Wrongful Convictions
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Running head: WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS DISCUSSION |
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Running head: WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS DISCUSSION
Wrongful Convictions Discussion
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Wrongful Convictions Discussion
The Problem:
Wrongful convictions are common in the current justice system regardless of the intricate processes involved. The criminal justice department seeks to eliminate wrongful convictions by allowing any court case to get appealed. The condition allows the second review of a case by a judge who seeks to correct wrongs that occurred when victims’ constitutional rights are ignored.
The Factors Bearing on the Problem:
This paper shall discuss these issues and their connection to the cases ongoing in the current environment. The main issues that cause wrongful convictions are:
· eyewitness misidentification that occurs whereby victims or eyewitnesses are confident that a person committed a crime yet they were wrong.
· police investigation – there can be errors during police investigation especially if the got initiated by wrongful identification of perpetrators.
· false confessions – this occurs when perpetrators have been coached to lie about committing a crime.
· perjury – this occurs when persons in criminal proceeding give wrongful testimonies even after speaking under oath.
Discussion:
Eyewitness misidentification is common since the person giving testimonies is usually under pressure to identify a criminal. The problem occurs more since the human memory undergoes reconstruction (Duncan, 2019).
According to Duncan (2019), police investigation can be untruthful especially when they rely on untrustworthy informants. This occurs more since police threaten informants using criminal history and cases like deportation (Duncan, 2019).
Duncan (2019) further states that false confessions contribute to wrongful convictions since they affect that validity of the entire criminal proceeding. The confessions that are found admissible in court at times, do not undergo the critical assessment they should undergo.
Perjury occurs more when witness and criminal informants are under pressure by the police, prosecutors or lawyers to give a certain testimony.
Conclusion:
To surmise, wrongful convictions usually occur depending on the severity of a crime where the persons affected may get pressured to solve the case quickly. It is the responsibility of the police to conduct factual investigations.
Reference
Duncan, C. (2019) "Justifying Justice: Six Factors of Wrongful Convictions and Their Solutions," Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science: Vol. 7, Article 6. Available at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/themis/vol7/iss1/6