In the movie, “The Interrogation of Michael Crowe” by Don McBrearty it gave the audience a different prospective on how the interrogation of Michael Crowe set off. Watching this film. many things that where done by either the family or the police was not ethical. Michael was accused for killing his sister, Stephanie Crowe in the middle of the name. The morning of the murder when the family called the police, they immediately started to investigate. The family where scared and extremely devastated, hoping they would be together to comfort each other. As soon as the police started to investigated they instantly took the family and separated them so they could interrogate them individual. During this time, they where lied and tortured especially …show more content…
Michael. The police were doing their job but they did it in a harsh way, by not letting Michael see his family. This did not only jumbles with his head but also psychologically played with this thoughts and emotions. He was only 14, he was to young for all of this. He should have had a parent or anyone that specializes with child. Perhaps that would have been easier for Michael to talk or maybe even confess on his own. Watching this film had a major purpose, it was to spectate on how the police did their job on how to interrogate a suspect.
Even though this was one interrogation out of a bunch, but it was a famous case that many people followed for years. This movie exposed to the audience on how the police did their jobs. They where somewhat unethical, it is understandable that they want a confession but by the way the police did there job it could have led to a false confession, where Michael could have lied to get out of the room. By telling Michael that he perhaps blacked out or was sleep walking. Michael does not realize what is happening, he has no one to guide him, telling him this is okay or they are not able to do this. While Michael was being interrogated by the police his family thought he was being looked after in children’s shelter. One of the test Michael went when through was the, Voice stress Exam Test. Michael was asked a series of questions about the incident of his sister’s …show more content…
death. Once the results came in the interrogator lied to Michael saying that in these questions his heart rate was normal but once it got questions about his sister, they told him that his heart rate was higher then the other questions. Even though there allow to do this, it is still unfair because it is easy to manipulate a child or trying to convince them that they are lien. The police know that there is no rule when it comes to interrogation as long as their rights are not being violated or deception. This interrogation was not fair because, Michael was till traumatized form seeing his sister death. The 14-year-old boy needed to be with his parents, he needs that mother warmth telling him know that everything is going to be fine and not to be scared. This is another area where the police failed to do their job, they should not have separated them, this created anxiety and fear for Michael and his younger sister in my opinion the police should be able to lie to a suspect but at a certain age. Michael was a young boy that was lied to over and over. After a while when someone tells you that, “you did it” your going to believe that you possible did do it. The police should not lie to suspects because that can cause a false confession. It can confuse the suspect into saying, something they did not mean. It just is confusing and they are psychologically playing with them. Michael was still scared and traumatized from his sister’s death so lying to him about the situation is going to make it even difficult to concentrate. Lying is misleading the suspect and that is not acceptable. When the police showed Michael the result from the Voice Stress Exam, he lied and told Michael that his heart rate was getting higher when it was questions relating to his sister. The police where messing with Michael’s final stage of cognitive development, “The Formal Operational Stage”. Piaget exampled that this is where young adults this is where you gain the ability to think complex manner manipulate thoughts in their heads. Michael is still in the operational stage so by interrogating him and lying to him it is hinders the operation stage to development being that he is still new to the Formal Operational Stage. This also deals with logical thoughts, deductive reasoning and systematic planning. All of these characteristics merge together during this stage. Another thing that really had me thinking was the way the parents where treated. They lost custody of there kids for the time being, till they did investigation. This was not right because the whole family needed to be together so they could comfort each other.
By isolating them it made the situation worse. I understand they wanted to separate them to they didn’t talk about the incident but they also could have put them in a room with a mic so if they did talk about the topic they could hear it. There are others ways to have approach this situation. Lying to the parent telling them that their kids are in good is not right. If I was the police, I would need lie to Michael and I would not have been as aggressive. I would have let him have a brake or even see his parents more. Another thing that bothered me was that, he missed his sister’s funeral. That was not ethical, that was the least they could have done for
Michael. All in all, this movie was a great example of an interrogation but it also exposes how harsh authority can be once they have to take a case into there hands. Michael was a prime suspect of the murder of his sister Stephanie Crowe. While Michael insisted no, the police tried to force the answer that they wanted to hear. They took him for interrogation with out his family consent, that was not the right thing to do because he was only 14 years old. It must have been terrifying to be at that age and to be under pressure by the cops. No kids deserved that torture. This also effects the Formal Operational Stage of development. If I was in charge of this case it would have been a whole different ball game. Lying to his family and the suspect, not letting Michael attend his sister funeral are all of the things that I would have done different.
The parents’ dilemma, the visuals of their anxiety and fears were captured very clearly in this clip. The stills of Michael connected to the breathing tubes, having his head prepped for surgery etc., visually evoked the magnitude of what the parents and the Michael had to go through. However, the recovery and progress was an awesome success story filled with all the elements of an inspirational narrative that not only inspired but educated as
The film we watched was a Frontline documentary about the tragic case of Ralph Tortorici called A Case of Insanity. On December 14, 1994 Ralph went into a lecture hall with a rifle and a hunting knife taking the whole classroom hostage. He demanded to speak to President Clinton, and threatened to kill the hostages if they did not comply with his demands. Ralph was calm towards the students held hostage and demanded people from outside to gather food for them. 19-year-old Jason McEnaney attempted to wrestle the rifle out of Ralph’s hands, but this caused the to go off and he was shot in the genital area. Several students attacked Ralph and held him until the police came in and arrested him. Ralph was taken to jail with 14 counts of aggravated assault. His trial was held on Jan 3rd, 1996 and Ralph announced that he would not be present at his trial. It was stated that he had paranoia schizophrenia and he had also traces of cocaine in his system. Even though Ralph’s prosecutors indicated to the 12 jurors that Ralph was delusional, he suffered from mental illness.
A woman was raped at Central Park and was found unconscious. She recovered quickly after the incident but could not recall what happened on that day. On the same day that woman was raped all five teenagers were there but were at the opposite direction of where the rape incident happened. They were brought in by the police to be questioned and were asked about the incident. The police were interrogating the teenagers and yelled at their faces because they were getting frustrated that they were not getting the answers that they wanted to hear from them. The teenagers were getting tired from being questioned for about two days on something they knew nothing about and wanted to just get out of the place. The police told them to say certain things and told them things that they wanted to hear, which led to the teenagers believing that if they said what the police told them to say then they could leave. They ended up confessing to raping the woman on video and paper and that led to their arrest. Though there were no actual evidence proving they were there at the scene, it did not matter because the police just wanted the confessions, which was their goal from the
There were no other people besides the family that knew about what was going on, so there was no opportunity for anyone to step in and help. The family kept the secrets of what was going on and it seemed as though they suffered from Family Systems Theory where “it is the family's reaction to an event, or their ability to cope in an emotionally stable manner (Opipari, 2010, pp. 125) that determines how they function. There was no balance, there was no speaking on their emotions, so this limited any option for intervention coming from the or outside their family.
One of the strengths the movie has been the filming itself. There were barely any cuts in the movie and it was mostly shot in one scene so it made you feel that you were part of the scene. Another strength in the movie was the anonymity that was given to the jurors. This help me realise that these were just the “general public” and that there are many jury’s that are exactly or similar to this. Another strength that the movie showed was that it helped me realise the potential flaw in our justice system. While the accused is still given a right to a fair trial, when you are in a society where prejudice against minorities is considered a norm, it becomes hard looking at things fairly not because you don’t want to but because most of the society is already doing it. For example, in the movie most of the jurors were quick to accuse the boy guilty without deliberation. Another strength is how this movie showed how influential we are to each other. For example, the group dynamic of economic status was big because while the people on the higher economic status looked at the boy with more prejudice, one of the jurors who was
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
Michael soon decides that if he can trust Joe enough to keep in silence, he may be able to out wit the police. When Michael makes his decision, he never considers the ramifications that will come of it. For example, Michael never even considers the long agonizing nights he will stay awake or the ling pain filled days he will go through thinking of Jenna Ward and her mother suffering day after day. On the contrary, Michael thinks he will be able to just move on and forget about it.
This movie goes to show how such crucial facts and minuet evidence if not processed fully and clearly can change the outcome in such a big way. In this jury you have 12 men from all different walks of life, 12 different times, and 12 different personalities. Who have an obligation to come to one conclusion and that's whether or not the young man on trial is guilty of murdering his father or is innocent beyond a reasonable doubt. Under much frustration and lack of patience these 12 men began to get unruly and unfocused. Throughout this distraction key terms get misused, facts get turned around and more importantly emotions start to cross making it hard for these men to produce a verdict.
Many of today’s interrogation models being utilized in police investigations have an impact on false confessions. The model that has been in the public eye recently is the social psychological process model of interrogation known as the “The Reid Technique.” There are two alternatives used by the police today to replace the Reid Technique, one is the PEACE Model and the other is Cognitive Interviewing. These methods are not interrogation techniques like Reid but interview processes.
On August 20th, 1989 Lyle and Erik Menendez killed their parents inside their Beverly Hills home with fifteen shot gun blasts after years of alleged “sexual, psychological, and corporal abuse” (Berns 25). According to the author of “Murder as Therapy”, “The defense has done a marvelous job of assisting the brothers in playing up their victim roles” (Goldman 1). Because there was so much evidence piled up against the brothers, the defense team was forced to play to the jurors’ emotions if they wanted a chance at an acquittal. Prosecutor Pamela Bozanich was forced to concede that “Jose and Kitty obviously had terrific flaws-most people do in the course of reminding jurors that the case was about murder, not child abuse” (Adler 103). Bozanich “cast the details of abuse as cool, calculated lies” (Smolowe 48)...
To show an unbiased and educated examination of the five cases involving questionable interrogations, I will give information on the crime that occurred, the problems with the interrogations and other evidence, who is at fault for problems within the case, how the defendant was cleared (if he was), and the compensation and future changes that were a direct response to these cases provided that they occurred or are in the process of occurring. The five cases that I will examine involve the accused: George Allen, Hunter Johnson, Peter Reilly, Michael Crowe, and Reggie Clemons. Each case is significantly different yet showcases many acts of injustice within the justice system.
False confessions have always played a big part when it comes to flaws within the justice system. So many people are constantly found guilty, when in reality, they have done nothing wrong and are completely innocent. But a simple question remains. Why confess to a crime if you did not commit it? Many blame the Reid Technique. A technique used to question people who are thought to be guilty. But in fact the Reid Technique has been used for over 50 years, so if it does not work why are we using it? The Reid Technique is an ineffective way of interrogation if it is not done properly and the person conducting the interrogation does not oblige the strict steps.
On August 14, 1971, the twelve men that were given the role as “prisoner” were arrested without warning and taken to the police station on charges of burglary and armed robbery in front of their family and friends. There they were processed, fingerprinted and photographed, by the police. Then were blindfolded as they were transferred to the mock prison that was built in one of the basement of a campus building. They were deloused, had their heads shaven, and given their uniform and ID number and then placed in a cell as they would in a real prison setting. The other twelve men were the “guards”, those men were given a guard’s uniform, sunglasses, and a baton. Their orders only being to do what they thought was necessary to keep order in the prison but not to use any kind of violence. Even though the first day was uneventful you could see within hours both groups began to settle into their roles very quickly. It wasn’t until the second day there was a situation when the prisoner started a rebellion, which made the guards further adopt their role and began using more mental
This assignment will identify the strengths and weaknesses regarding the fundamentals of the interviewing, and whether the seven stages in the interview sequence were properly used by the detective in film Interviewing victims and witnesses. Many Successful victim and witness interviews use foundational knowledge to explore and evaluate the role of six key factors and seven stages have in successful interviews. I will carefully examine the effectiveness of the structure that was used by the detective, and identify the presence of proxemics, micro-skills involved in listening, the development of rapport, and possible barriers to communication.
During the scene with the police lineup, Detective Clay tells a worried and nervous Denise Moore, that she shouldn 't concern herself with testifying because Jesse Williams is most likely going to take a plea deal, and not go to trial. This caused me to realize that an officers has little to no responsibility with ensuring the innocence or guilt of an individual. Their job is to solely remove men and women, that they feel pose a threat to the rest of society, off of the street. In another scene, Detective Riley and the prosecutor for the case are seen revisiting the crime scene, the Detective emphasizes the need for the case not to go to trial, but rather for Jesse to cop a