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1. Anderson, Barrie “Marginalization and Wrongful Convictions” in Manufacturing Guilt: Wrongful Convictions in Canada, 2nd Edition, pp. 7-25. © 2009 Fernwood Publishing Co., Ltd.. The article Marginalization and Wrongful Convictions, discusses issues with Canadian criminal justice system that has led to wrongful convictions. This problem seems to be more complex than just human errors. (Anderson, 2009: 7) Wrongful convictions closely contribute to the practice of the Adversarial Legal Processes, bureaucratic and professional wrongdoings, “tunnel vision,” and social inequality. ( )Wrongful convictions harm innocent people, traumatize them and undermine their healthy relationships with their loved ones. Bureaucratic and professional wrongdoing It is believed that a false conviction is the result of an “honest mistake,”. One could disagree because wrongful convictions …show more content…
Furthermore, a potential convicted individual with history of conviction may be a bigger target of police “tunnel vision.” Because police already view them as deviant and this misconception allow the police officers to reinforce their negative presumption and see them as primary suspects. Hence, the law enforcement system is corrupted and individuals are quickly labelled based on their beliefs and values. There are many other marginalized groups that are also a victim of false convictions. For example, African-American citizens. They are often targeted because of their race and ethnicity. There are stereotypes about African-Americans being “dangerous,” a “thug,” and “aggressive.” Judges, lawyers and cops who believe on such stereotypes could possibly be very influential and working in our justice system. Their decision might be strongly influced by their misconption about marginalized groups. Adversarial Legal
One of the few purposes of the Section 11(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is to ensure that the right for a fair trial for every person criminally tried on Canadian soil and the right for them to be tried within a reasonable time. This ensures that when the trial is commenced in court while the evidence is fresh and available during the trial. However, trials in the Canadian justice system can be delayed due to many factors in which the criticism could be on either the Crown or the accused. This essay will examine the Supreme Court of Canada case R. v. Morin. In this case, the accused was charged for impaired driving and the trial date set 399 days after the judge scheduled the trial. In total this was 444-days after the accused was charged with the impaired driving offence. The final verdict of this case set a precedent in the justice system due to the decision by the Ontario Court of appeal that decided that the trial delay was reasonable due to lack of prejudice to the accused during the delay.
Hulbert, M. A. (2011). Pursuing justice: An introduction to justice studies. Black Point, Nova Scotia: Fernwood Publishing.
As noted by Allen (2016), measures that are implemented outside the courtrooms, especially in a formal procedure, may lead to the provision of accurate as well as timely considerations for youth crime. As such, Canada is keen in the reinforcement of these regulations, as they determine both short and long-term judicial solutions. Most importantly, the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) in Canada plays a major role in the implementation of extrajudicial measures as they may affirm to the occurrence of future issues. According to the Government of Canada (2015a), this calls for an attempt to channel out or divert such offenders from the mainstream justice system to a lesser formal way of dealing with the offenses. This paper attempts to investigate the appropriateness of the extrajudicial measures in Canada, and the reason behind why we established these provisions of the YCJA. It also illustrates an example of a Canadian case, which questions the extrajudicial measures. This discussion canvasses the main argument as for or against the extrajudicial measures in Canada through the adoption of recommendations to the Canadian Government about the proper situations in which such processes should be used.
In modern-day America the issue of racial discrimination in the criminal justice system is controversial because there is substantial evidence confirming both individual and systemic biases. While there is reason to believe that there are discriminatory elements at every step of the judicial process, this treatment will investigate and attempt to elucidate such elements in two of the most critical judicial junctures, criminal apprehension and prosecution.
Welsh, B., & Irving, M. (2005). Crime and punishment in Canada, 1981-1999. Crime and Justice, 33, 247-294. Retrieved from http://library.mtroyal.ca:2063/stable/3488337?&Search=yes&searchText=canada&searchText=crime&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dcrime%2Bin%2Bcanada%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don&prevSearch=&item=18&ttl=33894&returnArticleService=showFullText
Wrongful convictions in Canada is a very sensitive and disturbing topic that has created concerns as to why individuals are being wrongfully convicted. As people in Canada read about cases involving wrongful conviction, such as Guy Paul Morin, Rubin Carter and David Millguard, it often undermines their faith in the criminal justice system. Tunnel vision, the use of questionable DNA evidence, and eyewitness misidentification are the three main causes of wrongful convictions in Canada. Recognizing and addressing these concerns has led to a reduction in cases of wrongful convictions in Canada.
Canada is a country where rehabilitation has been a formal part of sentencing and correctional policies for an extended period of time (Andrews & Bonta, 2010). Furthermore, a group of Canadian researchers have examined the methodology and effectiveness of rehabilitation, and are principal figures in the correctional rehabilitation field (Cullen & Gendreau, 2000). However, despite rehabilitation being a central aspect of Canadian identity, there has been a shift in the justice system’s objectives. The rise of the Conservative government and their omnibus bill C-10, Safe Streets and Communities Act, has created a move towards retribution. Bill C-10 was passed on March 12, 2012 (Government of Canada, 2013) and was a proposal to make fundamental changes to almost every component of Canada’s criminal justice system. Law changes included new and increased mandatory minimum sentencin...
Welch, Kelly. 2007. “Black Criminal Stereotypes and Racial Profiling.” Journal of Contemporary Justice 23(3): 276-288 also talks about the discrimination within the courtroom, in the court it has been shown that the prosecutors when fighting a case against the defendant who’s client is Black use their race as an argument to win the case. They try to show how Black people are prone to be violent due to racial factors and therefore should be sentenced harshly. Given the history, unfortunately this argument sets in well and therefore leads to sentencing and prison time for the Black
In the year 1970, the Canadian government founded the Law Reform Commission of Canada to ensure the progression of law making and to make recommendations for legal changes . The Law Reform Commission of Canada is constantly importing and suggesting proposals towards the criminal code of Canada. During the year of 1985, t...
Garrett, Brandon. Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2011. 86. Print.
An individual’s quality of life largely depends on how the public perceives them as a person – this may be truer for exonerees than anyone. Reintegration into society has proven difficult due to this stigma due to a host of problems such as psychological disorders and poor social and practical skills (Thompson, Molina, and Levitt, 2012). The theoretical framework these researchers used with consideration to the stigma exonerees suffer was the correspondence bias – meaning that people tend to attribute other peoples’ behavior to their internal disposition rather than a situational occurrence. If someone believes that the conviction was due to personal attributes rather than a situational issue, they are likely to suspect future criminality on the part of the exoneree, even though their prior conviction was absolved. The situational factors – eyewitness misidentification, false testimony, improper forensic science, and unreliable informants – are often forgotten or unknown to the perceiver. The average citizen does not always understand that innocence alone does not always protect a defendant, and the abovementioned situational factors do exist within the legal
We are not all treated equal where equality is required to assure the law is upheld. One of the flaws in our criminal justice system is how prejudice is often present in trials, and prevents suspects from having a fair trial. In “Serial”, a podcast about a first generation American teenager of Muslim religion named Adnan who was charged with the murder of his ex-girlfriend, prejudice is shown very strongly. At his bail hearing the prosecutor led the court to believe that Adnan 's extended support from his Muslim community would do anything they could to help Adnan escape the country and the justice system, ultimately getting away with murder. She furthered this claim with a report that there was a
Mauer, Marc. "The Race to Incarcerate." The Case For Penal Abolition. Ed. W. Gordon West and Ruth Morris. Toronto, Canada: Canadian Scholars? Press, 2000. 89-99.
The issues with wrongful convictions for the criminal justice system is that people in society look up to the criminal justice system because of its almighty power to protect the citizens from criminals. However, when such cases of wrongful conviction appear, people are frightened that an innocent person can be convicted for no reason and the same may happen to them.
Similar to Canada, the United Kingdom also has wrongful conviction cases. Several high profile wrongful exonerations highlighted in the media have prompted the public to question just how safe and reliable the criminal justice system is (Naughton, 2006). As a result, new laws and legislation have been brought in over the last 20 years to try and prevent further wrongful convictions. In contrast to the main factor behind wrongful convictions in Canada, in the United Kingdom police perjury and non-disclosure of relevant evidence at the original trial are seen as the main contributors to miscarriages of justice (Weathered, 2013). In particular, it was found that there were many instances of police corruption