Innocent until proven guilty; a phrase commonly used by the accused. But if the accused is guilty but never proven to be, does that mean he is innocent? An example of this is Steve Harmon in the novel, Monster. Steve is on trial for felony murder for a robbery. In the book, Monster by Walter Dean Myers, although Steve Harmon is pronounced innocent, he is actually guilty because he lied to the jury, is familiar with the crime, and is paranoid.…
Every day there are cases with little to no evidence and people going to jail despite the lack of evidence. That very thing happened to Adnan Masud Syed; On February 25, 2000, he was found guilty of the first-degree murder of Hae Min Lee. In January of 1999 Hae’s body was found manhandling strangled in a shallow grave in (name of park) one month after she went missing. Jay Wilds, Syed’s best friend, says he helped Syed dump her dead body but was not there for the murder. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? It is hard to convict someone of murder with no physical evidence.…
What would it be like if a person was convicted as guilty, but was really innocent? The murder of Hae Min Lee was committed on January 13, 1999. The person found guilty of this crime was Adnan Syed. Adnan was Hae’s boyfriend for a while and they were happy together, according to friends. Sarah Koenig is just a random person to Adnan Syed. She was told about the case by Rabia Chaudry whose brother was Adnan’s friend. Sarah heard what Rabia had to say about the case and was very interested. Since that time, she has done a podcast called, Serial. After investigating, it is clear that Adnan Syed is innocent because after school on the day of the murder, Adnan talked to Asia McClain at the library for a few minutes at 2:30 p.m., Adnan did not obsess over Hae after their breakup, and Mr. S was going to use the restroom in Leakin Park where he found Hae.…
Introduction:Dna evidence has been known for many years in crime scenes.Dna evidence was first discovered in 1986.Dna evidence can find anyone by finding blood,skin cells,hair,saliva,and semen.Dna evidence can be good at finding people 95% at a time,because of the cells in the dna.…
Basically means that the jury cannot be biased to the accused. If you had people on the jury who disliked you or immediately judge you, then most likely you are going to jail. The second part of this is, you can’t have someone who has been involved with the same crime. For example if a mother who is on the jury lost a son to a hit and run, and you’ve be accused of a hit and run, it would have already been biased. The trail must be held in the area the crime took place, or it wouldn’t be fair to the accused.…
| Ensure that innocent persons are not unfairly charged and that the evidence against a suspect is sufficient to support a specific charge. The finding of guilt or innocence either by trial or plea negotiation, as well as in the post-trial phase, which includes sentencing, appeals, and parole.…
Since 1992, almost three hundred people in the United States have been exonerated by the Innocence Project. What this means is that almost three hundred people have been acquitted for a crime that they were falsely convicted of committing and were then released back into society. Many of these false convictions were the result of a lack of technology back in the time of the trials which lead to unvalidated or improper use of forensic science. Some additional reasons that people are wrongfully convicted are misidentifications from eyewitnesses and false confessions. In this paper, I plan to write about Kenneth Ireland. His story shows how wrongful convictions and exonerations are issues in the United States.…
Crime is an interesting aspect of our every day society. People choose to commit crimes for various motives and intentions. One thing that will always go hand-in-hand with the concept of crime is the idea of innocence. Innocence is something that we are born with and something that we slowly loose as we mature and learn. In the event of a crime, someone is always guaranteed to experience a loss of innocence whether it is the person committing the crime, the victim, or a witness. The nature of crime is not innocent, therefore the results of a crime will not be innocent. As stated above, there are many different types of crime and these types can be seen through film and literature…
This could happen if someone was in the wrong place at the wrong time or framed by setting them up to look like they did a crime. There has been thousands of cases were there has been men and women who have been wrongly accused and have had to serve years and years in a jail or prison cell because they courts accused them of something they didn’t do. A great example of being wrongfully accused would be a woman named Gloria Killian, she was accused of a robbery and murder she had nothing to do with, and she was set up and served 16 years and four months. Gloria said “I’m innocent. I did not plan the robbery. I did not know those people. I was not involved. I am not the perpetrator”. The crime she was convicted of occurred in 1981, near Sacramento, California. What really happened was that two men had broken into the home of 71 year-old Ed Davies, who was a coin collector and kept a lot of gold and silver in his home. When people arrived on scene Ed was found dead on the kitchen floor. Within days, authorities got a tip and arrested career criminal Gary Masse and charged him with the Davies’ murder. Gloria says she never knew Masse, but when an anonymous tip mentioned her name and his together, she was arrested. She told police she had no idea who Gary was but they didn’t buy into her claims of innocence after they discovered a notebook…
In our judicial system, a person should be “innocent until proven guilty” and will usually only be acquitted or prosecuted when it is proven beyond reasonable doubt, that he or she is innocent or guilty. Lawyers, on either side, will need to build a case for or against their client and will use testimony from eyewitnesses to do so. The merits of using eyewitnesses firsthand accounts are manifold. Firstly, we can figure out the actual sequence of events.…
The innocence project and forensic science are two forms that can help determine who the actual preparatory was and can help people who have been wrongly convicted in a crime he/she did not commit. In many cases the forensic such as DNA, blood sample, or semen and other evidence that have been lost or even wrongly tested can end up becoming a big mistake that can send someone to jail that did not commit the crime. In the article, Forensic Problems and Wrongfully Convictions (2009) states that, the most wrongful convictions involve more than one contributing cases, for example, if an eyewitness may have wrongly identified an innocent person, and in the same case a forensic analyst may have testified that hairs from the crime scene match the defendant’s hair. In the jury’s eyes, the eyewitness testimony is strengthened by the forensic evidence (Forensic Problems and Wrongfully Convictions, 2009). Not always the eye witnesses are right with what they say so having the right forensic evidence can help with determine who is actually the perpetrator. Such as this case were the eyewitness was not so good and also a lot of the evidence was miss communicated.…
“Innocent until proven guilty” is what our judicial system is based on. Not “innocent based on prior convictions”. Basing a verdict on a person’s prior convictions is just unfair. Everyone should be entitled to a fair trial based on evidence gathered that is related to the crime at hand. If suspects continue to be judge on prior convictions it would make it very hard for them to make positives steps forward.…
“A wrongful conviction is when a subsequent investigation finds that an individual who has been tried and found guilty of a crime is, in fact, innocent of that crime” (Bako). A wrongful conviction is not just a simple mistake, lives and families are devastated. This happens more often than people think it does. Even though this person very well may be innocent, it takes years to even appeal their case if they can even get that far. The key issues with wrongful convictions are that prosecutors rely on unreliable evidence such as eyewitness identification of a person that does not really know what he or she saw on that specific date and much, much more. The Innocence project strives to exonerate those whose rights have been unconstitutionally taken away from them through the use of DNA evidence. “The development of DNA testing has allowed the Innocence Project to help exonerate 344 innocent Americans - 20 of whom were on death row (Bako).” These 344 exonerees represent how the American criminal justice system can fail the people she was designed to protect. The innocence project works to raise awareness to the issue our justice system faces when it comes to minorities in particular. Continued research and advocacy, as well as improving the effectiveness of the criminal justice process itself, are all necessary steps to ensuring the innocence of those wrongly accused of a crime. Over 75% of…
When punishing a person for a crime there is always a chance the person was wrongfully accused.…
The principle of "innocent until proven guilty" should not be taken lightly. "Presumption of innocence" means to stress that the prosecution has the duty to prove each charge of the illegal/unlawful act beyond a reasonable doubt and that the accused bears no burden of proof.…