Preview

Wrongful Convictions

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2246 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Wrongful Convictions
EN101S
March 13, 2013
Annotated Bibliography
“A Check on Bad Eyewitness Identifications.” New York Times. (6 Dec. 2012): A.34. National Newspapers Core. Web. 5 Mar. 2013. This article is about how the Oregon Supreme Court made a decision on how eyewitness identification is to be used in criminal trials. The article states that misidentification is the country’s leading cause of wrongful convictions. In the ruling, it states that eyewitness should be subject to stricter standards. The court took into account three decades of scientific research showing that memory and perception can be unreliable. The article talks about how Oregon is the only state that is working on making a change in trials so there will not be any more wrongful convictions. This article will make an excellent source for my research project. The fact that the Oregon Supreme Court is doing something to prevent wrongful conviction that other states are still not acting on makes for an interesting point and that will need further research on.
Acker, James R. “Wrongful Convictions Then and Now: Lessons to Be Learned.” Albany Law Review. 73.4 (2010): 1207-1211. Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 Mar. 2013.
This forum is about Acker’s remarks on a future article that will be published in the Law Review, that he co-authored with Catherine Bonventre. In the article, they review the completed New York State Bar Association Task Force report on wrongful convictions. The author states several conclusions from a1932 study, convicting the innocent by Professor Edwin of Yale Law School, who studied sixty- five cases of known wrongful convictions. Arcker goes in to several things that have needed to change since 1932 to prevent wrongful conviction. Arcker main changes to make are after reports follow-up action is needed, changing governing legal laws, and doing more research on preventing wrongful convictions. To take a step forward, the author recommends involving the social science community in



Bibliography: “A Check on Bad Eyewitness Identifications.” New York Times. (6 Dec. 2012): A.34. National Newspapers Core. Web. 5 Mar. 2013. Review. 73.4 (2010): 1207-1211. Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 Mar. 2013. Barron, James. “State Pays $2 Million to Settle Man’s Wrongful Conviction.” New York Times (2 Oct. 2012): A.28. National Newspapers Core. Web. 5 Mar. 2013. Chammah, Maurice. “A Growing Battle for Exoneration.” New York Times (18 Nov. 2012): A.29A Gardiner, Sean. "Wrongful Conviction Case Draws a Rebuke From Judge." Wall Street Journal (17 Nov. 2012): A19. National Newspapers Core. Web. 25 Feb. 2013. Hsu, Spencer S. “After Lengthy Prison Term, D.C. Man is Exonerated.” The Washington Post (15 Dec. 2012): B.1. National Newspapers Core. Web. 25 Feb. 2013. Secret, Mosi. “Exoneration for a Man in Prison for 2 Years.” New York Times (27 Oct. 2012): A.20. National Newspapers Core. Web. 25 Feb. 2013. “Study: 2,000 Convicted in U.S. Then Exonerated in 23 years.” Fredericknewspost.com. Frederick News-Post. 21 May 2012. Web. 5 Mar. 2013. Weinberg, Steve. “Trial and Error.” Chronicle of Higher Education. 52.23 (2006): B5. Eric. Web. 5 Mar. 2013.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck, the co-founders of the Innocence Project, which works to exonerate those who were wrongly convicted and fights for equality in the criminal justice system, are a social entrepreneurial unit I identify with. Following the release of a study establishing that 70% of wrongful convictions were the results of incorrect eyewitness reports, Neufeld and Scheck took it upon themselves to help the lives of those falsely identified and imprisoned, who were too poor or oppressed by the bias of the justice system to unbury themselves from their judicial graves. I find this especially important because those who are already oppressed in our society are silenced further with a system that is supposed to protect and give justice…

    • 267 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    On November 10th York had a Fighting Wrongful Convictions: Journalists Police the Justice System panel hosted by the Journalism Department. The main point of the panel was to talk about how a journalist should properly go about writing a story on wrongful convictions and to help illustrate the point they brought in Johnny Hincapie. Hincapie was an 18 year old who was wrongfully charged with helping in the murder of Brian Watkins in the 1990s. Now at 42 years old, and after serving 25 years in prison his case has been dismissed and he is being tried fairly all thanks to the hard work, and dedication of journalist and York professor Bill Hughes who published an article in City Limits Magazine in 2010 addressing Hincapie’s wrongful conviction. At the panel they had Bill Hughes, Johnny Hincapie, Robert Dennison (the former Chairman of the New York State Board of Parole), Pete…

    • 591 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    30 photographs were presented to the witnesses in random order and, two still shot images from the video to allow witnesses to compare. After the photographs were rated, six photos with similar ratings were selected for a biased lineup. This was done to elicit misidentification. Participants in the biased lineup were not informed that the culprit might not be there. All participants had to choose an individual from the lineup, they did not have the choice to say that the culprit was not there.…

    • 1411 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Peter Rose Case

    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When the people of the United States of America think of justice, depictions come to mind. To some, justice is represented by the Lady Justice standing strong with a long robe and scale in her hand. This scene is enough to represent the balance that is seen in the justice system hoping for a fair distribution of law, with no bias or corruption. Unfortunately as every American strives for justice to prevail, there are cases each year where this is not the case. False convictions have become prevalent in the court of law and should be addressed to be aware of such corruption. In this specific instance, Peter Rose is one of the thousands of cases each year where the accused was found guilty and later exonerated…

    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sadly, many people have served time for crimes they did not commit. Unfortunately, this is an ongoing epidemic that has terrible consequences for the innocent people who are wrongfully accused and incarcerated. In class, we watched a video about a man who was convicted of burglary and rape in the first degree and sentenced to life plus fifty years. According to a reporter by the name of Lesley Stahl, who did a 60-minute Broadcast on this case, the individual who was wrongfully accused and convicted of this crime, endured 11 years in prison until he was finally exonerated of all charges and released from prison.…

    • 299 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Chapter 5 describes how, within the last century, mounting scholarly evidence has exposed institutional flaws within our judicial and police systems, resulting in the convictions of innocent persons for capital crimes. In some cases, overzealous behavior by police and prosecutors, led to the imprisonment of “factually” innocent defendants. While police sometimes coerced confessions or failed to conduct full investigations, prosectors and judges failed to evidence which might exonerate the defendant. Other judicial violations found through study included failure to follow courtroom procedures related to rule of law. One of the first wrongful conviction initiatives was through a congressional investigation in 1912. Although a noble undertaking for its time, the reports was flawed in its evidentiary compilation. The data was poorly collected and its findings poorly deduced. According to the report, no innocent person had been executed by the Federal government.…

    • 509 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Brandon L. Garrett's book, Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong, he makes it very clear how wrongful convictions occur and how these people have spent many years in prison for crimes they never committed. Garrett presents 250 cases of innocent people who were convicted wrongfully because the prosecutors opposed testing the DNA of those convicted. Garrett provided simple statistics such as graphs, percentages, and charts to help the reader understand just how great of an impact this was.…

    • 955 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The pressure a witness feels in a lineup to choose a suspect can be a great one. Often times the witness looks to the police officer for guidance. When a witness is not sure they may identify a suspect and after ask the police officer how well they did and if they choose the right person. When conducting a lineup, a police officer should be careful not to give feedback or confirmation. When a police officer simply says “good job” even if the witness chooses wrong, it can cause a huge confident boost. When its time for the trial the witness is more likely to make the same mistake again (Clare, 2012, para. 7). When conducting a lineup, the police should use the Blind or Blinded Administration method. In this method the police officer does not know anything about who the suspect is. This will prevent any suggestive or…

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In this court case, the eyewitness identification of the truck was vital to the initial traffic stop of the vehicle. The 911 caller’s identification of the vehicle played a key role in the court as it served as evidence against the petitioners, so if the caller’s description of the vehicle was not accurate, the right truck would not have been found or the case could be dropped. In a study performed by Neil Brewer and Gary L. Wells, they identified several variables that impact the witness’s accuracy and instill a bias against the suspect. Some of these variables include cross-racial identification and poor lighting (Brewer & Wells, 2011). The cross-racial bias is when someone of one race is able to more easily identify another member of their own race, and their ability to identify someone of another race is impaired (Rutledge, 2016). In an effort to decrease the prevalence of the cross-racial bias, psychologists have recommended the use of double-blind lineups to hopefully discourage the administrator of the lineup from involuntarily indicating the witness to the suspect. Some prime routes to consider when trying to advance in the accuracy of eyewitness identification are decreasing the certainty of variables to explain the identification performance, and the inadequacy of scrutinizing interactions…

    • 1638 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wrongful Conviction Paper

    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The argument contained in the paper while correct does not withstand critical scrutiny. The paper correctly notes that wrongful convictions occur when innocent people are found guilty by criminal courts. However, the paper does not take into account that courts that deal with civil cases can in specific instances order the conviction of individuals. The assertion that wrongful convictions occur on a daily basis is not supported by any evidence. Where it is proven that there are wrongful convictions in the US justice system, it would be erroneous to attribute any adjective as to the prevalence without subjecting the justice system to scrutiny through scientific inquiry. The necessity of utilizing modern investigative mechanisms to…

    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    If the police officer knows who the suspect is in a photo or lineup it might influences the witness to pick that person (eyewitness identification, 6-12 paragraphs, n.d.)…

    • 826 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    An example would be, Brandon Moon of Kansas City, Montana who served nearly 17 years for the rape of an El Paso woman before DNA test determined he was not responsible. Another example is when Ryan Matthews a Louisiana man who sat on death row for five years before he was exonerated. More than 150 people who were convicted in 31 states served a total of 1,800 years in prison for crime s they did not commit. All were exonerated due to DNA evidence.…

    • 914 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In one situation that led to many wrongful convictions was when district attorney Henry Wade was in charge. He prioritized high conviction rates over everything else, ignoring evidence to ensure his rates were where he wanted them to be.…

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wrongful Convictions

    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Way too many innocent people have been put behind bars for absolutely doing nothing. Some people are just at the wrong places at the wrong time but others are framed. In this essay I will talk about a case that put an innocent man behind bars. Eyewitness Misidentification, bad lawyering and Government Misconduct all lead to his demise. These three things are reasons why an innocent person can end up behind bars for nothing. It bothers me because this could happen to anyone, to me, a family member, and even friends. These problems need to be fixed but I’m afraid they might not ever be. If I could change certain things the rate of wrongful convictions would drop tremendously.…

    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Innocence Project's nationwide work provides social problem work to free innocent prisoners, expose injustices and prevent wrongful convictions throughout the United States. The matriculation of individuals into state penitentiaries continues to stigmatize offenders as well as ex…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays