Summary: The Problem Of Testilying

While people find it hard to believe that anyone would confess to a crime he or she did not commit, there are people who end up making a false confession. In the Central Park Five case, the police managed to get the young boys to admit to the crime with the false promise that they would be allowed to go home if they confessed (Kassin, 2002). For Martin Tankleff, while in an

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.

In the book “The Testing” Cia the main character is hoping to become one of the lucky kids of her class of 14 to be chosen for the testing. The testing is where you take a certain amount of test that tells the united common wealth government if you are fit to have a chance at college education and a rewarding career. I am basing my argument on weather young adults who go to college and who do not go to college will make more money than the other.

The Testing trilogy by Joelle Charbonneau is a thrilling story about who to trust in a world that is unpredictable. The series consists of the books The Testing, Independent Study, and Graduation day, all of which follow the main character Malencia Vale, or Cia for short. The main point I found throughout these three is being careful about who you can trust. Because of this I chose a moralist type of criticism. It has a lot to do with how the characters are feeling even though it is the society that is corrupt so I found that this fit. I thought while reading these books that most of it was very well written and that the world building was spectacular. Though there is a romance portion that isn't done very well until the third book. Also I have seen argued that the characters don't seem very realistic emotion wise. I feel that the story was very well done but that the emotions didn’t seem realistic in every character that you came across.

For a society that is greatly influenced by Crime Scene Investigation, Criminal Minds and Bones, a confession of the offender is seen as an ultimate checkmate of the case because it implies the guilt of the confessor. Thus, a confession, especially the ones with detailed account and perfect representation of emotions (Leo, 2008), outweighs the evidences of innocence and stirs the case against the accused (Kassin & Wrightsman, 1985). People believe that they are open-minded about the possibility of false confession but in reality, the public, law enforcers and justice officials have biases that often infer guilt to the suspect instead of investigating for the truth, which leads to wrongful conviction. According to Leo and Drizin (2004), false confession is the primary cause of law miscarriage (Leo and Drizzin, 2004). False confessors lived many years in jail before being exonerated while others remain imprisoned (Leo and Drizzin, 2004).

Wrongful convictions occur when innocent defendants are found guilty in a criminal trial; When people are wrongfully convicted, they spend part of their life in prison while the criminal is free of punishment. The world has two million citizens incarcerated, about 20,000 people punished for crimes they did not commit (Ferner). Two thousand people are punished for crimes they did not commit, that is not a small number, so why do wrongful convictions occur? Wrongful convictions can occur for various reasons; the common causes are eyewitness misidentification, unvalidated or improper forensics science, false confessions, government misconduct, unprofessional lawyering, and informants or snitches.

The defense is seen as a legal loophole and that there are those who get off scot free even in the most heinous of crimes.

Many people admitted things they have not even done or accused their neighbors and friends in order to exonerate themselves and to save their lives.

As these young boys develop into men, there is a pressure to fit the mold of masculinity and demand respect. Like it is mentioned earlier in the book, the appearance and demeanor of those who participated in the study play a huge role in determining how they are treated. By opting to stand out and be themselves, they are taking a risk of being targeted by police or others who do not agree with them. Learning that the author was put into handcuffs and thrown into the back of a cop car just for turning around shows just how much power authorities have. I find it unfair that the only thing necessary for these kinds of behaviors is criminal “suspicion”. How does the officers’ bill of rights become more important than protecting a person’s basic

Richard A. Leo, the author of “False Confessions: Causes, Consequences, and Implications” states, “Investigators first misclassify an innocent person as guilty; they next subject him to a guilt presumptive, accusatory interrogation that invariably involves lies about evidence and often the repeated use of implicit and explicit promises and threats as well.” From this, we can see that in some instances, investigators have already made up their mind that someone is guilty, so they do anything to get their

Prior to an individual being classified as an ex-offender, they are first classified as an offender; before this classification takes place, the individual is what the criminal justice system calls a defendant; before this particular person is trialed, they must first go through the ladder of the system. Perhaps they started simply as a suspect product of an arrest or an investigation (Samaha, 9). Like with many things in life, numerous people try to find excuses; in sports you always hear a boxer say he lost because he didn’t have a good training camp, or the baseball player saying that his wrist hurts and that is why he was not able to hit the ball. Barely, however, do we hear people tell the actual truth about what really happened; take the examples of the boxer and the baseball player, it is quite strange to hear them say “my opponent just outclassed me”, or “he is a very good pitcher, one which possesses a strong fast ball”. In some cases within the criminal justice system is the same exact way; though some do, many defendants will try to claim a reasonable and legitimate excuse for the crime they have committed and are being trialed for. In his book Criminal Justice seventh edition, Joel Samaha expresses his beliefs on what it means to give an excuse for someone’s imperfections or imperfect acts; nothing but “excuses, excuses, excuses, criminal law doesn’t like them”(Samaha, 116).

Testing: To check or qualify the performance of a person under strain. “The Testing” by Joelle Charbonneau, is a Scientific Fiction book about a girl who gets chosen for a test to become one of the next leaders of their country. As she tries to find out what is happening to all the students that failed the test, she has troubles and tasks along the way. A test which can kill anyone who fails.

Duhaime defined Wrongful Conviction as “A conviction of a person accused of a crime which, in the result of subsequent investigation, proves erroneous. Persons who are in fact innocent but who have been wrongly convicted by a jury or other court of law” (Duhaime, 2017). But even establishing an acceptable definition of “wrongful conviction” is difficult. Wrongful convictions are happening nationwide, however the more frequent it becomes makes it seem like it isn’t an accident anymore. In 2015, researchers found that 149 people were cleared for crimes they didn’t commit. So, we must ask ourselves what is the cause of wrongful convictions? In 2010, a young man by the name of Kalief Browder was wrongfully convicted of a crime he did not commit and in 2008, Adrian Thomas was convicted of killing his son by threatening him to confess or else they would arrest his wife. But where is the justice for these two men?

The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau. The Testing is one of me and my friend's favorite books. I tell myself this quote to remind myself that there are more ways than just an obvious way. When I look back through my middle school years, some of my greatest memories are of me and my friends, sports, and my teachers. Some of my best memories are with my friends.

Today’s legal system is set up to try and prevent mistakes as much as possible as not to arrest or convict innocent people (Bohm and Haley, 2014.) As the population in the United States grows, crime grows, and limited space in our correction facilities grow, I believe that some would think the miscarriages of justice will rise. I think that we now have the tools and technology available to us to reduce the number of false convictions. If the justice system uses the available technology today correctly, then there should be no reason why the statistics of false convictions should not decrease even if the population and crime increase. Most of the miscarriages of justice are due to misidentification from eyewitnesses and misrepresentation.