jury of Cotton’s guilt and sentence him to life in prison. After 11 years of rotting in his cell Ron Cotton was exonerated with the help of DNA evidence. The numbers of exonerations are on the rise and this poses the question whether eyewitness testimony is truly reliable? Research in cognitive psychology exposes major flaws in retrieval of long-term memory and studies exhibit how easily malleable our memories become when manipulated. The study of the human mind is a never-ending source for exploration
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cases are reversed. Kristen DelGuzzi of The Cincinnati Enquirer conducted a study of cases handled by Hamilton County judges over a three-year period. Shown in Table 4.1 are the results for 182‚908 cases handled (disposed) by 38 judges in Common Pleas Court‚ Domestic Relations Court‚ and Municipal Court. Two of the judges (Dinkelacker and Hogan) did not serve in the same court for the entire three-year period. The purpose of the newspaper’s study was to evaluate the performance of the judges
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Assignment #2 Article #17 Looking Askance at Eyewitness Testimony The use of eyewitnesses has been a constant in of criminal justice system since its very beginning. Unfortunately‚ people do not make the best witnesses to a crime. The person may not have seen the actual criminal‚ but someone that looks similar to them. The witness may lie about what he or she may have scene. Also the witness can be influenced by the police as to who or what they saw at the time of the crime. The witness
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I personally think that the death penalty is unjust. Murder is murder no matter who is doing it. So if someone kills someone‚ does that give the judicial system the right to kill someone? In my opinion no‚ because all in all‚ it is still down right murder. I think that that life in prison is torture enough especially when you have people who have been wrongfully convicted of murder. Does the legal system have authorization to take innocent lives? Being that this scale is unbalanced‚ I believe that
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people must voice their concerns and rebel against the government through grassroots movements and protests. Breaking laws that were created to protect the government and its citizens does not have to involve violence. Sometimes we have to break unjust laws that only benefit certain groups and burden others. For example‚ it is acceptable for women to commit illegal activities when the government takes away their right to an abortion‚ invades their medical files‚ and prevents doctors to
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Validity of Eyewitness Testimony Validity of Eyewitness Testimony In today’s court system one of the strongest pieces of evidence‚ or that most commonly accepted as fact by a jury‚ is eyewitness testimony. When correct‚ eyewitness accounts can aid in the conviction of many guilty people. However when it is incorrect‚ eyewitness testimony can do severe damage. Researchers have found that "more innocent citizens are wrongfully tried and convicted on the basis of eyewitness evidence in Great Britain
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Memory and Eyewitness Testimony are two concepts which are studied within the topic of cognitive psychology. It is important to investigate these processes to aid in the understanding of how individuals cognitively process ideas and how this may affect specific behaviors. From a psychological perspective‚ memory can be defined as‚ “The capacity to retain and store information” (holah.co.uk‚ 2006). The further researches into the topic of memory allow it to greatly contribute toward societies’ legal
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Eyewitness testimonies are commonly used when police are solving a crime. Eyewitness testimonies are an excellent source of information‚ but the witnesses may be easily read wrongfully by the interviewer. There are multiple factors that can cause the interviewer to read the eyewitness wrongfully. These factors include; when the interviewer does not word their questions carefully‚ when the interviewer uses leading questions‚ and when the interviewer presents the eyewitness with false information.
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common for that to happen when they are incarcerated due to inaccurate eyewitness testimonies. Eyewitness research has demonstrated that there are a multitude of ways to conduct identification processes‚ however‚ the processes that police often use today are more likely to encourage inaccurate identification. In addition there have been many case studies of exonerated people that show the downfalls of eyewitness testimony. Wrongful incarceration has consistently demonstrated that inaccurate identification
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1. Does the existence of poverty imply that our socioeconomic system is unjust? Does the concentration of poverty in certain groups make it more unjust and would be otherwise? a. I think that the existence of poverty does not imply that the socioeconomic system is unjust. No matter how perfect a economic system is‚ there will someone in poverty. Poverty is dependent on the location and resources‚ along with status quo. If someone believes they are at a higher status and have more access to resources
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