Preview

Analysis: The Heart Of Duty: A Call To Professionalism

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1113 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Analysis: The Heart Of Duty: A Call To Professionalism
The Heart of Duty: A Call to Professionalism
CM 107-23 College Composition I
Professor Laudani
Kaplan University
Nolan L. Stiles
September 20, 2014

The heart of duty for any legal professional is to see that justice is carried out. Wrongful convictions are a gross miscarriage of justice. Many in the legal community are opposed to legal reform. This is truly no secret. However, with the rate of wrongful conviction much higher than professionals would believe or accept, reforms are needed to the criminal justice system. A simple dedication to professionalism among prosecution and defense attorneys may go a long way to avoid such convictions.
Justice is not something tangible. Much like love, it truly is a feeling. Although it may only be a feeling, legal professionals are charged with
…show more content…
When the system fails to protect and serve, people are sentenced to harsh prison terms such as Michelle Murphy whom has been recently exonerated by DNA evidence but only after serving more than 20 years in prison having been accused and convicted of murdering her infant son. (Massie 2014) This is a gross miscarriage of the justice that judges, attorneys and even jurors are sworn to protect. When Justice fails, American citizens feel victimized, family and friends lose faith in the system, where else is there to turn? The legal system is certainly the last bastion that stands between Americans and tyranny. Yet the criminal justice system fails American citizens daily. “There are systemic frailties in the American criminal justice process, weaknesses that warrant a coordinated and strategic reform effort.” (Gould, 2008)
Wrongful conviction happens at an alarming rate. Call it personal pride. Call it

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Court Systems Paper

    • 1224 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The United States court system is composed of numerous sections of bodies of law that function together to ensure justness is served in fulfillment with the United States Constitution, federal, state and local laws. These organizations include law enforcement, the courts and, correction system all of which have a legitimate responsibility to maintain the American Peoples trust. I am a strong advocate for our court system, although it can use some fine-tuning every level of Justice could stand some improvement but that takes time, commitment and the right officials in office.…

    • 1224 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck, the co-founders of the Innocence Project, which works to exonerate those who were wrongly convicted and fights for equality in the criminal justice system, are a social entrepreneurial unit I identify with. Following the release of a study establishing that 70% of wrongful convictions were the results of incorrect eyewitness reports, Neufeld and Scheck took it upon themselves to help the lives of those falsely identified and imprisoned, who were too poor or oppressed by the bias of the justice system to unbury themselves from their judicial graves. I find this especially important because those who are already oppressed in our society are silenced further with a system that is supposed to protect and give justice…

    • 267 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Unit 6 Assignment

    • 836 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Since you are a District Attorney, there are certain things that you can do to prevent wrongful convictions from happening. Earlier I talked about antiquated forensic testing leading to inaccurate…

    • 836 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Chapter 5 describes how, within the last century, mounting scholarly evidence has exposed institutional flaws within our judicial and police systems, resulting in the convictions of innocent persons for capital crimes. In some cases, overzealous behavior by police and prosecutors, led to the imprisonment of “factually” innocent defendants. While police sometimes coerced confessions or failed to conduct full investigations, prosectors and judges failed to evidence which might exonerate the defendant. Other judicial violations found through study included failure to follow courtroom procedures related to rule of law. One of the first wrongful conviction initiatives was through a congressional investigation in 1912. Although a noble undertaking for its time, the reports was flawed in its evidentiary compilation. The data was poorly collected and its findings poorly deduced. According to the report, no innocent person had been executed by the Federal government.…

    • 509 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The adversarial nature of formal conflict resolution upon which our common law system is based often neglects to provide American citizens with justice. Clearly justice can be defined in a list of different ways, and justice cannot be regarded as one definite, worldwide accepted ideal. For the purposes of this discussion, however, the function of criminal trials in the U.S. will be defined in the most simple of terms: the discovery of the truth in a given situation through due process of law, such that those who are guilty of crimes portrayed by arranged laws are punished through fines, imprisonment, and other established reprimands. This truth, however, is sometimes not reached in trials, and the adversarial system is often to blame for this failure. More specifically, it is the roll that attorneys play within this system in which it is the responsibility of these officials only to win cases with any means legally possible, not to aid the discovery of true facts that prevent the system’s ability to uncover the truth in matters. Thus, the adversarial roll of lawyers within the legal system hinders the pursuit of discovering who, in fact, is innocent, and who is guilty in legal disputes and trials, effectively impeding the system’s ability to achieve its purpose in the aforesaid…

    • 1737 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Growing up in America, , as a black male in Philadelphia, Pa, throughout my life I have seen many of my ethnic group arrested and convicted for various crimes and offences. This has had a profound effect on my perspective of the Pennsylvania Judicial system, including police, courts and prison. Being in an environment that glorified violence, I saw young men fall victim to the delusion that we could avoid the consequences of crime. But I have also seen the unfairness of the system and the bad results of incarceration for individual and families. Since attending Community College of Philadelphia, I have taken two classes that have given me a better insight into this subject. Academic work for History 101 and English 102 have shown me the nation we live in has been built off the exploitation of lower class citizens, who as a result live in environments cut off from mainstream society. These citizens often experience discrimination as well.…

    • 1427 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Broken Windows Theory

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Criminal Justice System is a necessary aspect of American life. America is known for being the land of the free. If you are living in America you have something called “rights”. Rights as a U.S. citizen are based off “The Bill of Rights” in the United States Constitution. The Constitution clearly states the rights that each and every American citizen are entitled to. Most of the population don’t quite understand how many rights they actually do have as an American. With freedom and rights in our citizens’ defense, it’s only natural that more crimes occur and the criminals become incarcerated. But, did you ever think maybe the innocent get put behind bars all because they did not understand their rights? I have the perfect example which forever changed American history and those wrongfully accused; it’s the case of Gideon v. Wainwright.…

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Due Process Model

    • 1681 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The American judicial system 's need for an effective strategy to combat crime has been a continuously debated issue. While employing the adversarial models of crime control and due process, America struggles to find balance on a pendulum between individual rights and social order. In this window of opportunity, crime control and due process are examined and reflected into the eyes of society.…

    • 1681 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every convicted felon waiting on death row costs the American people over nine million dollars yearly to imprison. Such an absurd amount of money should be spent on the rehabilitation of these troubled individuals rather than in prolonging their lives only for their own demise. Before reverting to the early philosophy of Hammurabi “an eye for an eye” America should look to its own foundation, the constitution, as well as compare the costs and benefits of such a policy being legal. Despite enormous protections offered by the federal and states constitutions throughout the United States, many people have been executed in spite of evidence of their innocence. When capital punishment is concerned, most Americans believe our criminal system is close to infallible. Many assume that if factual errors do occur at trial, they will be discovered and corrected by higher courts. People believe that the innocent are rarely wrongly convicted and they are certainly not executed. Unfortunately, there is a large numbers of innocents people who…

    • 319 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Third, great level of ethics and integrity is what leads to better leadership of a group. In the article Ethics Training in Law Enforcement…

    • 1080 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Everyday 2,220,300 inmates live their lives in prisons throughout the United States. That’s 0.91% of the adult population, or 1 in 110 (Glaze 2013). What if you were next? The thought would scare anyone and the flaws in the system pose a threat to low income individuals and minorities. The sole purpose of the Justice System is to deliver justice for all, by only convicting and sentencing the guilty, while preventing offenders from reoffending. The system was designed to protect the innocent. What if that was not the case? In fact, Out of the 733,000 people held in local jails at this time, 2/3 of them have not been convicted and many are there simply…

    • 1304 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    “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…

    • 1488 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A soldier is measured by his ability to do his job successfully, tactfully, and professionally. Being a professional at everything you do will help you succeed in every aspect of your life. The definition of professionalism as by Merriam-Webster is the conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or professional person. Being in the army as soldiers we consider ourselves professionals. How we hold ourselves to the army values and the soldiers creed shows how professional we are. We can consider ourselves professionals because we live by the soldiers creed, the army values, and our uniformity.…

    • 422 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wrongful conviction can be described as a miscarriage of justice or an unfair decision in a court of law. It is important to identify wrongful convictions and find ways to reduce or eliminate the causes. We need to free the wrongly prosecuted through DNA testing and help…

    • 1347 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays