconds. When asked how many squares the answers varied from twenty-five to two hundred squares. He continued to perform experiments based on perception...
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...religious leader that only does not make him different and unique from others.. Mohammed, Buddha and other religious were great as well. Several things are highlighted by the author that make Jesus unique. Jesus was different because he was God. The gospels clearly states that he was 100 percent God. That meant that what God the father was able to do, he was also able to do, for example forgiveness of sins. Secondly, Jesus received worship and honour like that of God the Father. All that was due to the Father was accorded to Jesus. And also, Jesus was equal with the Father in nature. He was from the beginning eternal, not created. With this well reason out statements, McDowell explains clearly what makes Jesus different form other religious leaders. In the second question, McDowell states clearly that Jesus claimed to be God. His claim must either be true or false. Jesus’ question to the disciples “but who do you say that I am” in Mathew 16:15 has several alternatives. First, if his claim to be God was false, then we have two alternatives. He either knew it was false or he did not know it was false. If...
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...Ethical Problems Involved in Undercover Operations Against Lawyers-The Congressional Testimony of Monroe Freedman I. Written Testimony of Professor Monroe H. Freedman Before the Subcommittee on Criminal Law United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Regarding S. 804-Undercover Operations Act May 16, 1984 Mr. Chairman, and Members of the Subcommittee: Thank you for inviting me to testify regarding S. 804-The Undercover Operations Act. I have been asked to provide relevant biographical information and have done so in a footnote.' My principal concern with S. 804 relates to undercover operations directed against corruption in the administration of justice. I do not mean that such investigations necessarily raise more serious problems than those directed against, say, political organizations, religious groups, or news agencies; indeed, some of my suggestions may be applicable to those areas as well. As one who has a particular interest in the professional responsibilities of lawyers and judges, however, I believe that I can be most useful to the Committee by focusing on that area. A. The Special Need For Undercover Operations against Lawyers and Judges There is surely no need to belabor the importance of integrity in the administration of justice, or the necessity to pursue any corruption vigorously. At the same time, we must recognize that undercover operations directed against lawyers and judges, if inadequately controlled, could have an even more severe...
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...Persuasive Essay Capital Punishment, Appropriate or Cruel and Unusual? The roots of Capital Punishment date back as far as the Eighteenth Century B.C in the code of King Hammurabi of Babylon. During this time period there were 25 different crimes that resulted in the death penalty. As time progressed the death penalty became more of a commonplace. Throughout the centuries following King Hammurabi’s reign, the death penalty can be seen in many regions of the world. The death penalty was first seen four centuries after King Hammurabi in the Hittite Code; then in the Seventh Century B.C.'s Draconian Code of Athens, and finally in the Fifth Century B.C.'s Roman Law of the Twelve Tablets. What we would now call cruel and unusual, their methods of execution included crucifixion, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement. In the Tenth Century A.D punishment by execution became a central law of the land, starting off with 222 crimes punishable by death and then reduced to around a 100. Because America’s origins trace back to Britain our laws were influenced theirs, the death penalty being one of them. This influence of the death penalty on our nation by Britain is where issues arise. Times have changed and so have the people living within them. Where once punishment by death received little to no outcry of wrongful doing, now many believe it is an unjust and horrid act of violence. Those who oppose Capital Punishment tend to argue that taking the life of a...
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...parallel to Plato’s argument in The Allegory of the Cave. “And must there not be some art which will effect conversion in the easiest and quickest manner; not implanting the faculty of sight, for that exists already, but has been turned into the wrong direction, and is looking away from the truth?” (872). Christine “Helm” Vole in the 1957 film, Witness for the Prosecution, gave her testimony to Sir Wilfrid Robarts, Leonard’s lawyer. At the time, Christine gave the impression that she did not want to save her husband. Sir Wilfrid believed that Christine did not love her husband. As all witnesses stated his or her testimony in court, Christine made an unexpected appearance to appear before the court and explain what she had witnessed that night of the murder. Sir Wilfrid remains ignorant throughout the film about Leonard having been the murderer of Mrs. Emily French. Sir Wilfrid believes Leonard could in fact be innocent when all evidence points in either direction. Sir Wilfrid argues any situation that appears upon court to have Leonard be trialed as guilty. He remains in a cave with all testimony being presented before his eyes as Plato states in The Allegory of the Cave, “And is there anything surprising in one who passes from divine contemplations to the evil state of man, misbehaving himself in a ridiculous manner; if, while eyes are blinking and before he has become accustomed to the surrounding darkness, he is compelled to fight in courts of law, or in other places, about...
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...Constructing an Argument Section 1: Big Ideas Many people believe that everything is an argument—every piece of writing, every image you see. That's because every time we write something down—with the possible exception of a private journal entry—we are anticipating that someone else will read or see it, and we hope to achieve some kind of response in that reader or viewer. So even if you are writing a description of your favorite vacation spot, you are probably trying—maybe without even realizing it—to convince your reader that your vacation spot is the most beautiful place in the world. Think about it. When did you read any nonfiction writing that wasn't, finally, trying to persuade you of something in some way? Most rhetoricians—that's people who think about argument and language—agree that there are three basic ways to appeal to an audience. You can appeal to logic. That is, you can lay out your argument in clear, coherent steps, so your reader or listener can see how you get from one conclusion to the next. Or you can appeal to authority. Here you may want to find experts or facts to support your argument—think about Tiger Woods endorsing golf clubs. (Of course, do we also trust Tiger to advise us on buying watches? Not so clear.) Or you can appeal to emotion. Emotional appeals can be extremely powerful, especially when you are able to relate your argument to your readers' values or needs. Most good arguments make use of all three appeals in some way. But...
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...murder of Hae Min Lee. The state’s stance on the case was against Adnan Syed, who was accused of killing Hae, his ex-girlfriend. They presented him as a possessive, jealous ex-boyfriend who could not stand that Hae dated someone else shortly after their breakup. However, after discovering conflicting information within Jay’s stories, recent connections to another serial killer, and the previous defence lawyer’s negligence, I have more reasons to believe that Adnan is innocent. The Evidence and its Implications The state’s main evidence against Adnan was Jay’s testimony and stories from two previous interrogations. However, upon...
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...coach who was responsible keeping the jury organized. The second jury is a bank clerk who seems shy and he believed the boy is guilty because no body proved otherwise. He doesn’t maintain his stand for long and usually changes his opinion after speaking with someone. He is 38 years old. 3rd juror is 40 years old business owner who is very opinionated and difficult to be convinced. His personal relationship with his son played a major role in prejudice against the defendant. 50 years old 4th Juror is a stock broker. He wears glasses and seems to present himself professionally and his main concerns are facts of the case which led him believe the boy killed his father....
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...|Doctrine in the Bible | | | |Christian Doctrine or Christian Unity? | |There seems to be a great deal of controversy about “doctrine”. To those outside the Church the mere mention of the word | |conjures up visions that range from “outdate historical notions” to “things that Christians fight over”. It does not fair much | |better inside many churches. Today the mention of doctrine seems to carry an almost negative connotation to it. There are many | |prominent leaders inside of Christianity today who make an impassioned plea for us to ignore doctrine and just “love Jesus”. Are| |these valid requests? Is God the one behind all of this? Is doctrine on its way out? We hear comments such as, “let the body of | |Christ come together”, and “leave your doctrine and return to Jesus” resonating in the messages of many pulpits and songs today.| | | |Why is this so? What are the reasons for this type of plea coming from Christians? These arguments take many forms, but follow | |the same basic pattern. The following points can...
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...Institute of Philosophy and Religious studies. Affiliated to The Catholic University of Malawi PHILOSOPHY OF KNOWLEDGE (Epistemology) Student: OTIENO STEPHEN MBAKA Class Notes INTRODUCTION Fundamental Notions THE "PHILOSOPHY OF KNOWLEDGE" is that branch of philosophy which tries to determine in a general way what the nature and scope of man's capacity to know are. Precisely what this determi-nation will turn out to be cannot be foreseen at the beginning of our investigation since the very reason for undertaking such a project is to find that out in a methodical and systematic way. Nonetheless, even at this point, we do have a vague sense of what we are after, and, presumably, we have had enough experi-ence of our ignorance and capacity for error to motivate us to take up this arduous task. Our common-sense notion of nature tells us that an investigation into the "nature" of anything means at least that we are ask-ing "what sort of thing is it?" To be sure, this question is none too precise, but it will do for a beginning. Again, our common-sense notion of "scope" tells us that an inquiry into the "scope" of any-thing means at least that we are asking "how far does it extend?" Again, this imprecise query will do for the moment. Notice that we are not asking whether we know anything at all. The reason is, as we shall see in detail later that this question cannot be asked at all, because to have asked it is to have answered...
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...that Satan has used, is using, and plans to use in the future. Rankin provides every believer who chooses to read this book the secret to Satan’s kingdom, the plans, and strategy of the enemy. He is written a book that provides the inside scoop on Satan’s ability. His approach is very easy to follow, he doesn’t attempt to write a deep dissertation about Satan, he keeps it plan, and yet deep as he takes his readers deep inside the mind of Satan. This is the type of book that every Christian should read at least more than once, and keep a copy nearby their study materials. Through this book Rankin take extra care in displaying both his missional, and theological training, and awareness. He uses a great deal of missionary stories and examples of how Satan is dead-set of interfering with the work of the Lord. He also shares countless scriptural references as it relates to Satan’s schemes, and his nature. He also uses a great...
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...Twelve Angry Men – Book Report How does your background and peer pressure influence your opinions and decisions? The play we read “twelve angry men” shows how a jury makes such an important decision of either sending the defendant to his death or keeping him alive – the jury determinates the fate of a 16 year old boy. As the title suggests that there are 12 men in the jury who do not know one another, and do not know the defendant, but these jurors have to work as one united group to argue and reach an agreement. They all have to be convinced wither the boy is guilty or not. The trial is about a sixteen year old boy accused with the murder of his father. The story has no plot because it tells us how these 12 jurors argue about the case in a small room and reach the final decision. They have to think as a group because, otherwise, it could not work, that means that they will get to the wrong decision, and cause or the release of a killer or the death of an innocent young man. The play emphasizes how they deal with the case and how they make a decision vital for the boy’s life. The jury is actually a group of randomly chosen members of society. Each one of them represents a particular class of the society, not only as a mass of people, but also the way this class of society thinks and behaves. Therefore, every one of them is sensitive to different issues and social norms and also each one of them confirms to different society standards and values of society. It is...
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...Fiction versus Reality CJS/220 02/13/2011 Crystal l. Wagoner This will be my final project for this class and it will be on Fiction versus Reality in the court room. This final project is due no later than February 13, 2011. In this project I will be explain the difference between television perspectives (fiction) about how court room drama is versus the real deal (reality). I will select a fictional television court room drama from the court television web site to help with my research, and then I will describe the fictional portrayals of the court room, including the trial process, the roles of the prosecution and defense, the roles of the court room participants and the handling or implementation of rights for the defendant and the victim. Then, draw parallels between the fictional portrayal and the reality of the court room within above identified aspects. I will then determine the accuracy of the fictional court room process as compared to that of the court room reality. I will also explain in my opinion, Given that entertainment differs from reality, what impact would fictional account of courtroom practices have on the average citizen’s perceptions of the real-life courtroom process. There are many people that make up a reality court room like: the bailiff...
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