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False confessions research paper
False confessions research paper
False confessions research paper
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The Truth About The Central Park Five “Of the 316 known cases in which innocent people have been exonerated by past conviction DNA testing, nearly 30% are attributable to false confessions” (Kukucka). This was the case for five young men living in the city of New York. At the time, these five men were just teenagers from the ages of 14 to 16, four of them were African American and the other one was Latino. These teenagers became know as “The Central Park Five”. This nickname came about after being wrongly accused and convicted of a violent rape that occurred in Central Park. Sadly these teenagers became victims of mistreatment by police and the lawlessness and errors that occur in the justice system. It all began on the night of April 19th in 1989. Trisha Meili, the victim was a 28 years old caucasian woman. Trisha was a smart and successful woman, she was a graduate from Wellesley College where she received her bachelor's …show more content…
On the night they were detained the five teenagers along with a large group of other teenagers all decided to go to the park that night. At some point many of the boys started harassing people they saw around the park, they were throwing rocks at them and even started started beating them up for no reason at all (The Central Park Five). However even though the five teenagers were hanging out with the teenagers that were harassing people, they did not take any part in it. Suddenly a cop car came out of nowhere and the group of boys all started running different directions, the police ran after the group and detained the five boys, they were then taken to the precinct (The Central Park Five). Once at the precinct the detectives began questioning the boys. After hours of an intense interrogation the boys self-incriminated themselves in the
Many people say that the systems first priority should be to protect the public from the juvenile criminals that are a danger to others. Once the juveniles enter the system there is however, arguments on what should be done with them. Especially for those deemed too dangerous to be released back to their parents. Some want them locked away for as long as possible without rehabilitation, thinking that it will halt their criminal actions. One way to do this they argue would be to send them into an adult court. This has been a large way to reform the juvenile system, by lowering the age limits. I believe in certain cases this is the best method for unforgiving juveniles convicted of murder, as in the case of Ronald Duncan, who got away with a much lesser sentence due to his age. However another juvenile, Geri Vance, was old enough to be sent into the adult court, which caused him t...
Thus, each person in this documentary can name at least five people that have been arrested, mainly immediate family members. They all have three main things in common: they live in Beecher Terrace, they have more than six charges, and they have some type of mental issue that needs to be resolved to better them.
In February 1998, Watertown, SD, was not bursting with riveting activity. Watertown had a population of 20,127 people in 1998, which is not much less than the 22,000 residents it has today. Brenda Barger was mayor of Watertown, SD, during the years of some of the worst flooding ever in Watertown. Although the little town of Watertown seems like the perfect rural town to raise a family, it’s not all butterflies and rainbows. On February 1, it was reported that two teenage girls were accused of beating a 47 year-old man to death in his home. David Paul Bauman died of a head injury caused by the girls. Bauman was currently unemployed and mildly disabled due to a car accident a number of years earlier (“2 Teen-agers Arrested in Watertown Killing”
Both of the boys accusations were very severe. Steve Harmon was being tried for bring an accomplice in a murder/robbery in a convenience store. Even though there's not much information on the arrest itself it was hinted that he was found around the neighborhood and was trying to film for his class when he was arrested .Whereas, Brenton Butler was tried as the killer of an older tourist that was white. Butler was outside by his house when police spotted him, they took him in for questioning just because the description of the murderer was that he was African American. Once arrested they were both introduced to the people who could change their fate in the courtroom.
The four minors presented in the documentary were Marquese, Shawn, Manny, and Jose. They had all got into trouble with the law whether the charge was for murder, battery, or robbery. In the documentary, the background of their individual crime was told. Also, each male was shown living his life in a detention center of some sort or the California Youth Authority. Where they were stationed depended on the seriousness or their crime, their mental and physical health after evaluation, and their current
In the article On Punishment and Teen Killers by Jenkins, sadly brings to our attention that kids are sometimes responsible for unimaginable crimes, in 1990 in a suburban Chicago neighborhood a teenager murdered a women, her husband, and her unborn child, as she begged for the life of her unborn child he shot her and later reported to a close friend that it was a “thrill kill”, that he just simply wanted to see what it felt like to shoot someone. A major recent issue being debated is whether or not we have the right to sentence Juveniles who commit heinous crimes to life in adult penitentiaries without parole. I strongly believe and agree with the law that states adolescents who commit these heinous crimes should be tried as adults and sentenced as adults, however I don’t believe they should be sentenced to life without parole. I chose this position because I believe that these young adults in no way should be excused for their actions and need to face the severe consequences of their actions. Although on the other hand I believe change is possible and that prison could be rehabilitating and that parole should be offered.
The story in discussion is that of Meagan Grunwald since it was one for which various articles from different online sources were available due to the large controversy it had sparked a while ago. Meagan Grunwald, a teenager of seventeen was convicted in May 2015 on 11 counts, including aggravated murder, attempted murder, aggravated robbery and use of a controlled substance and was sentenced to 30 years to life with the possibility open for parole.(Associated Press, 2015) The girl had engaged in a 51 mile crime spree that left one sheriff 's deputy dead and another wounded with her 27 year old boyfriend Jose Angel Garcia-Jauregui who was killed in a shootout with police in the spree which included a driveway of a speeding car in a three county
On April 19th, 1989, Trisha Meili was the victim of violent assault, rape, and sodomy. The vicious attack left her in a coma for 12 days and The New York Times described it as “one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980’s.” The documentary, The Central Park Five, reveals the truth about what happened the night of April 19th, and how the subordinate group of young black boys were wrongly convicted. Analyzing the conflict theory of crime in association to the case of the central park five, understanding the way they were treated based on setting, why it was so easy for the law enforcement to pin the crime on the young black boys, and how wrongly convicting someone has great consequences along with relating it
This movie really tied everything we’ve been discussing in class and seeing it unfold was actually really eye opening. I found it important going forward to make sure I do not fall into that tunnel vision mentality and to make sure I follow the evidence rather than fitting the suspect to the evidence. Again, I found it interesting like in the Norfolk Four case and in the Central Park 5 case police neglected to look at surrounding crime areas to see if any other cases matched the same modus operandi. If the police did look at surrounding cases they would have established a link between previous assaults and the assault that took place in the park that night. I was amazed how the detectives did not connect how each of the confessions varied by who did what and how they attacked the victim. It was Korey Wise in the video that kept putting up his hand when asked how big was the rock and he was just moving them back and forth. Police also neglected to look at the attack patterns of where the group first was hassling people in the park. They would have found that the boys were at one end of the park, while the victim was being attacked and there was no way they could have been in two places at once. I also found troubling during the time was the media portrayal of the Central Park 5, how they were painted as vicious young men, who brutally attacked a harmless white women. Even after each one of them was exonerated from the crime the media still portrayed them as vicious men. As we discussed in class, I think a lawyer like a magistrate should be available 24/7 when it comes to juveniles, because I believe that this five did not know their Miranda Rights and what they were entitled. If they knew what their rights were I believe the confessions never would have happened and none of them would have gone to
In closing we will never forget what happened that day, but even we the juvenile justice system is put to its limits it still finds a way to adapt and overcome like it has so many times in the past. Johnson and Golden will live forever in this country because of the fascination with gun violence in America. To think if maybe the firearms were locked up that this incident might not have happened at all.
Heinous crimes are considered brutal and common among adults who commit these crimes, but among children with a young age, it is something that is now being counted for an adult trial and punishable with life sentencing. Although some people agree with this decision being made by judges, It is my foremost belief that juveniles don’t deserve to be given life sentencing without being given a chance at rehabilitation. If this goes on there’s no point in even having a juvenile system if children are not being rehabilitated and just being sent off to prison for the rest of their lives and having no chance getting an education or future. Gail Garinger’s article “ juveniles Don’t deserve Life sentence”, written March 14, 2012 and published by New york Times, mentions that “ Nationwide, 79 adolescents have been sentenced to die in prison-a sentence not imposed on children anywhere else in the world. These children were told that they could never change and that no one cared what became of them. They were denied access to education and rehabilitation programs and left without help or hope”. I myself know what it’s like to be in a situation like that, and i also know that people are capable of changing even children when they are young and still growing.
“The trial was brought to a speedy conclusion. Not only did Judge Evans find the twelve guilty, fine them $100 each, and committed them to jail, but five people in the courtroom who had served as witnesses for the defense arrested. […] The police were then instructed to transfer the seventeen prisoners that night to the county jail”(30).
The three men, Said, Hubert, and Vinz were without a doubt unfairly discriminated and mistreated by the cops. Simply because of where they came from, the police never gave them the full respect everyone is entitled to have. The police did not even know them or have proof they committed a crime or offense, but still beat Said and Hubert up severely. Even when a group of the people from the projects were just on the roof top, not causing trouble, they were forced to get off and disperse. And when they refused, the situation got out of hand and violence was
Before the attack on Trisha Meili, police were all ready at the scene because there were reports that a mob of teenage boys causing mischief and harassing people in the park. Therefore, police were arresting anybody that fit the description of a teenage male, which included Kevin Richardson and Raymond Santana Jr. According to the documentary, The Central Park Five, Kevin and Raymond were stopped at random in the park, placed in the back of a cop car, and were sent to the Central Park precinct for questioning. What confuses me about the entire situation was the fact that not only were they randomly stopped and forced to go to the precinct, but that they were automatically assumed and questioned about committing the crime when they discovered the body hours after the boys had already been with the police.
One of the most well-known cases in which false confessions were stated to have been made is the Central Jogger Case. April 19, 1989 a young woman was reported to have been raped and almost beaten to death while she was running in Central Park. Five black and Hispanic men who were believed to be the suspects were held and questioned for more than twenty-four hours. As a result of the lengthy interrogation they underwent all five of them confessed and in the end, were convicted. DNA later proved that Matias Reyes alone raped the victim.