Questionable Interrogations

The book, “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson pleas to fix the current unfair and fragmented system of criminal justice and juvenile justice. The book’s plot focuses majority on Stevenson’s work and his clients. The main narrative tackles the story of Walter McMillan, who was accused of killing a white woman, but despite hard evidence that would prove he’s innocent, is disregarded by the court due to his race. The main issue was not even the lack of care for racial equality in this case, but the fact that he was placed on death row before his case went to trial. This is one of many unjust cases that have happened in the past and that are currently happening in the system revolving around the death penalty. The remaining excerpts from the book

This article describes the arguments surrounding the use of the death penalty. The first argument is a counter argument to the notion that the death penalty deters murders. Two former judges from New Hampshire provided statistical data to argue that their state had not executed anyone in seventy-five years and still had the second lowest murder rate in the U.S., while Louisiana with the highest murder rate in the U.S. has executed twenty-eight people since 1975. The second argument is around the economics of capital punishment. It states that justices argue that is more economical to imprison someone for life than it is to execute someone. The legal costs of appeals in death penalty cases exceed the cost of life in

“Complex/Capital Case.” I stared at these words typed on my local county sheriff’s inmate directory. Above was an image of a man — face beaten and showing dozens of gang-affiliated tattoos — and I attempted to see a resemblance between his face and my own. I spent hours researching what “complex/capital case” means, and once I read the words “death penalty,” and although I knew that he had yet to be tried, what I did know was that this was the end for him. On the screen in front of me was the image of a man who was convicted of seventy-one counts of assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping, and attempted murder.

Marshall’s troubles extended beyond simple land or fishing rights dispute. There are symptoms of serious disease in the justice system when it comes to the life and trials of Marshall. Using a troubled youth and racism, the court system put Marshall away for a murder he didn’t commit. This apparent “murder” occurred in May of 1971 when Marshall met an acquaintance by the name of Sandy Seale late at night. Later on, Roy Ebsary and Jimmy MacNeil joined their party and a confrontation ensued where Ebsary stabbed Seale and slashed Marshall. As any troubled youth would do, they fled the scene. Yet, despite the fact that Marshall was the one to return and phone an ambulance, he was the one eventually convicted of the

In 1966, a milestone in Law Enforcement interrogation procedures was established through the case of Miranda vs Arizona. In the case of Orozco vs Texas, just a couple years later in 1969, the guidelines established by Miranda vs Arizona changed the ruling of Reyes Arias Orozco who self-incriminated himself without being read his Fifth Amendment rights while being interrogated in his home. Orozco vs Texas effected interrogation procedures due to Orozco being interrogated inappropriately in his own bed, early in the morning, and without being aware to his rights which clearly states within the Self-Incrimination Clause that, “The Fifth Amendment 's right against self-incrimination permits an individual to refuse to disclose information that

In 2008 through 2011, America fallowed the Casey Anthony murder trial extraordinarily closely (Rawlings, 2011). This case had all of the needed elements to create a one of the most notable trials ever conducted in such a public fashion (Rawlings, 2011). The trial was put on display in fount of the entire country, with every persons feeling strongly as to guilt or innocents, with the majority swaying towered guilt (Rawlings, 2011). With such a public display and strong sentiments, the level of anger that was displayed left no room surprise when a “Not guilty.” Verdict was rendered (Rawlings, 2011).

Troy Davis, a black man who was suspected as the killer of a white off-duty police officer, was executed in 2011 with insufficient evidence in the state of Georgia (Bedau). There was no physical evidence or weapon presented in the prosecution and so they had to base their judgement all from eyewitness (Bedau). His execution raised an “international outcry” due to seven out of nine eyewitnesses contradicted their trial testimony and many of them confessed that they felt pressured or threatened by the police at the time (Bedau). Troy Davis have come close to execution three times previous to his death because of the doubts that linger of his innocence (Bedau). However, after passage of a federal law in 1996, it became significantly harder for petitioners to get a hearing from judges because they have limited the amount of times they can appeal death sentence (Bedau). When Troy Davis did get a hearing, the judge required Troy to have a “proof of innocence” – an impossibly high standard according to American Civil Liberties Union and so Troy was not able to defend himself (Bedau). Even with the doubts that was present in this case, the Georgia Board of Pardons persists on executing Troy Davis (Bedau). A modern country in the 21st century like America has lots of resources to almost everything, but we still use a law system as old as time itself. Although the death penalty has been necessary in the past, it is no longer justified in the 21st century.

This series of books culminated in Moral Judgment: Does the Abuse Excuse Threaten our Legal System in 1997. Concerned about forces in our society threatening to undermine our moral sense, Wilson demonstrates in this book how our judicial system has compromised its obligation to discriminate between right and wrong. Citing highly publicized verdicts, he makes a case for re-examining the ethical drift of contemporary jurisprudence. Today's headlines, he claims, are proof that our judicial system relentlessly subjects itself to forces that limit its capacity to resolve even the gravest moral issues: judging guilt or innocence in the most grievous capital crimes. In a sense, Wilson sends a strongly worded message to criminal justice administrators:

Miscarriages of justice illuminate the serious systematic problems that can plague the criminal justice part of the legal system. Such miscarriages show not only the fundamental weakness of an adversarial system, with its focus on ends rather than means, but also the reluctance of the system to consider its own mistakes.

Police interrogation is a technique that police have used to gather information from anyone involved with a crime for hundreds of years. Police interrogations can last a few minutes to several hours. The police have a right to continue questioning the suspect until they ask for a lawyer (Kassin, 2013). The suspects’ call for a lawyer is a right under the Miranda Rights. In the process of interrogation, the police are not allowed to use cruel or any unusual methods to collect information, the law agents are trained with techniques to get the suspects to answer all the questions. However, this is not usually the case because sometimes the police go overboard in getting the suspects to answer their questions. This interrogation in some cases has led to false confessions leading to the wrong charging of the suspects. An approximate of one out of four confessions includes false confessions (Redlich, 2009). The false confessions made by suspects beg the question on how the police influence false confessions. This research will discuss the various techniques used by the police in interrogating suspects and how they misuse the systems to influence false confessions.

“The primary function of American criminal courts is to determine the legal guilt of the accused—that is, to determine if a person is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of committing a crime”, they essentially take over where police left off (Robinson, 2009). Though courts do much more than find people innocent or guilty, they also are “responsible for determining bail, conducting preliminary hearings (or grand juries), ruling on the admissibility of evidence, and determining the appropriate sentence when a finding of guilty has been reached” (Robinson, 2009). Though they perform many functions for the criminal justice system, there are many issues still facing the courts today. In this paper I will be identifying

The difficulties in providing for a fair system under the overarching theme of justice, where there are communication barriers between cultures that do not share similar values and experiences is a most challenging exercise. These difficulties lead to dire consequences when these barriers to communication arise in the criminal justice system; the innocent is sentenced and witnesses manipulated.

There is always an exception to every rule; some may fall within the scope of unethical when it comes to police. In 1939 the Supreme Court put an end to brutality and torture when it comes to retrieving information; it is against 4th Amendment which states it violates the due process (paraphrased pg., 71:Braswell, McCarthy, & McCarthy, 2012). There is an exception to this rule which says an officer can use violence to stop/prevent violence. There is a great possibility that people will be killed if this information is not retrieved; violence to stop/prevent violence in this case violence is needed. This is an interrogation because an interview is simply gathering information but, interrogation is when an officer has reasons to believe that

The first phase of the interrogation is to establish the norm. This is done to determine the general behavior of the subject, as the goal is to establish the characteristics of the subject at the most comfortable. As a result, the interviewer can then interpret the subject’s behavior and communication as the interrogation goes on.

One of the best training programs to implement into the police department is the Reid interrogation techniques. Interrogation and interviewing techniques became popular in 1947 by John E. Reid and Associates. Joseph P. Buckley stated that “The Reid Technique of Interviewing and Interrogation is now the most widely used approach to question subjects in the world (Buckley P. J., 2000).” There three- parts to the Reid process for solving a crime. The first stage that should be taking is to collect and analyze relative information from the crime scene thing that offers insight to the possible suspect and determine the direction an investigation should take. The second stage of the process interviewing people of interest using Behavior Analysis Interview (BAI) (Buckley P. J., 2000). The Behavior Analysis Interview is a non-accusatory process that allows detectives to interview a suspect using a question and answer procedure to provoke a suspect to show non- verbal truthfulness or deception. The third stage, if the offender has not admitted to the crime an accusatory interrogation is administered (Leave no marks, 2007). The Reid interrogation technique is believed to be a fail proof technique ,however, there are some reservations against using this technique on juvenile offenders (Constitutional Law(n.d). Implementing the Reid technique into the police departments learning curriculum will truly