Falsely Accused Analysis

During the year of 2015, a case that the Innocence Project was working on at the time was the Joseph Buffey Case. Joseph Buffey was convicted in 2001 in West Virginia of rape and robbery. Mr. Buffey pled guilty to the crimes based on the advise of his counsel and witness misidentification which was the heart of this investigation. On May 11, 2015, Mr. Buffey was excluded by DNA and the real perpetrator was later found. Mr. Buffey served a total of 15 years in prison for a crime that he did not commit. DNA Exonerations makes up 334 total cases that the Innocence Project has worked on. The following numbers overlap with the 334 cases. 237 cases involved misidentification by witnesses, 154 were the result of improper forensics, 92 were due to

“Rape is unique. No other violent crime is so fraught with controversy, so enmeshed in dispute and in the politics of gender and sexuality… And within the domain of rape, the most highly charged area of debate concerns the issue of false allegations. For centuries, it has been asserted and assumed that women “cry rape,” that a large proportion of rape allegations are maliciously concocted for purposes of revenge or other motives.”

When questioning witnesses of a crime, detectives may choose a specific technique; one technique is the Reid Technique. The Reid Technique is a multi-step questioning method that pressures the witnesses or the accused to admit to the crime. It is used in North America. According to Professor Brent Snook, a psychologist at the Memorial University in Newfoundland, the Reid Technique is “Starsky and Hutch”, where two hot head detectives “beat up” their suspects to encourage them confess (http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/11/25/youre-guilty-now-confess-false-admissions-put-polices-favourite-interrogation-tactic-under-scrutiny/). This paper will examine the steps of the Reid Technique, as well as reveal substantial evidence that this technique should be banned. This technique has led to false confessions. Not only does this mean that someone has been punished that isn’t guilty, but it also means the real criminal has not been found and punished. The arguments against the use of this technique are the following:

Sandusky's claim of Innocence is ridiculous. Not only does he have multiple people within the school who actually knew about all the abuses, but even some of the young children are speaking out against him. Sandusky abused children from 1994 to 2009, the facts are there and multiple members of the school have also been charged with crimes for the cover up of Sandusky and to not gain a bad representation of the school. It's actually pretty sickening that many trusted members of this school, covered up such acts against a man who abused children for over 15 years. It is even way worse at the fact that these people turned a blind eye so that they wouldn't make the school look bad. It is my opinion that the judge should have also charged these

Engage in minimal conversation in case the incident becomes more serious and something you say is later used against you.

Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without that person's consent. If one is accused of rape there is not much the person who is being accused can do to fight against the allegation. Therefore, those who are falsely accused of rape almost have no other choice than to take the punishment for a crime they did not commit. It is an injustice in America that those who are falsely accused of rape are prosecuted as if they did the crime without substantial evidence. Ways to fix this injustice are looking at older cases to ensure that others have not been falsely accused, calling all witnesses if there is the allegation goes to court, and finally charging the accuser for making the false claims.

After listening to the Serial podcast it's concluded as being a mystery. It actually is easy to determine that Adnan Sayed is guilty if you go over the facts. Firstly, Jay’s testimony is the most solid piece of evidence against Adnan. The podcast tries to discredit it. Theres the state’s argument that Adnan is a sociopath. There are people who say he was a nice guy. They don’t know Adnan personally and are likely being manipulated. Even if you assume he is guilty you would have to assume that Jay is lying and lots of other things. According to some simple logic, it’s clear he is guilty.

I feel that this case was somewhat representative of what was discussed in the textbook. The forensics aspects of this case were generally different from the impression of forensics I received from reading the textbook. Despite this fact, I feel that the investigative techniques of this case were similar to what was discussed in the textbook, as well as what has been discussed during lecture.

False reporting does occur, but it is pretty rare “--estimated between 2% and 10%”(Drexler). Although that is not the statistics we want to see, there becomes a bigger concern when we see the number of females that have been victims of sexual assault. “One in five women are sexually assaulted while in college (some reports even out the figures at more than one in four)” (Drexler). On top of that, 63% of sexual assaults, including being on and off campus, are never reported to authority (Drexler). 63% is a large percentage of sexual assaults to not be reported so if a female were to file a report against a male for sexual violence or abuse, it is highly likely that the truth is being told. Situations like these happen and are to be taken seriously. A victim needs support, not ridicule. College campuses should not be a place where victims of sexual assault should be shamed or blamed for what has happened to them,

Guilt by association is an interesting concept. Every heard of the phrase, “you are the company you keep”?

There is a great deal of issues (there issues got issues) within the criminal justice system that could be talked about. But the one issue that I would like to discuss is the fact that we have a growing problem with wrongful convictions. Yes this maybe the only thing that matters to me right now but there are so many things wrong with this right now that it needs to be discussed.

see the flaws and know that the accusations are false. A guilty verdict is rendered and a

Abbot Joachim of Fiore was one of the most influential figures of the middle ages, and is key to understanding the context of Lateran IV. He was seen as a great prophet and theologian during his time. As such, he had a large influence the Popes of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Of his many prophecies and theological text, his most most famous contribution consist in his divisions of time into three principal eras. One for each person of the Trinity: from Adam to Christ, the age of the Father; from Christ to himself the era of the Son; and from his day onward the time for the Spirit. The era of the Spirit would bring about a Sabbath age, where men would be infused with the power of God and be spiritualized.

Closing Statement: Based on all the evidence we have heard the Plaintiffs have failed to prove that the defendants are guilty of anything except possibly a bad joke and not libel. The only argument the plaintiffs have used against the defendants, is that the defendants had intent to verbally harm Ms. Cullens. However intent can not be proven and it is my witnesses words against the plaintiffs witnesses words. The only purpose the witnesses could have is to prove that the defendants were the ones who photoshopped the photo, which the defendants have already admitted to. Because of all this I believe the plaintiffs have wasted the court's time with witnesses and that the jury should not take their words into account.

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.