Debate Paper XBCOM/275 November 12, 2014 Heather Fontaine The topic that I have chosen for the subject of my debate paper is the trial of George Zimmerman. On February 26, 2012 a man that was unknown at the time was about to be the center of controversy when he shot and killed a 17 year old boy named Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida. The man in question George Zimmerman was a patrolman for the local neighborhood watch in his area. Trayvon Martin was visiting his father who lived in
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The Boston Massacre happened in March 5, 1770 during the evening. In the Boston Massacre, British soldiers killed five inhabitants and wounded six inhabitants. Captain Thomas Preston was responsible for the British soldiers which killed five inhabitants. Whether Captain Thomas Preston gave the order “fire” or not is a controversial issue. Although there are lots of witnesses who argued they were sure that he gave the order, there were also lots of witnesses who argued they were sure that he was not
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article titled, “Expert Testimony on Eyewitness Evidence: In Search of Common Sense.” Houston, Hope, Memon, and Read all discuss the inaccuracies of eyewitness testimony in legal courts. They found that eyewitness testimonies are always going to have errors, some larger than others, and that judges and juries need to be aware of this during the trial. The first study was given specifically to judges and was aimed to test the ability to trust certain eyewitness testimonies. Judges were found to be
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convicted or set free. It is not always good to put so must trust in eye witnesses because we are all human and we make plenty of mistakes. Jurors are influenced by what eyewitnesses have to say and usually base their decision on the eyewitness’s testimony and evidence. They sometimes rely too much on them which cause problems in the legal system. This issue and problem has occurred on numerous occasions and had led to many wrongful convictions. In the Greene book, it states that errors can occur at
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“The testimony of an eyewitness is so flawed that it can never be trusted” To what extent is eyewitness testimony as flawed as the quote suggests? The eyewitness testimony can be inaccurate and distorted: Eyewitness testimony (EWT) is the evidence provided by people who witnesses a particular event or crime. It relies on recall from memory. EWT includes, for example, descriptions or criminals (e.g. hair colour, height) and crime scenes (e.g. time, date, location). Witnesses are often
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stress or they are in shock. They are not able to remember all the details from the crime scene because they cannot focus on that event. If there is a weapon involve in the crime scene, then all there focus is on the gun, instead of gunman. When eyewitness are testifying in a trial, there is no real way to determinate whether or not they are telling the true or they are making mistaken identifications. However, because of studies conducted on
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**Eyewitness memory refers to a witness’s ability to accurately reflect and provide evidence for a crime, in order to aid both the police and investigators in identifying a culprit (Wells et al., 1998; Thorley, 2013). Eyewitnesses are important since they provide unique insights by adding their personal recall of these past experiences. Since, these individuals witnessed the crime first hand they are considered to be suitable candidates to provide accurate and detailed descriptions of the perpetrator
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to the point of view of Ronald, who explains his side of the story and emphasizes his innocence. It was not until DNA testing came around that Ronald was able to truly prove his innocence. The overlaying theme of this story is that Jennifer’s eyewitness account was so strong that a jury believed, without a doubt, that Ronald Cotton was the man responsible for the rape of Jennifer Thompson. This certainty was quickly dispelled by DNA testing and brings about the problem of misconceptions. Jennifer
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opening statement has been made, the prosecution begins to present their case. This is where the prosecution calls forth any witnesses they may have to provide testimony for the case. Anyone involved in the arrest, interrogation, or investigation of the crime as well as any witnesses to the crime, may be called to testify. Throughout the testimonies evidence is permitted to be admitted to the court to further help the case. The defense is the allowed to cross examine each witness so that they may try to
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decision will make it more difficult when judges are hostile to the type of expert testimony being offered by plaintiffs, there were some helpful aspects to the Court’s opinion that lawyers for plaintiffs should know and emphasize: • The Court rejected arguments that all, or even one, of the four Daubert factors (testing, peer review, error rates, and scientific acceptability) must be satisfied for the testimony to be admissible, noting that even in scientific evidence cases the Daubert factors
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