Crimes Vs Affirmative Defenses

Wrongful convictions are common in the court-system. In fact, wrongful convictions are not the rare events that you see or hear on televisions shows, but are very common. They stem from some sort of systematic defect that lead to wrongful convictions such as, eyewitness misidentification testimony, unvalidated or improper forensic science, false confessions and incriminating statements, DNA lab errors, false confessions, and informants (2014). Bringing awareness to all these systematic defects, which result in wrongful, is important because it will better adjust the system to avoid making the same mistakes with future cases. However, false confession is not a systematic defect. It does not occur because files were misplaced or a lab technician put one too many drops. False confessions occur because of some of psychological attempt to protect oneself and their family. Thus, the courts responsibility should be to reduce these false confessions.

When a defendant is convicted of a crime, arrested, and stand trial there are multiple ways that they can defend themselves. The criminal justice system has a variety of types of criminal defenses that one should be familiar with, if ever in the position of being charged with an offense. Within this paper, I will be talking about seven different types of criminal defenses, starting with: insanity, automatism, duress, self defense, intoxication, necessity/ lesser harm, and mistake of fact.

This paper takes a leap into the corrupted side of the criminal justice system. After analyzing several articles regarding wrongful conviction cases in the Unites States, it is apparent that wrongful conviction cases occur more often than society believed. It has come to surface in recent years that wrongful convictions are a big problem with our criminal justice system. Researchers have discovered the causes of wrongful convictions to be bad lawyering, government misconduct, informants, false confessions, flawed forensic science and eyewitness error. Furthermore, this paper explores the affects victims face due to a wrongful conviction. As society has begun to steadily realize that miscarriage of justice is a possibility, researchers have considered reforms to the criminal justice system.

Although saying the criminal justice system is racist is a controversial statement, there is evidence and statistics that prove it to be true. Research and evidence validate the issue of racism to be undeniable. Equality and justice are out of reach with the racism that takes place in our criminal justice system and our country. Racial discrimination is prevalent amongst the African American culture in issues regarding drug use, and incarceration which creates unfair inequality for this race. I will use peer reviewed articles to verify the racial disparity in the criminal justice system.

Defendants generally are given plea bargaining negotiations “for one or more of the following reason: (a) reduce a charge, (b) elimination of a possible waiver to the criminal court, and (c) agreement for dispositional program… Any plea deal must be entered voluntarily and intelligently, or the conviction could be overturned on appeal (Siegel & Welsh, 2009, p. 504) There are many pleas that a defendant may choose to enter in court. Guilty, not guilty, an Alford Plea, and also nolo contendere, also known as “no contest”. A guilty plea is when the defendant is admitting their guilt to the crime, and giving up their rights to the trial, “more than 90 percent of defendants plead guilty (Siegel & Welsh, 2009, p. 504).” When a defendant pleads not guilty they are saying that they believe that they did not do anything wrong. An Alford Plea is when a defendant is pleading guilty but still claims their innocence.

In the article “Race, wrongful conviction and exoneration” by Earl smith and Angela J. Hattery, these sociologist discuss the issues of racial discrimination and the amount of wrongful convictions within the American justice system. They also discuss the issues on the lack of exonerations based on race in our prison systems. As stated in the article “Approximately 75% [of citizens] in jail are members of minority groups and on average have spent 13 years in prison for crimes they did not commit.” (Smith) This heart breaking statistic shows the true facts that there is an increasing issue in the amount of people in jail for crimes they did not commit due to their race. The main focus of the article is to raise awareness about the issues within our countries justice system and to understand the reasons for these inequalities on a deeper level.

The media is inherently biased, the worst group of people represented is African-American men, contrary to white suspects who are treated far better by the media. This will continue to happen for as long as a rich white man is in charge. My research topic for this will be why white suspects are treated better than black victims, and what they go through because of this racist media.

Let’s pretend that you have been accused of a serious crime. You allegedly match the suspect description and have been picked up by your local police department. Your family and neighbors all watching you as you are being hauled off to your local jail. You are being detained in a cell awaiting to speak with someone that can help you. A public defender has been assigned to assist you because you only earn minimum wage and cannot afford to hire your own private counsel. The public defender informs you that the prosecutor has offered a plea bargain; plea guilty and get only 2 years in jail or go to trial and possibly face 15+ years if found guilty. You know you are innocent, but the thought of being incarcerated for that much time begins that weigh in on you. Your public defender, who is supposed to be there to help you, recommends you take the plea. “It’ll only be two years”, he says “more than likely less with good behavior”. You don’t even know what evidence the prosecutor has against you, if any. You are given a week to accept or reject the offer, while being detained in a cell because you couldn’t make your monetary

Throughout the years those who have the right to vote has been largely controlled. Whether your eligibility was based on race and gender or “Civil Death”, stipulations have always been placed on an individuals’ ability to vote. People have lost their lives fighting for the right to vote, which goes to prove the importance of this right. So should a convicted Felon have the right to vote? People with Felony convictions should have the right to vote after completing their sentences successfully. Although a person has been convicted of a Felony, all individuals deserve a second chance at being a responsible and productive member of society.

The topic of wrongful convictions will be discussed in this research paper. Wrongful conviction is defined as the conviction of a person who is accused of a crime in which, in the result of subsequent investigation, proves erroneous. These persons who are in fact innocent, will be wrongly convicted by a jury or a court of law.

When a person is charged with a crime the type of defense that they choose could ultimately determine their fate. There are many different types of defenses that exist in our criminal justice system. In this paper I will be taking a brief look at two different cases that have implored two different types of criminal defenses. I will look at the nature and types of defenses used in the cases and what evidence was used to demonstrate defense. I will describe how justification and excuse played a role in the cases and I will also be describing the outcome of each case.

When you think of the criminal justice system, you think of justice being served to those who wish to threaten it. The criminal justice system is a very powerful system that protects our society but like society, it is not perfect. The justice system runs off of discrimination against race and gender

Many people argue that discrimination in the criminal justice system is just a myth (Walker 2015). Is this ethnic blame discourse caring over into the prison system? Let’s take a look at the numbers. Describing who is locked up in the United states is a difficult thing to gauge. It depends on which institution you're referring to as well as who you're specifically asking about (Walker 2015). African Americans comprise less than 15% of the US population but nearly 40% of all incarcerated offenders (Walker 2015). The overrepresentation of African Americans is nothing new. A disproportionate amount was logged in research in 1926, African Americans consisted 9% of the population and 21% of the prison population (Walker 2015). Over time this number has significantly increased as mentioned earlier. Minority offenders and males are

Everyone in the United States have specific rights when they are criminally accused. “I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.” This quote was from Thomas Jefferson. Trial by jury goes along with everyone having rights when they are accused, it is one of the basic things in the bill of rights, that when you are accused, you have the right to a trial by jury. There are many other rights as well.

Have you ever been grounded or punished by your parent’s for something you honestly didn’t do? Maybe your sibling or friend stole something or hurt someone and the blame and the “horrible” consequences were put on you. No phone, no TV, no friends over, confined to your room. Straight tortures and a feeling of betrayal and dishonesty from everyone around you. Now, imagine being an adult wrongfully accused of a major crime such as an armed robbery or murder, which they didn’t commit, except it isn’t being grounded or their parents they 're worried about, its sitting behind bars, no longer a free citizen, fighting for their freedom with most likely one of the following things happened such as an eyewitness identified the wrong individual, false confessions, Perjury, maybe even forensic science error. Imagine as a child how you felt being grounded in the comfort of our own home. Just picture how an individual would feel wrongfully convicted in a cold, 10x10 box with a cold cot to sleep on! The injustice of being convicted and imprisoned for a crime one did not commit is intuitively apparent. I would take being grounded over a jail cell any day.