Interrogations/Confessions A. Wrong identification of suspects and their prosecution A black assailant is accused of shooting Mary Ann. Ann and her husband had gone for a vacation in Jacksonville, Florida. When having breakfast in the morning, the couple is approached by a stranger who points a gun at them and demanded Ann hand over the purse. A few moments later, she is dead, and the perpetrators were gone. The first person to be arrested is Brendon Butler, a black African-American teenager, who was on his way to job (Fox and Lori, 2016). In fact, Butler was on his way to apply for a job at his local Blockbuster Video outlet. During the whole movie, Butler is denied the right to make phone call or contact with the attorney. The movie also shows that Butler is mercilessly interrogated for a considerable time. The integration of Butler is full of injustices. For instance, he is tortured, both psychologically and physically, racially abused, and pressured to sign a false declaration admitting to having performed the crime. The husband of Ann, although he had a glimpse of the real culprit, he was forced by the police to proclaim Butler as the assailant publicly. However, the intention of the injustice towards …show more content…
The study used a case study in which they tried to get the association between false confessions and wrongful convictions. Briefly, the incident happened in 1989 when a body of a twenty-eight old lady known as Trisha Meli was found in the Central Park. During this time, there were related fears of terrorist attack, AIDS epidemic, and failing school systems, as well as increase in crimes. Therefore, due to the assassination of the white woman (Trisha Meli), a large group of Latinos and Blacks was arrested when demonstrating in the park. Although many youths were involved in the demo, few persons were
In the article “The Interview” and the documentary “The Central Park Five” both showed injustice and how corrupted the judicial system is in terms of the human experience. Having justice is having equality for all and being fair about it, but in the “The Interview” and “The Central Park Five” it showed the opposite of what having justice is. They proved that the judicial system can be unfair and that innocent people can be arrested for crimes they did not commit even if there are evidence proving their innocence.
Throughout history there has been considerable tension between race and crimes committed. The court trial of Bernhard Goetz initiated debate on race and crime in the major cities, and the limitations of self-defense. Bernhard Goetz in 1984 shot five bullets in a New York City subway, seriously wounding four young black men. After turning himself into the police nine days later, the public now knew who was the shooter. Bernhard Goetz was entitled the “Subway Vigilante”. The subway shooting incident ideally exemplified the exasperation with the high crime rates of the 1980s. Due to the time period that this incident occurred, Bernhard Goetz was commended and reviled in the media surrounding the case, and the public’s standpoint. The subway shooting, and the court trial following the shooting, lead to the uprise of the fight against crime in major cities. Justice is difficult to define, and in controversial acquittal of Bernhard Goetz, justice in this sense, was not served.
The beating of Rodney King from the Los Angeles Police Department on March 3, 1991 and the Los Angeles riots resulting from the verdict of the police officers on April 29 through May 5, 1992 are events that will never be forgotten. They both evolve around one incident, but there are two sides of ethical deviance: the LAPD and the citizens involved in the L.A. riots. The incident on March 3, 1991 is an event, which the public across the nation has never witnessed. If it weren’t for the random videotaping of the beating that night, society would never know what truly happened to Rodney King. What was even more disturbing is the mentality the LAPD displayed to the public and the details of how this mentality of policing led up to this particular incident. This type of ethical deviance is something the public has not seen since the civil rights era. Little did Chief Gates, the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, and the LAPD know what the consequences of their actions would lead to. Moving forward in time to the verdict of those police officers being acquitted of the charges, the public sentiment spiraled into an outrage. The disbelief and shock of the citizens of Los Angeles sparked a mammoth rioting that lasted for six days. The riots led to 53 deaths and the destruction of many building. This is a true but disturbing story uncovering the ethical deviance from the LAPD and the L.A. riots. The two perspectives are from the Rodney King incident are the LAPD and the L.A. riots.
On April 19th, 1989, Trisha Meili was the victim of violent assault, rape, and sodomy. The vicious attack left her in a coma for 12 days and The New York Times described it as “one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980’s.” The documentary, The Central Park Five, reveals the truth about what happened the night of April 19th, and how the subordinate group of young black boys were wrongly convicted. Analyzing the conflict theory of crime in association to the case of the central park five, understanding the way they were treated based on setting, why it was so easy for the law enforcement to pin the crime on the young black boys, and how wrongly convicting someone has great consequences along with relating it
Stop and Frisk is a procedure put into use by the New York Police Department that allows an officer to stop and search a “suspicious character” if they consider her or him to be. The NYPD don’t need a warrant, or see you commit a crime. Officers solely need to regard you as “suspicious” to violate your fourth amendment rights without consequences. Since its Beginning, New York City’s stop and frisk program has brought in much controversy originating from the excessive rate of arrest. While the argument that Stop and Frisk violates an individual’s fourth amendment rights of protection from unreasonable search and seizure could definitely be said, that argument it’s similar to the argument of discrimination. An unfair number of Hispanics and
The case that I have decided to do my criminal justice research paper on is the Trayvon martin case. The Trayvon Martin case is a fairly recent case that took place in Sanford a central Florida city that consisted about 53,000 people. This case involves Trayvon Benjamin Martin an seventeen year old African American boy who was born on February 5 1995. He lived in Miami Gardens, Florida with his mother sybrina Fulton and attended Dr. Michael M. Krop High School (CNN) . Trayvon went to visit with his father Tracey Martin who lived in Sanford, Florida in February of 2012. The reason this young boy was sent to be with his father is because he received a ten day suspension from school. Trayvon got suspended from school for ten days because the school found drug residue in his book bag (CNN). Trayvons parents decided to send him to visit with his dad during his suspension because they didn’t want him to enjoy things in his hometown such as family, friends, and football (CNN). Also, this case involves twenty eight year old George Zimmerman who was the neighborhood watch captain for the community Retreat at Twin Lakes. Zimmerman was also a part time student at Seminole State College. He is married to Shellie zimmerman and the father of two son Robert and Glayds Zimmerman.
The Central Park Five, a documentary released in 2012, follows the lives of five Harlem teenagers who were convicted of the assault and rape of a white female jogger in New York City’s Central Park in 1989. The film details the events preceding the discovery of said jogger and the boys’ association, as well as the trials and tribulations that followed. Within days, all five boys were brought in and coaxed into a confession. Antron McCray, 15; Korey Wise, 16; Kevin Richardson, 14; Raymond Santana, 14; and Yusef Salaam, 15, were not only victims of a malicious profiling scandal but were also subjected to hours of aggressive and subjective interrogations leading to the misappropriation of evidence and written statements suggesting malpractice within the precinct and among the “seasoned” homicide detectives involved. "These young men were convicted long before the trial, by a city blinded by fear and, equally, freighted by race. They were convicted because it was all too easy for people to see them as violent criminals simply because of the color of their skin."(Burns, 2012). Unfortunately, these means of coercion are found all too often in America. Anything from trauma to
All in all, the man accused of murdering Trayvon Martin, was not found guilty and will undoubtedly be imprinted in America’s history. As a result of the verdict, many citizens were alarmed around the nation and has generated an immense amount of controversy. The three academic government reports I have used explained why crimes occur within certain neighborhoods and what can be used to prevent and deter individuals from committing the same type of offense.
For the past few years there has been an ongoing debate surrounding the issue of racial profiling. The act of racial profiling may rest on the assumption that African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to commit crimes than any individual of other races or ethnicities. Both David Cole in the article "The Color of Justice" and William in the article "Road Rage" take stance on this issue and argue against it in order to make humanity aware of how erroneous it is to judge people without evidence. Although Cole and William were very successful in matters of showing situations and qualitative information about racial profiling in their articles, both of them fail at some points.
Many people claim that racism no longer exists; however, the minorities’ struggle with injustice is ubiquitous. Since there is a mass incarceration of African Americans, it is believed that African Americans are the cause of the severe increase of crimes. This belief has been sent out implicitly by the ruling class through the media. The media send out coded messages that are framed in abstract neutral language that play on white resentment that targets minorities. Disproportionate arrest is the result of racial disparities in the criminal justice system rather than disproportion in offenders. The disparities in the sentencing procedure are ascribed to racial discrimination. Because police officers are also biased, people of color are more likely to be investigated than whites. Police officers practice racial profiling to arrest African Americans under situations when they would not arrest white suspects, and they are more likely to stop African Americans and see them as suspicious (Alexander 150-176). In the “Anything Can Happen With Police Around”: Urban Youth Evaluate Strategies of Surveillance in Public Places,” Michelle Fine and her comrades were inspired to conduct a survey over one of the major social issues - how authority figures use a person’s racial identity as a key factor in determining how to enforce laws and how the surveillance is problematic in public space. Fine believes it is critical to draw attention to the reality in why African Americans are being arrested at a much higher rate. This article reflects the ongoing racial issue by focusing on the injustice in treatment by police officers and the youth of color who are victims. This article is successful in being persuasive about the ongoing racial iss...
According to, “Murder on a Sunday Morning”, Brenton Butler was accused of a murder of Mary Ann Stephens. During the trial, there has been some moral and corrupt evidence to prove whether this “suspect” was guilty or not. Many logical pieces of evidence were provided during the trial such as, photographs of the clothing that was worn by Mr. Butler to observe whether Mr. Stephens could identify it – and proving that Mr. Butler was accused because of his race. There has been biased argumentation during this trial such as identifying racial profiling (African-American), another eye-witness name Mr. Stevens discovered a bag of Mary Ann Stephens near the garbage, been accused by the police for “taking the gun” out of bag – but failed to fingerprint
In the Criminal Justice system, the main goal is justice or in other words, a fair consequence to match a criminal action. An obvious, yet unmentioned underlying goal is to prevent injustice. Many times, justice prevails, and this is why our system prevails today. However, when justice fails, it is key to look at the information offered in order to better the system and to repay those that have been failed by it. One area that has shown itself as flawed is the area of interrogations though many other areas will be presented throughout this paper as well. By examining five cases involving questionable interrogation and showing other system flaws, I will enlighten others as to how our justice system handles its flaws, and hopefully I will provide motivation for further improvement.
Throughout the history of war, the United States, as well as other countries, have held and questioned their prisoners of war. The U.S. has used interrogation methods not fully questioned by its citizens until the last few decades. There is a difference between enhanced interrogation and torture. Those who are in favor say that it is a commendable way to retrieve information and has saved thousands of lives. Those who are against say enhanced interrogation is torture and is “a vile and depraved invasion of the rights and dignity of an individual” (Innes 6). Enhanced interrogation is an effective means of gathering information used to protect the lives of U.S. citizens (and others) and is not torture because it uses restrictive methods unlike torture which is motivated by malice.
McVeigh, Rory., Michael R. Welch, Thoroddur Bjarnason. 2003. “Hate Crime Reporting as a Successful Social Movement Outcome.” American Sociological Association. 68: 843-867.
The methods and techniques employed by police officers within the confines of the interrogation room are an existent enigma within democratic societies. Expectations of the police to solve crime with all available means, at times contradict the philosophies of fair play and the right to silence founded in fundamental justice. It is this contradiction that creates a fine line between fair inquiries in solving crime and the use of psychologically coercive techniques tantamount to torture. This paper will define torture and employ current research in an effort to understand the coercive and psychological factors of interrogation. The paper provides a review of the current legal approaches to interrogation through the eyes of the judiciary and posits that the judiciary’s use of subjective solutions through charter exclusion is ineffective in managing police conduct in the interrogation room. The reluctance of the judiciary to alter or halt methodically coercive interrogations by the police leaves no alternative approach, but use of the objectivity of substantive law.