Although the criminal justice system punishes those who have committed crimes against society, there are still flaws in the system that send innocent people to prison. Actual Innocence by Barry Scheck, Peter Neufeld, and Jim Dwyer, focuses on those problems connected to the incarceration of innocent people, as well as those who have been convicted and were ultimately exonerated. Confessions and racism are two major issues that are described in Actual Innocence that explain how these problems occur in our criminal justice system today and how innocent people are convicted of crimes. Robert Miller, at the time of this book, was a twenty-seven year old unemployed black man. He was also a regular user of drugs, and he lived in the Military Park section in Oklahoma City. There had been two murders of elderly women that occurred within a few months of each other, and when police were investigating these two murders, they questioned a total of 173 black men, as well as many others within the neighborhood. Of these 173 black men, Robert Miller was one of twenty-three to give blood, and the results showed that he was the only with A+ blood type. In February of 1987, Miller was asked by police to help them, and even though he felt unwell due to his regular use of drugs and the assumption that someone else had slipped PCP into something that he had ingested, he agreed to help them. Miller rode to the police station and then was lead to an interview room by one of the detectives. Miller told the detectives that he had “powers” and that he could “see things through the killer’s eyes”. This prompted the detective performing the interrogation to make sure that the interrogation session was being recorded. After twelve hours of interrogatio... ... middle of paper ... ...nt just because of the color of their skin. There should be stricter guidelines on the members of a jury, for example, each jury panel should include at least three members of any minority. This would help alleviate the racial tension felt by a defendant being tried by an all-white jury, as well as discard the conviction of people based on race. Works Cited Bright, Stephen B. Discrimination, Death and Denial: The Tolerance of Racial Discrimination in Infliction of the Death Penalty (1995). Web. 1 Dec. 2011. Dwyer, Jim, Peter Neufeld, and Barry Scheck. "False Confessions, Race." Actual Innocence: When Justice Goes Wrong and How to Make It Right. New York: New American Library, 2003. Print. Ofshe, Richard J., and Richard A. Leo. The Social Psychology of Police Interrogation: The Theory and Classification of True and False Confessions (1997). Web. 28 Nov. 2011.
Garrett, B. L. (n.d.). The Substance of False Confessions. Criminal Justice Collection. Retrieved November 23, 2010, from find.galegroup.com.uproxy.library.dc-uoit.ca/gtx/retrieve.do?contentSet=IAC-Documents&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28su%2CNone%2C28%29%22Wrongful+Convictions+%28Law%29%22%3AAnd%3ALQE%3D%28RE%2CNone%2C3%29ref%24&sgHitCo
In her book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander states that we still use our criminal justice system to “label people of color ‘criminals’ and then engage i...
Henry Louis Gates once said: “I want to be a figure in prison reform. I think that the criminal justice system is rotten.” Indeed, in this day and age, comments like these are not generally uncommon, especially with race relations becoming a nationwide priority after recent cases like Ferguson. But how much truth is there really behind these sweeping generalizations? By investigating this question further through the lens of Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, it becomes apparent how unjust America’s justice system really is through the illumination of biased racial representation and the prosecution of juveniles in adult criminal court.
..."Justice Is Not Served with the Death Penalty." The Death Penalty. Ed. Jenny Cromie and Lynn M. Zott. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2013. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "The Road to Justice and Peace." blog.nj.com 2 Feb. 2009. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
Welch, Ronald H., and Angulo, Carlos T. 2000. Justice on trial: racial disparities in the american criminal justice system. Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. Washington, DC
Many of today’s interrogation models being utilized in police investigations have an impact on false confessions. The model that has been in the public eye recently is the social psychological process model of interrogation known as the “The Reid Technique.” There are two alternatives used by the police today to replace the Reid Technique, one is the PEACE Model and the other is Cognitive Interviewing. These methods are not interrogation techniques like Reid but interview processes.
To show an unbiased and educated examination of the five cases involving questionable interrogations, I will give information on the crime that occurred, the problems with the interrogations and other evidence, who is at fault for problems within the case, how the defendant was cleared (if he was), and the compensation and future changes that were a direct response to these cases provided that they occurred or are in the process of occurring. The five cases that I will examine involve the accused: George Allen, Hunter Johnson, Peter Reilly, Michael Crowe, and Reggie Clemons. Each case is significantly different yet showcases many acts of injustice within the justice system.
Leo, Richard A.. Police interrogation and American justice. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2008. Print.
The jury system has evolved from a representation of all white men to both men and women from very diverse backgrounds. This is important if one is going to be tried in his/her community of peers.
To look closely at many of the mechanisms in American society is to observe the contradiction between constitutional equality and equality in practice. Several of these contradictions exist in the realm of racial equality. For example, Black s often get dealt an unfair hand in the criminal justice system. In The Real War on Crime, Steven Donziger explains,
Gould, Jon B. and Leo, Richard A., One Hundred Years Later: Wrongful Convictions After a Century of Research (2010). Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Vol. 100, No. 3, 2010; Univ. of San Francisco Law Research Paper No. 2010-28.
Leo, R and Ofshe R. The Social Psychology of Police Interrogation: The Theory and Classification of True and False Confessions. 16 Studies in Law, Politics and Society 189,
When you are a child your life is very simplistic in comparison to an adults life. All you do is live in the moment and have fun and you don't have to worry about paying the bills or putting food on the table.When you are a child you aren't expected to understand everything about the complex world and you always have someone looking out for you because you can't be expected to understand certain things such as politics. Everyone in the world loses their innocence at different times because sometimes people are just needed to grow up faster. Losing your innocence in today's world is necessary because you can't live independently in the world if you don't understand it. Your parents or role models play a huge part in you life play because it's
Tennyson’s poem, Ulysses, is about a man who changed from his experience at sea, and was never the same when he returned to his home, Ithaca. Likewise, I have changed from my experiences in a society that is very different from my own. Gender discrimination is a major social problem that exists all over the world, especially in third world countries. It is very common for girls to be strangled, abused, and mistreated in India. Orphanages provide these girls with a shelter, an education, good health, food, and clothes. My trip to India left me in complete shock, as I realized just how blessed I truly am. After travelling to the ‘Unique Home for Girls,’ an orphanage in India, I learned to be more grateful for everything in my life.
Fein, Bruce. "Individual Rights and Responsibility - The Death Penalty, But Sparingly." Speech. American Bar Association. Feb. 2003. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.