Our US court system is not perfect, it is like a mirror that has some scratches on the surface. With some hard work and the right tools, the mirror can be fixed. Jennifer Murphy and Adam Benforado talk about how our court system is flawed. Murphy talks about drug courts and how they are affecting our court system. Benforado talks about the individuals involved in the courtroom and how their mistakes flaw the court system. Though both Jennifer Murphy and Adam Benforado do talk about ways to fix the systems too. First Unfair, when reading this book, Benforado blames the people for the system being flawed. When talking about dishonesty “…when our actions are at odds with our positive self-image: (we) trick ourselves into thinking we’re not …show more content…
It does not take still photos of people or things. “..erroneous eyewitness identifications are one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions. Of the first 250 DNA exonerations in the United States, 190 of them appear to have involved mistaken identifications” (Benforado 113). As humans, our ethics is to be honest, but sometimes our brain can get confused and we start to mix up what we really saw and what our brain is just filling in from past experiences to create a full story. “Presented with new information about an event, we may readily incorporate it into what we remember. We can even remember things that we never experienced or saw” (Benforado 117).
He also wants to separate the public from being courtroom actors and leave it up to the professionals and experts. He thinks by removing the jury, you remove the bias and prejudice of selecting a jury in your favor. “Research suggest that most judges and potential jurors place too much faith in witnesses’ memories. And they are often oblivious to the things that can reduce accuracy and reliability, which makes them bad at determining how much weight to give to, say, a particular eyewitness identification” (Benforado 127). Benforado wants to take the public out of the courtroom because of their lack of knowledge. But not only their lack of knowledge, but both counsel having peremptory challenges. “N. the right of the plaintiff and the defendant in a jury trial to have a juror dismissed before trial
Almost every day, we hear about justice being served upon criminals and we, as a society, feel a sense of relief that another threat to the public has been sentenced to a term in prison, where they will no longer pose a risk to the world at large. However, there are very rare occasions where the integrity of the justice system gets skewed and people who should not have been convicted are made to serve heavy prison sentences. When word of this judicial misstep reaches the public, there is social outcry, and we begin to question the judicial system for committing such a serious faux pas.
[The United States, is it a country of deviant lawbreakers? Or is it a country of too many laws? There were more than 12 million arrests in 2011, the question of how to adjudicate these cases has become an issue for the federal, state and local courts across the country. The overcrowding of our court dockets has become a major problem for court administrators working in every courthouse in the United States. Why the courts are so overcrowded, and how the court administrators, judges, and attorneys deal with overcrowding will be the focus of this paper.
The Canadian court system, like anything made by man, has flaws. One of these flaws is the wrongful conviction of many men and women like David Milgaard and Steven Truscott. These innocent men spent years of their life behind bars because of the court system, serving the sentence for a crime they did not commit.
Through all the ups and downs, the United States justice system continues to face obvious issues in itself causing a problematic government.
Your example scenario of a broken court system is very relevant. Should the courts fail, not only will criminals be discharged back into the community without proper correction, but other cases could be unfairly tried or left unresolved. Should a judge fail to hold a fair trial by attempting to confuse the defendant/prosecutor with legalese or interpreting the law in favor of a particular party, this would generate disturbances in the criminal justice system (CJS). As our textbook said, very few cases make it to a jury trial (). So how many cases are left unresolved or have been illegally shut down behind closed doors?
Drug addiction has increased drastically across America in the last fifty years. Non-violent drug offenders fill our jails and prisons. Taxpayer dollars are put into a prison system that is proving to be counter-productive. Recidivism rates are high. Drug Court is an alternative to incarceration that offers rehabilitation to criminal offenders. In drug court, the traditional functions of the U.S. justice system are profoundly altered. The judge is the leader of a treatment team. The judge makes all final decisions and holds a range of discretion unprecedented in the courtroom, including the type of treatment mandated and how to address
For my Civic Engagement project, I plan on studying and learning more about Drug Courts. After reading about drug courts in the state courts chapter and after watching the video, A Better Deal, about the nations first drug court, I immediately got hooked on the topic and wanted to learn more about the court in depth. Before we go more in depth about the topic, let’s take a step back and ask, “What is drug court and what is the purpose for it?” Drug court is a specialized court, meaning it is it’s own court. Drug court is a diversionary program that offers offenders a second chance to correct their drug problems and also offers an alternative route rather than going to prison for breaking the law due to their drug abuse. The goal for drug courts
Several offenders have benefited from the programs that are designed to address their issues within the drug court. These programs have changed defendants and justice professionals lives by creating new relationships with one another so they could understand what the defendants have been going through prior to being arrested and put into the criminal justice system. I will discuss why this program was implemented, the year and state the first Drug court was implemented.
Drugs have been known to be detrimental to American society. Commonly known as “ The war on drugs”. Majority of individuals who are incarcerated have been convicted of some type of drug offense and if not a drug related crimes. In many instances, a person can be sent to a jail or prison without receiving the required treatment to help the individual overcome their drug of choice. Remarkably, there is a court solely focused on an individual with a drug problem, which is known as Drug courts.
In 1789, each of the thirteen states had already establish a judicial system such as criminal and civil cases. The United States Constitution is the original document in which it established fundamental laws for the national government as well as protecting the right of the citizens. The U.S Constitution was designed to avoid too much power in the system of checks and balances. As years went by, the Constitution began to adapt to the modern changes. Subsequently, the judicial system began to full fill the U.S Constitution’s purpose. Both Federal and State have their own jurisdiction and functions as stated in the Constitution. However, in recent years the judicial system has been broken due to lack of structure in law on the book and law in action.
For the past 50 years, America’s criminal justice system has encountered several significant changes dealing with courts and policing. According to Marion and Oliver (2006), the historical Supreme Court rulings like Mapp v. Ohio and Miranda v. Arizona mold the way courts and law enforcement handle individuals charged with committing crimes. This paper will discuss the evolution of courts and law enforcement reflects the diverse and changing need for today’s population which is first importance, the urgency for cooperation and communication among criminal justice agencies and law enforcement within the country. Individuals must
I believe that one of the best reforms to our justice system is the growing number of Problem-Solving Courts. Problem-Solving Courts are specialized courts that focus on specific problems in society, such as drug abuse, prostitution, mental-health, domestic violence, etc (Courts). I have chosen drug courts more specifically to research. According to drugpolicy.org, in 2012 1.55 million people were arrested for non-violent drug charges (Drug Policy Alliance). This is an astounding amount of people being arrested, which is why I believe it is important to have problem-solving courts. Unlike traditional courts, these specialized courts address the issues that individuals have that cause them to commit crimes in order to reduce the chances of
Today our Justice system is not perfect, but nothing is. Everything has its pros and cons, its ups and downs and its strengths and flaws. There are things that we can appreciate from how our Justice system is ran and of course there is some that we would like to change. I believe that our Justice system works but that there are things we could change or fix to make it even better.
I also agree that it isn’t necessarily fair that once a judge gets through they are there for life, but if we are looking at the big picture, the soon to come republican domination is coming to fruition after years and years of democratic domination in the past. Which is why I find it interesting that democrats seem to be deeply concerned about a big political lean leading to an unfair balance but if the tables were turned it wouldn’t even be discussed as unfair. I also agree that the idea of the people voting for judges is good in theory, but if this were to ever happen theoretically, then judges should not be allowed to stay for life. I say this for the sole fact that people make bad decisions and generally only listen to the media, so having
The biggest problem facing law enforcement today may be the very structure of the juvenile justice system. A system that neither punishes nor rehabilitates is useless. Examples of juvenile justice system failures are found everywhere throughout the United States.