Research Questions On Official Misconduct And False Accusation Essay

Mass Incarceration is a growing dilemma in the United States that populates our prisons at an alarming rate. Michelle Alexander is a professor at Ohio State University and a graduate of Stanford law school. She states in her award winning book, The new Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness “In less than thirty years, the U.S. penal population exploded from around 300,000 to more than 2 million” (Alexander, 6). These young men and women are unable to afford a decent lawyer because they come from such a poverty-stricken background. Men and women are at a financial disadvantage in our justice system. Lawyers and attorneys cost a fortune and most people can just simply not afford them. Others plead to their charges because

For the public defenders and prosecutors, I will ask the head of each group for verbal consent to carry out the research. For the homeless population, I will use convenience sampling when sending out surveys. I will walk around the general vicinity and ask the clients, if they can spare 15 minutes for the research. They will be asked to complete a series of questions. The surveys will differ depending on the group. For the public defenders, the questions will focus on the scope of the issues that their office faces. When it comes to the prosecutors, the questions will focus on whether or not, they want any change to the current state of affairs. Lastly, for the clients, the questions will focus on their experience with the criminal justice system and what kind of changes they

In the United States, the adversarial system of justice relies on ensuring a criminal defendant receives a fair trial. The sixth amendment gives defendants the right to legal representation in criminal trials even if they cannot afford one themselves. Each city and county in the United States ensures a defendant the right to counsel. There are different ways cities and counties across the United States provide representation for indigent defendants. One such approach to indigent defense is public defender programs and is a popular system used by many states today. Public defender programs have been around since the 1900’s but gained popularity throughout the years due to the many indigent defense cases.

Today, the number of cases defended by public defenders is huge. For example, in 2011 in Miami Dade County, the largest of the 20 Florida Circuit Courts, approximately 100,000 cases were assigned to Public Defenders.The Court held that the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of counsel is a fundamental right essential to a fair trial and, as such, applies the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In overturning Betts, Justice Black stated that “reason and reflection require us to recognize that in our adversary system of criminal justice, any person haled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided for him.” He again wrote to defend his position that the “noble ideal” of “fair trials before impartial tribunals in which every defendant stands equal before the law . . . cannot be realized if the poor man charged with crime has to face his accusers without a lawyer to assist

Serious misconduct amongst law enforcement officials at multiple levels has come to the forefront of pertinent issues facing the United States of America. This issue is widely covered by the media and is a major concern of our citizens. Recently, the competent and professional service that federal law enforcement officials provide has been overshadowed by unsavory incidents. These incidents remain in the collective memory of the people, thereby, harming the reputation and potential effectiveness of these agencies. The harmful decisions of a few officials in agencies, such as the FBI, DEA, Border Patrol, and Secret Service, are absolutely damaging to the careers of effective, dedicated law enforcement professionals who protect and serve our communities. The Judiciary Committee is pursuing improvement in the review and enforcement of rules in the aforementioned agencies. The allegations made against law enforcement officials are to be further investigated and disciplinary procedures will be readjusted to allow the integrity of the agencies to not be harmfully represented again.

Williams, M. (2014). The effect of attorney type on bail decisions. Criminal Justice Policy Review. doi:10. 1177/0887403414562603.

a.) The excerpt displays the belief that each suspect in a court case has the right to legal representation whether they can afford it or not. The excerpt argues that suspects who can afford a lawyer often hire the most preeminent lawyers “to prepare and present their [thorough] defenses” (1). Thus, the excerpt voices that if a lawyer is this essential to a court case, then they must be provided to those accused who can’t afford one because not providing one could be a sense of restricting one’s freedom.

Felony defendants are significantly younger, overwhelmingly male, disproportionately members of racial minorities, more likely to come from broken homes, less educated, more like to be unemployed, and less likely to be married (Neubaur & Fradella, 2014). There are three characteristics of defendants—sex, poverty, and race. They possess few of the skills needed to compete successfully in an increasingly technological society. They are drawn from what sociologists call the urban underclass. The court personnel have little empathy with or understanding of the types of defendants whose fates they must decide. Members of the courtroom work group are essentially middle class.

The goal of state compensation statutes is to provide a consistent, dependable approach to financial assistance. The structure consists of a wrongfully convicted individual receiving a specific amount of money for every year that he or she was imprisoned, and these statutes are meant to be blind to factors such as gender, race, political connections, and visibility of the case. The problem currently, however, is that there are still 18 states that do not have any form of compensation statute in place, such was the case of Lamonte McIntyre, and many more make it difficult for exonerees to actually quality for the benefits of their state’s statute. The federal government recognizes the need for uniform compensation, as demonstrated by its passing

In the New York Times article, “A Mockery of Justice for the Poor,” the author discusses how the poor are cheated in the criminal justice system. By law, it is mandatory that the government provides an attorney to any defendant facing possible prison time, even if he or she cannot afford one. However, there are underlying fees that must be paid despite these people being poor. John Pfaff mentions how 43 states are now requiring indigent defendants to pay at least a portion of their lawyers’ fees, even though they had to be appointed one in the first place. Those who do qualify as indignant may be able to be acquitted, however, they could be convicted for failing to pay for the legal services the Constitution requires the states to provide for the defendants. Not to mention, spending money on attorneys for the poor amounts to only $2.3 billion – barely even 1% of the $200 billion the government spends annually on the criminal justice system (Pfaff 2016). Not surprisingly, public defenders who are appointed to these cases are often stripped of resources while tackling multiple other assignments at the same time.

After this week’s readings and listening to the interview with Stephen Bright, it is hard to argue that there is full equality within our justice system. There are many factors which can affect the outcome of those accused of a crime. One main topic of interest is legal representation with public defenders and how the accused social class has a play in their sentences. In the interview of Mr. Bright, he went on to say that geography does play a part in the quality of public defenders. For example, certain states have allocated funds to provide for public defenders, where as other states only award contracts to the lowest bidder. Oftentimes public defenders are overloaded with several clients which forces them to spend very little time preparing

This paper explores my future pathway to the career of a criminal defense attorney. I will be discussing the history of lawyers by explaining how they started in Greece and how they developed to what they are in the present. The primary source I explore in my paper is Barack Obama. Barack Obama was a civil rights lawyer and a professor. My paper discusses how Obama became a lawyer, where he studied, and how he came to be a civil rights lawyer. Stanford is the university where I choose to research. It has everything a lawyer needs to study to become a lawyer. The paper discusses the classes as well as the skills required to become a lawyer. Finally, I conclude with a discussion about why becoming a criminal defence attorney is a suited career

Though there are positive aspects of the adversarial system, scholars argue that as it is practiced today, the system is deeply flawed and does not promote truth finding. According to Keith Findley (2012), Clinical Professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, and Co-Director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, the criminal court system as of today seeks justice but does not seek the truth. Findley asserts that the adversarial system disproportionally benefits the prosecution over the defense (2012). This is due to the fact that though the prosecution and defense are supposed to be equal, they are not. It is a fact that prosecutors are funded by the state and are able to gain access to evidence and resources unlike criminal defense attorneys. In high profile cases it is known that the Prosecutor’s Office appoint their most skilled attorney to the case while it is known that indigent defendants aren’t able to afford highly experienced attorneys. As a result, the truth is not uncovered or the goal. Along with this, in the case involving normal proceedings indigent defendants are often given public defenders as legal representation. According to Ray Finkelstein (2011), a former Judge, the Public Defenders Association is heavily burned with cases and they do not have the same resource and funds as the Prosecutors Office. Therefore, public defenders are often over worked and have a high volume of clients that they have to represent with little resources to assist in the

At the BSSL we would like to make work a legal, profitable, and comfortable environment to be at during your careers here with us. We are going to start implementing an open door policy. We want all employees to feel they can speak with any member of management, without risk or fear of loosing their jobs, if they feel uncomfortable about something they are asked to do here. Also, all employees need to keep their eyes and hears opened for illegal and unethical behaviors. If an unethical or illegal behavior is reported and proven we would like to offer the employee that comes forth with the information a reward to show our

Every email I have sent to your client has been in reference to my son. Any other contact has been initiated by your client via a phone call and I hang up and respond via email or text, which she told you other wise and you allowed your emotions to get involved, rather that your professionalism. As her attorney your job is to address your client when she is making false allegations. These allegations were committed twice under your supervision and both times have been unfounded. You are required ethically to address your clients behavior rather than turn a blind eye and act as if you are unaware of these lies. When your client attempted this allegation a second time you became complicit, which does not expunge you from the second act, but