Assignment #2
Article #17
Looking Askance at Eyewitness Testimony
The use of eyewitnesses has been a constant in of criminal justice system since its very beginning. Unfortunately, people do not make the best witnesses to a crime. The person may not have seen the actual criminal, but someone that looks similar to them. The witness may lie about what he or she may have scene. Also the witness can be influenced by the police as to who or what they saw at the time of the crime. The witness or victims memory of the person may have faded so that they don’t remember exactly what had seen, which could be disastrous for the accused.
With all these possible flaws in the testimony of witnesses and victims why do they continue to use them as primary evidence in criminal cases? The answer is simple; until recently there was no other way to prove whether or not a person was actually at the scene of a crime unless someone saw them or they left some finger prints behind that the police were able to link back to someone, which may have not been left on the victim but in the general vicinity. Until recently, with the recent breakthrough in DNA testing which allows police and investigators to gain an exact match as to who committed the crime.
I personally feel that this is a much more reliable and accurate than relying on the testimony of witnesses. I believe through the use of science we as a society can now make sure that the guilty are caught and punished while the innocent are protected from wrongful prosecution. However the eyewitness should not be completely left out of the case against the possible offender. After it is determined through scientific evidence, in this case DNA, that the physically involved in the crime then witnesses can be brought in to give testimony that the offender was present at the crime scene or the victim can be sure that the accused was truly the one involved in the actual crime.
Also the procedures for recording eyewitnesses testimony have to be revised.
The use of eyewitness statements and testimony’s can be a great source of information, but can also lead to wrongful convictions. Due to eyewitness testimony, innocent people are convicted of crimes they have not committed. This is why the wording of a question is important to consider when interviewing witnesses. Due to the fact that eyewitness testimony can be the most concrete evidence in an investigation, witnesses may feel they are helping an officer by giving them as much information as possible, therefore they may tell them information that is not entirely true, just to please them. This is why there are advantages and disadvantages to using open and close ended questioning at different durations of an interview. The way you word a question may impact the memory of a witness, this is because a person cannot completely memorize the exact occurrences of an event.
After 11 years of being in prison, Cotton heard of DNA testing. As a final attempt to end his sentencing in jail, he applied and was accepted for DNA testing. The testing proved Cotton was not the rapist, and in fact Bobby Poole was (Picking Cotton). In total, DNA testing has helped 273 people prove innocence as of September, 2011. Also, all of the 34 death penalty states give inmates the right to have access to DNA testing. Not only has the testing been able to prove innocence, but also guilt. “Eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide,” which is true for Thompson in this case (DNA Testing and..).
This paper will consider eye witness testimony and its place in convicting accused criminals. Psychology online (2013) defines “eye witness testimony” as a statement from a person who has witnessed a crime, and is capable of communicating what they have seen, to a court of law under oath. Eye witness testimonies are used to convict accused criminals due to the first hand nature of the eye witnesses’ observations. There are however many faults within this system of identification. Characteristics of the crime is the first issue that will be discussed in this paper, and the flaws that have been identified. The second issue to be discussed will be the stress impact and the inability to correctly identify the accused in a violent or weapon focused crime. The third issue to be discussed is inter racial identification and the problems faced when this becomes a prominent issue. The fourth issue will be time lapse, meaning, the time between the crime and the eye witness making a statement and how the memory can be misconstrued in this time frame. To follow this will be the issue of how much trust jurors-who have no legal training-put on to the eye witness testimony, which may be faltered. This paper references the works of primarily Wells and Olsen (2003) and Rodin (1987) and Schmechel et al. (2006) it will be argued that eye witness testimony is not always accurate, due to many features; inter racial identification, characteristics of the crime, response latency, and line up procedures therefore this paper will confirm that eyewitness testimonies should not be utilised in the criminal ju...
Eyewitness misidentification cost innocent people to end up in prison. Eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions in the United States, having played a role in more than 70% of original convictions later overturned by new DNA evidence(Dunn). This explains eyewitness misidentification is not a reliable solution to prison the suspect and deal with other solution. The suspect is effected because the suspect goes through terrible life for crime they did not commit and false witness hunts
In the last forty years, there has been a shift in courtroom proceedings. Lawyers are not only focusing their evidence on the scientific aspects of an event, but also on those who may have witnessed the actual event as well. Recently, the number of eyewitness appearances in the courtroom has increased, making statements about either a crime or an event that occurred in their presence. But how does the courtroom decide who is a legitimate witness to an event? Too often, age, race, education, and socio-economics play a major role in this decision. Here, we will discuss the age aspect of this problem in terms of child eyewitness testimony and it's implications in the courtroom.
(Kennedy & Haygood, 1992; Williams & Loftus, 1994), which is worrying considering the growing and substantial body of evidence from laboratory studies, field studies, and the criminal justice system supporting the conclusion that eyewitnesses frequently make mistakes (Cutler & Penrod, 1995; Huff, 1987; Huff, Rattner, & Sagarin, 1986; Innocence Project, 2009; Wells, Small, Penrod, Malpass, Fulero, & Brimacombe, 1998). According to a number of studies, eyewitness misidentifications are the most common cause of wrongful convictions (Huff, Rattner, & Sagarin, 1986; Wells et al., 1998; Yarmey, 2003) and, through the use of forensic DNA testing, have been found to account for more convictions of innocent individuals than all other factors combined (Innocence Project, 2009; Wells, Memon, & Penrod, 2006).
During the identification and prosecution of a suspect, eyewitnesses are the most important. Eyewitness testimony needs to be reliable as it can have serious implications to the perceived guilt or innocence of a defendant. Unfortunately, the reliability of eyewitness testimony is questionable because there is a high number of eyewitness misidentification. Rattner (1988) studied 205 cases and concluded that eyewitness misidentification was the factor most often associated with wrongful conviction (52%). Eyewitness testimony can be affected by many factors. A substantial literature demonstrates own group biases in eyewitness testimony. For example, the own-race bias, in which people are better at recognizing faces of their own race versus another
Dyck continues, "At 8:16 am on 6 August 1945, a US Air Force B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima. The ensuing explosion killed more than 80,000 men, women and children instantly." (26). After the devastating blow to the country, Truman ordered the destruction of Nagasaki nearly three days later. The Japanese were collapsing upon the impact of the first bomb, so why would Truman sacrifice the innocent lives of Japan to such a horrific fate twice? The invention of the atom bomb, conversely, seems more unjustified by the considered conditions, but even more distressing towards the innocent lives taken in
Eyewitnesses are primarily used by the criminal justice system for investigating and prosecuting crimes, particularly in circumstances where it is the only evidence available (Wells & Olson, 2003). Their testimony is highly regarded as it allows for police, prosecutors, judges and juries to establi...
The justice system depends on eyewitness evidence to convict offenders. Eyewitness is a difficult task to achieve in the justice system. According to Wise, Dauphinais, & Safer (2007), in 2002 one million offenders were convicted as felons in America. Out of those one million offenders, 5000 of them were innocent in 2002 (Dauphinais, 2007). The Ohio Criminal Justice survey states that 1 out of 200 felony criminal cases is a wrongful conviction (Dauphinais et al., 2007). According to Dauphinais et al., (2007), Dripps said that eyewitness error is a huge factor in cases of wrong convictions. A study conducted in 1987 indicated that in roughly 80,000 criminal cases, eyewitness error was the only sole evidence against the defendant
Eyewitness identification and testimony play a huge role in the criminal justice system today, but skepticism of eyewitnesses has been growing. Forensic evidence has been used to undermine the reliability of eyewitness testimony, and the leading cause of false convictions in the United States is due to misidentifications by eyewitnesses. The role of eyewitness testimony in producing false confessions and the factors that contribute to the unreliability of these eyewitness testimonies are sending innocent people to prison, and changes are being made in order to reform these faulty identification procedures.
Humans are extremely complex and unique beings. We are animals however we often forget our origins and our place in the natural world and consider ourselves superior to nature. Humans are animals but what does it mean to be human? What are the defining characteristics that separate us from other animals? How are we different? Human origins begin with primates, however through evolution we developed unique characteristics such as larger brain sizes, the capacity for language, emotional complexity and habitual bipedalism which separated us from other animals and allowed us to further advance ourselves and survive in the natural world. Additionally, humans have been able to develop a culture, self-awareness, symbolic behavior, and emotional complexity. Human biological adaptations separated humans from our ancestors and facilitated learned behavior and cultural adaptations which widened that gap and truly made humans unlike any other animal.
seemed fictional to some, non existent to others,and seemed only a dream to those in the science world. That time is long gone.The day that changed all ideas and opinions about what war was and what is has evolved to be was August 6,1945. President Truman had decided to drop the Atomic bomb in order to end the war and save as many lives as possible. The United States had dropped the bomb on Hiroshima in order to end the war almost instantly and avoid bloody invasion, thereby saving both American and Japanese lives. Whether or not to drop the atomic bomb was president Truman’s decision, faced with this decision Truman researched and asked advisors to share their ideas about the bomb and then made the best decision for the American and Japanese people. “ In an invasion of Japan,the fighting would have been more savage, and the number of lives lost on both sides would of been tragic.”(O’Neal 35) The Atomic bomb was essential in helping to put and end to the war and saving lives.
Sally has obviously damaged the company, so her actions will definitely require an appropriate form of punishment. However, there are several factors that have to be taken in account. For example, Sally was a loyal, responsible, and fair worker during the last 20 years, so any extreme form of punishment could damage both Sally and the company. On the other hand, an inappropriate response from the management could encourage her deviant behavior towards the company in the future. With several conflicting factors apparent in this case, working out an appropriate solution is difficulty. The virtue ethics position allows several interpretations because it focuses on the character as the main motive that defines ethical behavior. Unlike deontology that relates moral actions to rules or pragmatism that considers social context related to ethical behavior, virtue ethics approaches the issue based on individual factors.
The most difference between human and animals lies in whether can use tools. Long time ago, human like the other animal use hand to do anything and eat uncooked. According to Darwins ' evolution theory that humans evolved from apes. Homo species appear in 2.5 million years ago. Human evolution go through many steps and much time in the history. Begin from homo species to Homo Erectus, Homo Ergaster, Homo Antecessor and Homo Sapiens. From 2.5 million years ago to 1.2 thousand years ago. The Homo has big differently between them. Human learned to stand up and use tool that important for human evolution. Because human can use two hands to get food and use tools. Use can help human get more food. When human has enough food that can have more time to do the other thing. Humans ' intelligence become more and more stronger.