Injurious Falsehood Case Study

The first and greatest cause of false convictions is eyewitness identification according to the innocence project website almost 75% of cases later overturned were due to wrongful eyewitness identification. One of the main issues as we learned in class is that our minds do not keep a perfect recording of events in our memory they are often impacted by additional information given after the fact. Information about a suspect given afterwards such as suggesting their hair color, height, weight, or other attributes about them could influence our memories. Another issue found is using things like “show ups” for victims and witnesses; this is discussed on the innocence project page and was in class. Show ups tend to lead to wrongful identification because there is only one person instead of several potential suspects like a lineup. The Innocence project website discusses two variables that affect wrongful eyewitness identification Estimator and System variables. Estimator variables are things the justice system cannot influence such as the lighting, distance used when the victim or witness saw the suspect, the amount of stress or anxiety the victim is under, and research shows that it is hard for witnesses to identify someone of a different race than they are. The 2nd group of variables discussed are the system variables, these are things that the system can impact such as the type of lineup like line up or show up, how they administer lineups such as how similar the suspects

“Testimonials during court hearings are performed under oath, hence the statements of an individual being examined are assumed to be true and no other statement should be falsified or forged. When the officer does not pronounce the truth in court, he or she is still capable of providing a reason for his deception, based on a substitute arrangement, such as when he or she is operating as a witness to the prosecution and is not considered as the defendant in a court case. However, it is also required that the officer is conscious of the rules of the court system that he or she has sworn to tell the truth during examination” (Chevigny , 1969).

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:

Police interrogate suspects on a daily basis, but how can they tell if the confession is real? We have all heard, at one time or another of someone confessing to a crime they didn’t commit. Then your next thought is “I would never confess to something I didn’t do”. The only way you can be a 100% sure of that is if you have been through an interrogation before. This paper is going to define “confession” and tell how an innocent person will confesses to a crime they didn’t commit. This paper will also show the history of interrogations.

We hear in the news about police misconduct, use of excessive force, embezzlement, but one thing I found while researching what I should write this paper on is the Wrongful convictions of innocent men and women, that spend years in prison being innocent, and there is nothing that gets done till it’s too late. Some wrongful convictions are honest mistakes, but many times law enforcement and prosecutors lose sight of the obligation of ensuring truth and justice, and are focused on their conviction rates. As with any job, they are honest people and ones that just don’t care and are corrupt, this exists in the criminal justice system. One way to prove someone is innocent now is through DNA testing, but even at all levels of a criminal investigation there could be misconduct or mishandling of evidence, which then causes the evidence to become compromised.

It has been reported that millions of crimes is committed in the United States of America which violates and harms the individual rights, properties, and freedoms that are not only guaranteed to American citizens of this country. It has been highlighted that justice is dealt with according to the crimes committed based on the findings and principles of our country, which derived from the Constitution of the United States. While it has been argued justice may not always be fair due to certain rights given to those who may be charged with crime sometimes an error is made. A simple mistake, a missing or broken link in the chain that represents the investigation and trial processes causes an innocent bystander to become caught up in an investigation. More importantly, in many cases can result in a wrongful conviction. This error can rise from many forms like a mistaken eyewitness identification, a false confession, misconduct of the governing authorities, improper forensic investigation, or including staff that neglect to make efforts or unskilled litigation by the defense attorneys. Those whom are affected endure years in prison, deal with lost wages, isolation from friends and family, scrutiny from potential employers, and isolation from their community.

The project replicates and extends the observation that being socially excluded significantly impairs the ability of ostracized people to act in their best interest. Participants will complete personality measures prior to receiving false projections about their inclusion/exclusion from a future interpersonal interaction then a contrived computer crash will be an excuse to attempt to elicit a false confession with standard interrogation tactics. Those with traits of anxiety attachment or who have been excluded may be most likely to confess.

The amount listed is the enrollment agreement was 10,020.00 which gives a difference of :

In 1989, five African and Hispanic-American boys, between the ages of 14 and 16, were “wilding” in New York City’s Central Park, unaware that the events of that evening would change their lives forever. That same evening a female jogger was found beaten, raped and left for dead. She had multiple fractures as well has her eye socket being crushed and having lost over three quarters of her blood. She survived the attack but was unable to recall any of the events of that evening. Within 48 hours of the attack the five African and Hispanic-American boys were arrested and charged with the crime based solely on the confessions obtained by the police. There was no physical evidence tying any of the boys to the crime. Four of the confessions were videotaped and were later used in court to incriminate the boys. The boys described the crime in gruesome detail and the role that each of them played in the crime. After the arrests, the boys all recanted their confessions, and said that the reason that they felt compelled to confess was because they were lead to believe that if they would confess they would be allowed to return home. Despite the lack of evidence and the fact that the boys recanted the confessions persuaded the police officers, the prosecutors of the case, the jurors, and the nation that the boys were guilty and led to their convictions and the boys were sentenced to prison. Thirteen years later a man named Matias Reyes came forward on his own volition and confessed to the

According to Burke (2005), four separate aspects of cognitive bias contributes to the-the maintenance of denial of new evidence in prosecutorial decision making: confirmation bias, selective information processing, belief perseverance, and the avoidance of cognitive dissonance. Confirmation bias leads people to seek and interpret information in a way that supports a view they already hold to be true. While selective bias leads information to be more easily remembered in a way that confirms their already held beliefs. Cognitive dissonance – the desire people have for consistency between their behavior and believes- leads them to adjust their beliefs to their previous behavior. Furthermore, belief perseverance leads people to fail to adjust their beliefs to new information, even when the new information proves that the basis for their previous beliefs was false. For example, believing that someone is the perpetrator even after DNA conclusively proves that´s incorrect. (p. 1593-1594, 1610).

There is certainly constant controversy about the numerous amounts of conviction cases which involves false allegations and how black men play a significant role. “A Crime by Any Other Name” briefly mentions the concept of how bias and discriminatory our Justice System truly is. Something in particular that we see constantly especially in urban areas is the mistreatment of black men. Black men are blamed and punished for a crime they ultimately did not do for reasons which racist people think that a black man who is suspicious should be arrested or charged. As we all know, police enforcement typically focuses on street crime and low-income neighborhoods. Specifically today, Chicago is still facing numerous amounts of false conviction cases

The world that we live in today have people who commit unforgivable crime by hurting others and making society feel unsafe. Individuals who perform serial crimes towards our society must face some kind of punishment, determine by the court justice and the people. Unfortunately, the capital punishment made by people and those with authority take justice on their own hands intensively. It is surprising how preventing others to commit the same crimes or worse have been taken so far. Everything is making that person feel unsafe and without hope of any kind. We must be considerate and realized that we make mistake, but we need to learn from it and have another chance to make things right. Prison it is a way to punish and give a second chance to a person even if it is for the rest of their life. We must never take a life for another life, because we will be becoming a criminal as well. The wrongful acts of punishment in this society is to create deterrence, torture, and self satisfaction; instead of just putting criminals in jail without deciding if they should stay alive.

Under the qui tam and provisions of the False Claims Act, The lawsuits were filed by Dr. Michael Mayes and other three whistleblowers. Also, two of the lawsuits separately were against the previous CEO Phillipe Goix of Berkeley as responsible for the scheme.

Introduction: The smell of a new newspaper, the weight of it as you settle down to read and the way its words inform you of the world's happenings, these are only a few of the reasons why people continue to buy print media. Unfortunately, many articles now contain misrepresentations, for example in the article Baby Found Crying After Hour Locked in A Bus written by Hanna Sbeghen, childcare workers are showcased as undertrained, incapable and inattentive to their jobs and positions the reader to accept this misrepresentation of untrustworthy supervision in childcare. Found on page 10 of the Courier Mail, this article tells the tale of an 18-month-old girl who was left on a bus after being picked up by the Goodstart Early Learning Centre in Parkwood.

The film The Witness was not only a parody which reflects the cruelty of the communist regimes, but also a critique of the corruption and execution of the communist court. The Stalinist show trials explicitly draws attention to the unfairness and inaccuracies of the court due to illegitimate suspicions and inadequate evidence. Through comedic relief, the film touches on rather tragic instances such as execution and imprisonment. Overall, the film did a fantastic job of showing how communist regimes treated individuals who did not fit in their criteria.