...“Eyewitness evidence is one of the earliest and widely studied topics in forensic psychology” (Pozzulo, Bennell, & Forth, 2015, p. 123). Eyewitness testimony is very diverse and is becoming increasingly influential during court proceedings, which leads to many wrongful convictions. A specific topic that will be investigated during this paper will be the use of independent variables aiding eyewitness testimonies. In 1978, Wells divided those independent eyewitness cues into estimator and system variables (Leach, Cutler, & Van Wallendael, 2009, p.160). Estimator variables occur at the crime scene while the eyewitness is encoding the event into their memory; these are not controlled by the criminal justice system (Leach, Cutler, & Van Wallendael,...
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...Jennifer Thompson should have been the perfect eyewitness, unfortunately, there were a couple of faulty system variables at play which leads to falsely identifying Ronald Cotton as her rapist and subsequently leading to his wrongful conviction. While the way a witness views a crime cannot be controlled, there are measures that can be taken to improve system variables. System variables are variables in which the legal system has control over (Costanzo & Krauss, 2015, p. 144). For example, the way the investigative interview is conducted can be improved and suggestive and/or leading comments can be reduced. Another element to take into consideration when an eyewitness is identifying the culprit is witness confidence. Furthermore, the way lineups...
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...convincing to a jury in a court of law than infallible, concrete evidence, however, this type of evidence is not always readily available at a crime scene. It is often necessary to look to other sources, such as an eyewitness, to help settle a trial (Smarlarz & Wells, 2014). This can be problematic due to a number of reasons, the first being that eyewitness testimonies have been increasingly proven, such as through DNA evidence, that the defendant is often misidentified (Innocence Project, 2014). There has been abundant research conducted into false identifications and studies have found, due to numerous reasons including age, bias, gender, cognitive ability and current state, that error rates tend to be quite high...
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...convictions are eyewitness misidentification, misleading/unreliable forensics, false confessions (coerced/intimidated), witness perjury, prosecutorial misconduct, insufficient lawyering, racism and implicit bias. Since the first DNA exoneration conviction in the United States case that...
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...The Innocence Project: James Bain Eyewitness identification is the process in which police presents eyewitnesses with a lineup or an array of photos, with the purpose of identifying a suspect ("Eyewitness Identification," 2011). The process of eyewitness identification involves placing the subject or the photo of a subject among others not suspected of committing the crime, in order for the eyewitness to identify the perpetrator ("Eyewitness Identification," 2011). However, research indicates that eyewitness identification is often unreliable due to the human mind’s inability to remember events exactly as it happened ("Eyewitness Misidentification," n.d). As a consequence eyewitness testimony is known to be one of the greatest causes of wrongful convictions nationwide, playing a role in nearly 75% of convictions overturned through DNA testing ("Eyewitness Misidentification," n.d). One of the most notorious cases in the State of Florida regarding eyewitness misidentification is the case of James Bain, who was convicted to life in prison as a teenager in 1974 for raping and kidnapping a nine year old boy. The perpetrator who was described as a 17-18 year old teen with a mustache, bushy sideburns and with the name of “Jimmy” by the victim; was identified by the victim’s uncle as Jimmy Bain ("James Bain," n.d.). As a result of such identification, the uncle who was the assistant principal of the school where Bain studied, provided the police department with a photograph of Bain;...
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...Name: Date: TRUE/FALSE Directions: Answer each of the following by indicating if the statement is TRUE or FALSE 1. The word forensics refers to the application of scientific knowledge to legal questions. TRUE 2. A fact is a statement or assertion of information that can be verified. TRUE 3. What we perceive about a person depends in part on their mannerisms and gestures. TRUE 4. Good observation skills come naturally to investigators. They do not need to be trained. FALSE 5. The first task of forensic scientists is to find, examine, and evaluate evidence from a crime scene. TRUE 6. The Innocence Project is an organization that seeks to get convicted killers out of prison. SKIP 7. Our emotional state influences our ability to see and hear what is happening around us. TRUE 8. If we remember seeing something happen, we can trust that is happened just as we think it did. FALSE 9. Through our senses of sight, taste, hearing, smell, and touch, we gather every single moment about what is around us. TRUE 10. Most wrongful convictions seem to be the result of faulty eye-witness testimony. TRUE MULTIPLE CHOICE Directions: Answer the following questions with the choice that best answers the question 1. One of the important tools of the forensic investigator is the ability to: (a) a. Observe, interpret and report observation clearly b. Observer assumptions clearly. c. Report assumptions...
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...Implications: There are many factors that lead to miscarriages of criminal justice. Few wrongful convictions are caused by eyewitness identification, forensic science errors, and false confessions. Mistaken eyewitness identification is the number one cause of wrongful convictions. Eyewitness “was a factor in 72% of post-conviction DNA exoneration cases in the U.S.” (Innocence Project, 2007). Studies show that the human mind does not record or obtain information like a video recorder; it does not keep the information as a short-term memory, but keeps the information in long-term memory. For this reason, witnesses cannot fully recall facial details, especially when they are under stress by the events of the crime. Also, memory is very flexible...
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...Research on DNA Forensics 1. Is DNA evidence perfect? 2. Should every prisoner have the right to reopen his or her case for DNA testing? Follow-Up Questions • Who should decide who does and does not have the right to reopen a case? • Who should pay for the testing? • How is the credibility of our legal system affected by the fact that numerous people have been convicted and then exonerated of a crime? 3. Would you vote to convict a person of a crime based solely on DNA evidence? Follow-Up Questions • Would you be more or less comfortable with convicting a person of a crime based solely on DNA evidence than with convicting a person based on eyewitness testimony? • Other than scientific evidence, what else might influence the decision of a jury? • If the case were heard by a technology-savvy jury, would the verdict have been different? • If the memories of an eyewitness are open to contamination, how can we trust what honest people see? • Should eyewitnesses that wrongly implicate a person for a crime be held accountable for damages? • Should a wrongly convicted person seek damages and restitution? What would be the implications for our legal system? • How does the questionable nature of eyewitness testimony affect the use of DNA forensics? Internet Research links Killer’s Trial (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sheppard/) From WGBH Boston, this is a collection of on-line resources that accompany a NOVA special investigating the Sam Sheppard murder...
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...When you put these two words together, you get witness misidentification which has been referred to as the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide, with nearly 75% of the convictions overturned through DNA testing. There have been 260 exonerations across the country based on forensic DNA testing with 3 out of 4 involving cases of eyewitness misidentification. (Innocence Project 1999) In 1907 or 1908, Hugo Munsterberg published “On the Witness Stand”; he questioned the reliability of eyewitness identification. As recent as 30 or 40 years ago, the Supreme Court acknowledged that eyewitness identification is problematic and can lead to wrongful convictions. The Supreme Court instructed lower courts to determine the validity of eyewitness testimony based on irrelevant factors, like the certainty of the witness, the certainty you express in court during the trial has nothing to do with how certain you feel two days after the event when you pick a photograph out of a set or pick the suspect out of a lineup. It has been said that you become more certain over time. (The Confidential Resource September 15, 2010) An eyewitness viewing a simultaneous lineup tends to make a judgment about which individual in the lineup looks most like the perpetrator relative to the other members of the lineup. This is particularly problematic when a lineup only contains innocent people. Research has shown that the effective use of fillers when composing a lineup can help combat the tendency...
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...wrongfully convicted person who loses good name, family, and career or who suffers a life sentence of prison rape and execution by AIDS deserves our concern as much as the innocent on death row”. (qtd. In Roberts, “Constitution Society”). Therefore, if anyone agrees with the death penalty are only taking away the lives of the innocents. Overall, I believe that every case should be reviewed closely and should not jump to conclusions. The Innocence project fully supports the ones that have been wrongly convicted and many more throughout the U.S. The investigation of wrongful convictions, which challenge the fairness and truthiness’ of the criminal justice system, are becoming a necessary feature of criminal justice analysis. Together we shall teach people how to improve their eyewitness testimony, not interrogate innocents, and not allow the death penalty. With these issues resolved the amount of the wrongly convicted will...
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...degree to which the ones available can be trusted because of the possibility of them being tampered with. In his work The Young Turks’ Crime against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire, Taner Akçam evaluates powerful evidence proving that the Ottoman documents have been “cleansed” intentionally in order to shadow mistakes. Akçam’s book also introduces evidence from more than five hundred secret Ottoman documents. He demonstrates how the Armenian Genocide and the expulsion of the Greeks from the Ottoman Empire was a result of an official effort to free the empire of its...
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...wrongfully convicted due to corrupt law enforcement officers. This corrupt issue is very wrong and should be done away with immediately, which is my reason my choosing this topic. In this research paper, I plan to find reasons for wrongful convictions, the actual number, statistics, of individuals that have been wrongful convicted, and those individuals who have stepped up to make a difference in this dilemma. Although there aren’t any statistics kept by the Criminal Justice Department on the number of crimes that were recorded as wrongful convictions, research has estimated about 5% of the cases that are tried annual result in a false conviction. Since 1989, 1,241 people have been wrongfully convicted and later cleared of all charges based on evidence that they were innocent, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, a project of the law schools at the University of Michigan and Northwestern University (Clark 2013). The Michigan Innocence Clinic was the first clinic of its kind to work on non-DNA exonerations. Their work has revealed particular circumstances far too often seen in cases of wrongful conviction. These cases show us how the criminal justice system is in need of much repair and how the Michigan Innocence Clinic can combat troubling trends of the system. In each case that have been worked on, the Michigan Innocence Clinic have uncovered overlapping causes of wrongful convictions. There are many causes of wrongful convictions, but there are a few common causes...
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...The Reliability of Eyewitness Testimony SCI 110 Introduction to Physical Science Professor Pages 6 Abstract: Eyewitness testimony and its credibility has always been a staple of controversy in court cases. Let's take a minute to think back the last time you were in a local retail store. Now ask yourself, are you able to describe the person who was ahead of you in the line? How many details can you really remember about that person? Now how accurate do you think that your description was? Today we are going to investigate just how accurate people's observations are in everyday life. Objective: The purpose of this project today is to determine whether eyewitness account credible and reliable enough to be used as evidence in criminal investigations. We are going to do this by determining witness recollection, gender of suspect, distance away from suspect and date and time affect the accuracy of witness accounts. . Introduction: Eyewitness accounts are always under scrutiny whether in the courtroom, by police and even scientists. In most eyewitness identification the processes typically involve selecting an alleged perpetrator from a police lineup or sketches. After selecting a suspect a formal statement is using made confirming the identification of the subject. Usually the times in which you are asked to give a statement range anywhere from a day to a few days later. Within this time frame ,ask yourself how accurately are you able to recollect...
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...The Court’s Administration: An Analysis of the Roles in the Process of Criminal Trial The Court’s Administration: An Analysis of the Roles in the Process of Criminal Trial Criminal procedure is the process of investigating, prosecuting, and punishing crimes (Scheb & Sharma, 2013). Criminal procedure includes law enforcement activities, including the arrest, interrogation, and identification of suspects. Criminal procedure also involves a process of criminal trial, in which a person is tried for their crime. The trial process can be extensive, but criminal charges can also be settled in the pretrial process. The pretrial process largely determines the outcome of a criminal case; most criminal cases never make it to trial. Charges against the defendant may be dropped or dismissed due to a lack of evidence. The defendant may also plead guilty without trial. Many guilty pleas result from plea negotiations between the prosecutors and defendant or defense attorneys. This pretrial process makes a formal criminal trial unnecessary (Scheb & Sharma, 2013). There are various roles in the criminal trial process, including the judge, the prosecuting attorneys, the jury, and the expert witnesses such as forensic psychologists. The assortment of roles has a high effect on the outcome for the defendant. A prosecutor is responsible for determining what charges to pursue and whether to plea bargain with the defendant. A jury decides a verdict. A judge decides a sentence. A forensic...
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...number of judges and attorneys so there is a likelihood will develop and because of this personal feelings must be ignored and the pursuit of justice must be a top standard. The prosector plays an important role within the court system, they represent the rights of the citizens. This is assumed because the criminal charges pursed are an affront to the safety and security of the public. The prosector is responsible for presenting the people’s case against the defendant, and doing so in such a way that a conviction is likely. This likelihood is based on hard work to ensure that evidence is legally and that all state procedures are followed in a way to avoid all dismissal. The prosector determines the case to pursue by the prosecutorial discretion this illustrates the range of power that a prosector has ( CJT 2015) . All charges must be examine by the prosecutor: including corresponding evidence, eyewitness testimony, and other associated facts....
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