Snitch Testimony’s are one of the most common ways that someone is wrongfully convicted. “Jailhouse snitch testimony is arguably the single most unreliable type of evidence currently used in criminal trials.” (Covey 1375) They are extremely unreliable and the most persuasive to jurors. The issue is that many them are con artists, and will do anything or say anything to shorten their sentence or make someone else suffer like them. In a perfect world snitch testimony would be a wonderful thing. If someone did something someone would tell the authorities, and boom problem solved he would get punished. But, a lot of times they don’t always tell the truth. Why wouldn’t you tell the truth you may ask? Well, let’s just say that a detective gives a …show more content…
cellmate of the defendant a reduced sentence, why wouldn’t you. The fact that they are given rewards for doing this makes it more irresistible.
Most people would and will do anything to get out of trouble, especially with the law. “The practice of using jailhouse snitches in serious criminal cases is both pervasive and, as a direct result, a major cause of error in the criminal justice system.” (Covery 1378) Using this method is extremely unreliable and shouldn’t be done. Most jurors are not able to depict the untruthfulness in a snitch testimony making it almost impossible to fight against it. There has been a lot of fights to banish snitch testimonies from the jailhouse especially when one is very close. They are then just looking for a bit more to sway the jurors. There has been fixes for the background information of the trial so the snitch would have to actually know about the trail from what the defendant has actually told them. Instead of the prosecutor or detective filling them in on the case so all they would have to do is regurgitate what they said. “According to some wrongful conviction scholars, jailhouse snitch testimony is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions” (Covery 1377) Yet, people are still being falsely convicted of crimes they didn’t
do. Letting the true offender to wonder the streets. It makes sense why they want to get someone so bad. It doesn’t help if it’s the wrong person. Even Federal Judge Stephen Trott said not to trust criminal informants. They will do anything and or say anything to get a reward in the end. Either being a reduced sentence, or some of them would do it for a pack of cigarettes. Some states have actually have gone ahead and banned snitch testimonies which needs to be done nationwide. Or at least don’t give incentives to snitch. “Along the way, the Illinois legislature adopted procedural reforms to help prevent wrongful convictions, including the exclusion of unreliable "snitch" testimony in capital cases and mandatory recording of all homicide confessions…” (Hoffmann)
Most of these defendants couldn’t afford private attorneys and depended upon public defenders. For instance, Joe Moore had two prior convictions and was facing a maximum of a 90 year sentence for selling three grams of cocaine. However, Moore begged his public defender to call Eliga Kelly to stand in his defense. Moore claimed that Kelly witnessed him shoe Coleman off of his property. For whatever reasons, his public defender never bothered to call Kelly to the stand or even question him privately. After all, Eliga Kelly was considered a star witness for the prosecution, but, as a result of that negligence, Moore was sentenced to 90 years. Unlike most criminal informants, Eliga Kelly refused to lie under oath and in a subsequent trial for a different defendant, the prosecutor called Kelly to the stand. Kelly contradicted Coleman’s testimony by naming several defendants, including Joe Moore, who refused to sell drugs to
When reading historical letters and or other types of reading materials, one cannot bear to become intrigued when reading these didactic and informative pieces of art. For example, one of the most known and most important pieces of historical masterpieces’ would have to be Martin Luther King’s “ Letter From Birmingham Jail.” This letter was written in response to the published statement that was written by eight fellow clergymen from Alabama. Those eight fellow Alabama clergymen were Bishop C.C.J. Carpenter, Bishop Joseph A. Durick, Rabbi Hilton L. Grafman, Bishop Paul Hardin, Bishop Holan B. Harmon, the Reverend George M. Murray, the Reverend Edward V. Ramage, and the Reverend Earl Stallings.
The text circulates in the form of a letter written by renown Civil Rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, JR. The letter was originally written on April, 16 1963 and subsequently published on June 24th of the same year. The letter was crafted as an explanatory response to the criticism made by eight white Alabama clergymen who openly condemned his civil disobedience demonstrations. Therefore, one can logically conclude that the author’s targeted audience only comprised of the eight Alabama clergymen. Letter From Birmingham Jail, analyses the concepts of direct action, justice, human progress, oppression, and freedom from a religious and moral framework. Lastly, parenthetical citations are used throughout sections of the letter in order to
For example, when the victims want to remember something, or someone, strongly and with high confidence, the witness can still be wrong. The eyewitness is given all the photos of the suspects laid out to identify the person they remember committing the crime. Also the eyewitness is asked to identify each photo whether is the culprit or not. Prosecutors should look over the cases before relying on eyewitness. Prosecutors should not depend on eyewitness testimony because that will lead to wrongful convictions. The wrongful convictions span the criminal justice system from investigation and arrest to prosecution and trail(Ferrero). False conviction makes the justice system stronger and arresting innocent is wrong. And picking out person similar to the murder. Not catching the real suspect might cause the public risky. Public safety be in risk."Wrongful conviction is gravest violation of personal liberty and also poses severe public safety risks, as the real perpetrator could remain on the street," an innocence Project news release said. The real suspect might kill many people or if the eyewitness might be in risk. If the victim is still life might be kill again. Lying about someone is not good thing might have miserable life in their future.
Even those who should have a clear sense of the an interrogation, fail to see the coercion brought upon the suspect that might lead to a false confession, and once a confession has been made, false or true, detectives or police terminates their investigation that could have found potential evidence to exonerate them. Once a confession is obtained, police tend to ‘‘close’’ cases as solved and refuse to investigate other sources of evidence (Leo and Liu) which is why such a high number of innocent people still remain behind bars. Across samples, police-induced false confessions were evident in between 15 and 25% in cases, making it one of the likely leading causes of wrongful conviction (Leo and Liu), but still juries disregard this evidence! Unfortunately, more cases like Rivers are out there. According to the Washington Post, the National Registry ha logged 1,733 exonerating cases of false confession. In one case, a man by the name of Ricky Jackson spent four decades for a crime he did not commit, only to be exonerated by DNA evidence after 40 years. To emphasize, few states, if any at all, courts provides information to the jury regarding how to assess voluntariness, nor do
In the adversarial justice system, when the offender admits to the criminal act, there is no further controversy and the case promptly proceeds to sentencing. Physical evidence and victim or witness statements may often be overlooked and not considered. The confession is considered unequivocal evidence of guilt and a conviction is ensured. Indeed, the interrogation process’ sole purpose is to obtain a confession. Zimbardo (1967) estimated that “of those criminal cases that are solved, more than 80% are solved by a confession.” (Conti, 1999) Without the confession, convictions may be reduced significantly. So why does a person falsely confess to a crime if the likelihood of a conviction is eminent? A false confession to any crime is self-destructive and counterintuitive.
When you hear the word “Snitching”, people think of a child telling on their brother or sister of their wrongdoings to the parent. The term “Snitching has taken on many different forms and meanings over the course of the years. The problem is, in today society, “Snitching” is considered, basically, a death sentence, or some type of harm will come to the person helping law enforcement solve a crime.
Totalitarianism describes a Political system where the sate holds all the authority over the society and controls all aspects of public as well as private life. So to do this they would need an organization to enforce anything they want. This is where secret police step in, the role of secret police is to do the dirty that the public doesn’t need to know about.
The justice system depends on eyewitness evidence to convict offenders. Eyewitness is a difficult task to achieve in the justice system. According to Wise, Dauphinais, & Safer (2007), in 2002 one million offenders were convicted as felons in America. Out of those one million offenders, 5000 of them were innocent in 2002 (Dauphinais, 2007). The Ohio Criminal Justice survey states that 1 out of 200 felony criminal cases is a wrongful conviction (Dauphinais et al., 2007). According to Dauphinais et al., (2007), Dripps said that eyewitness error is a huge factor in cases of wrong convictions. A study conducted in 1987 indicated that in roughly 80,000 criminal cases, eyewitness error was the only sole evidence against the defendant
“Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.” It’s the most unfortunate and inconvenient rule in the book, triggering paralysis while the other players are free to use their $200 to taunt you while “just visiting” you in the slammer.
Solitary confinement is a penal tactic used on inmates who pose a threat to themselves or other inmates. Solitary confinement is type of segregated prison in which prisoners are held in their cell for 22-24 hours every day. If they are allowed to leave their cell, they will silently walk shackled and in between two guards. They can only leave for showers or exercise. Their exercise and shower are always done alone and inside. They can exercise in fenced in yards surrounded by concrete. Solitary confinement is either used as a punishment for prison behaviors, a protection method for targeted inmates, or a place to keep prisoners who are a threat to the general prison population. Many prisoners are put in Administrative Segregation for their protection. Many prisoners in this type of segregation are teenagers, homosexuals, and mentally ill prisoners. Many mentally ill prisoners are sent to solitary confinement because there are not rehabilitation services available, and prison officials have run out of options (Shalev, 2008, p [1-2]). Solitary confinement is a convenient method for prison systems, but the detrimental effects on inmates make it an unsuitable option for inmate control.
In the creative writing assignment I decided to explore a narrative that revolves around the idea of a connection between one man and his past. In this story, I created a scenario where two individuals become pen pals with one another and begin to write each other letters. Billy is a young boy who enjoys the simple childish enjoyments of life such as the great outdoors who serves as more of a background role in the tale. The majority of tale, however, focuses on a character of the name inmate #48209. Through his name and a series of references and foreshadowing, the reader learns that this character is incarcerated. The character throughout the story deals with the trouble of wanting to know what lies beyond the horizon. As the tale goes on it is revealed that inmate #48209 is actually Billy in the future who is writing to his
Some of those reasons are eyewitness identification, false confession, and police investigation, according to the Innocence Project (Cordazo 5). About 80% of wrongful convictions happen due to eyewitness mistake. According to psychology, the human brain cannot record all the information it takes, leading to a high level of uncertainties when it comes to identifying the right criminal. Further factors of eyewitness mis-identification include extreme stress, which can also decrease a person’s recall memory, causing the witness to recognize the face of a well-known memory but not actual criminal. These are some of the problems with eyewitness identification and this makes matters worse. Police procedures have loopholes and they often rely on “ suspect lineups”. Sometimes even lineups are wrong because research shows that errors happen and a suspect might be selected based on the facial similarity, instead of victim report. A false confession is the second and most harmful evidence that a victim can confess to. In the U.S, false confession results in nearly 200 felony convictions every six months. Therefore, to improve the accuracy of convictions, all interrogations should be thoroughly examined and recorded as evidence. Police investigation is another cause that leads to wrongful conviction. In most cases, there is little investigation done because of the limited fund, and this makes the police report the final copy
. I applied to graduate school with the long term goal of working in a correctional facility. A childhood friend of mine was arrested and sent to prison in August 2007. I saw him four years after his incarceration. These four years definitely took a toll on his physical appearance and his way of thinking. He is 25 and has the looks of a young person whose youth has been wasted. As I sat with him, I had high hopes of being able to laugh out loud while reminiscing about the past. However, I became upset and tears of sadness trickled down my face. He confided to me thoughts of suicide. He explained to me in prison terminology or street talk, one must never drop the soap. I sobbed as he continued to talk about his sentence. At times, his words
What is one profession centered on the protection and preservation of society? Police officers take an oath to do exactly that, protect and preserve society for those who cannot do so. There are approximately 900,000 police officers in the United States (National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund), compared to the population of approximately 320 million people (United States Census Bureau). Police officers have very stressful jobs that include long hours, working in “the spotlight”, lack of support, exposed