Eyewitness identification can not always be trusted and plays a major role in more than 70% of original convictions later overturned by DNA (Dunn). Eyewitness misidentification of criminals is a major issue in the United States’ justice system‚ however‚ there is a solution. Misidentification results in innocent people going to jail. It can be caused by misrecognition‚ imperfect memory‚ and the stress of a crime scene. Misidentification effects the person on trial since they can be convicted of
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This is particularly true in cases that involve weapons because witnesses often put the majority of their focus on the weapon‚ rather than the person holding it. System variables System variables‚ on the other hand are factors that the criminal justice system can control. Typically‚ they involve the methods that law enforcement officers use to obtain information from their witnesses’ memories. In their rush to solve crimes and get convictions‚ authorities may fail to emphasize steps that could reduce
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Wrongful Conviction and False Confessions Wrongful Conviction and False Confessions Introduction The study of wrongful convictions has a long time history in America. For more than eight decades‚ writers-mostly lawyers‚ journalists‚ and activists- have documented numerous convictions of the innocent and described their cause and consequences (Borchard‚ 1932: Radin‚ 1964: Scheck‚ Neaufeld & Dwyer‚ 2000). When dealing with wrongful conviction (with results of false confessions) there are
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the case for him. Hunt’s life will never be the same. Hunts relationship with close relatives‚ and friends were destroyed. 19 years of his life was taken away from him for nothing. He was released on forensic DNA. In 2011 there was a book “Making Justice Our Business: The Wrongful Conviction of Darryl Hunt and the Work of Faith” by Stephen B. Boyd. The book goes into further detail about his time spent in prison his exoneration‚ and his supporters that never lost faith in his innocence. In Hunts
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sure that a particular crime isn’t repeated by a particular person thus completely deterring the person from repeating the crime. It should be noted that though death penalty is practiced‚ in some instances it is discriminatory and it may not award justice to the accused party. In many instances‚ innocent peoples have been subjected to capital punishment when in actual since they have been innocent. In other cases‚ the guilty have been freed because of insufficient evidence. This therefore leaves the
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Abstract More and more we are seeing cases in the news that people are being exonerated after being falsely accused of a crime. Unfortunately‚ most of the cases involve DNA or other evidence finally being reviewed years after a conviction. There are now hundreds of inmates on death row who claim DNA tests or review of evidence would show they were not guilty of the crimes for which they were convicted. Logic suggests that untold numbers of additional innocent people have been punished for crimes
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DNA Evidence Free Wrongly Convicted People DNA testing can be used to free wrongly convicted people like Kennedy Brewer and Herman Atkins. Too many people get charged for crimes they did not commit. Kennedy Brewer and Herman Atkins are both examples of wrongly convicted people. On April 8th 1986‚ in Lake Elsinore‚ a female clerk was working at a shoe store when sometime between 11:30 AM and 12:00 PM‚ she was raped and robbed at gunpoint. The women was working her shift when this happened. “She
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GEORGE ALLEN Wrongful Conviction and Release of George Allen Biological Evidence/ Dave Ross Wrongful Conviction and Release of George Allen The 1982 rape and murder of 31 year old Mary Bell of LaSalle Park neighborhood of St. Louis which was presumably solved is now officially an open cold case file. After new evidence was brought to the court’s attention‚ it was decided by the courts not to retry Mr. George Allen who has been officially exonerated as of November 14‚ 2012. Thanks to
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and policies that put these innocent people in prison in the first place. Once those laws and regulations are legislated they need to research and test it out to see if it is working. I learned that there are flaws in our judicial system and the justice system because we rely heavily on eyewitness testimony and we know that relying on memory alone can be 50/50 chance due to many
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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
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