Preview

False Testimony In Court Cases

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
253 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
False Testimony In Court Cases
“He genuinely believed the accusations against him had been a serious misunderstanding and that… he’d be released in a few days” (Stevenson, 2015, 55). False testimony has always been an undeniable issue in court cases. Walter McMillan was accused of sodomy. A word he did not even know the meaning of. He was then threatened to be lynched when he told the arresting officer that did not understand the meaning of the crime he was being accused of. “This provoked Tate, who unleashed a torrent of racial slurs and threats” (Stevenson, 2015, 48). Even though Officer Tate did not investigate the case or Walter’s background, he sent him to Holman Correctional Facility (Stevenson, 2015, 50-53). Because law enforcement made the Myer’s story hard to
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    West Memphis Three Case
    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages

    West Memphis Three Case

    Several elements of the confession did not match up. Such as the timing, the place, and how they were killed. All of these were extremely influential elements that should have been considered, but they were not. The police continued to guide Jessie until the testimony was closer to accurate. Jessie Misskelley’s confession was not obtained ethically by any standard, yet it was still used at trial to put away three teenage boys for a great majority of their lives.…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Injustice In Matthew James Nance's A Mockery Of Justice
    • 389 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Injustice In Matthew James Nance's A Mockery Of Justice

    In an article by Matthew James Nance titled “A Mockery of Justice” he writes about an inmate’s tale of what happen to David Martin Long in the late 80’s. While David Long was still incarcerated there was a reporter that was interested in writing about his story her name was Laura Miller and in 1994 she came to the prison to interview him. She wrote about his injustice in which he wanted to be executed but because Texas law had an automatic appeal process his execution could not be carried out and therefore no matter how many times that he wanted to oppose this the state of Texas denied him his execution. He tells her about his trial and how short the deliberation was. He goes into great, detail in telling her of his wrong doing and how he knows…

    • 389 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Eugenia Ginzburg's Journey Into The Whirlwind
    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Eugenia Ginzburg's Journey Into The Whirlwind

    Ginzburg begins her memoir with a series of questions and answers as if she is providing the reader a transcript of the meeting and provoking a feeling of outrage. One notable quote to represent this would be when a speaker says, “Don’t you know he’s been arrested? Can you imagine anyone’s being arrested unless there’s something definite against him” (Ginzburg 9-10)? Ginzburg’s method of quoting this speaker’s response is an effective rhetorical device of letting the facts speak for themselves. By means of that, this quote represents the atmosphere at the time in which anyone accused was considered guilty…

    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Peter Rose Case
    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Peter Rose Case

    When the people of the United States of America think of justice, depictions come to mind. To some, justice is represented by the Lady Justice standing strong with a long robe and scale in her hand. This scene is enough to represent the balance that is seen in the justice system hoping for a fair distribution of law, with no bias or corruption. Unfortunately as every American strives for justice to prevail, there are cases each year where this is not the case. False convictions have become prevalent in the court of law and should be addressed to be aware of such corruption. In this specific instance, Peter Rose is one of the thousands of cases each year where the accused was found guilty and later exonerated…

    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Scottsboro Boys Research Paper
    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Scottsboro Boys Research Paper

    In conclusion, the Scottsboro Boys’ case stimulated a great change in the way interracial cases are treated. It established that people may not be excluded from juries on the basis of race and that criminal defendants are entitled to effective assistance of counsel. The nine Scottsboro Boys, despite being accused by two white women, were able to break the racial boundary and prompt a permanent change on the way blacks are treated across…

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Did Atticus Win The Trial In To Kill A Mockingbird
    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages

    How Did Atticus Win The Trial In To Kill A Mockingbird

    The court ended up believing their word simply because they were white and the accused man was black. Its defiantly not the first time this has happened, take the Scottsboro boys for instance two white women lied to get out of trouble and the boys got in trouble even though they did not rape the ladies. Mayella could not get her story straight on how Tom had raped, beaten and chocked her and was making the story up on the spot. ( ‘I ducked and it- it glanced, That‘s what it did. I ducked and it glanced off‘ Mayella had finally seen the light. ’ you’re becoming suddenly clear on this point. A while ago you couldn‘t remember too well, could you?’) (P.187). The Ewells aren’t only putting trouble on Tom Robinson but also on Jem and Scout…

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Institutional Flaws In Criminal Cases
    • 509 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Institutional Flaws In Criminal Cases

    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
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Jeffery Deskovic's False Confession
    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Jeffery Deskovic's False Confession

    The chapter focuses on the importance of contaminated confessions by expanding on the various reasons behind the possibility as to why a confession might be contaminated, these are identified throughout the text in various explanations as to why confessions can be tampered with: the puzzle of false confessions, contaminated false confessions, law enforcement practices, corroborated and nonpublic facts, denying disclosing facts, recorded false interrogations, and inconsistent facts (Garrett, 2011). In the case of Jeffery Deskovic’s false confession the police officers gave him facts that were explicit to the case and despite the DNA evidence that was pointing to someone else committing the crime, Jeffery was convicted for 16 years. Jeffery sued for his civil rights being violated. The puzzle behind false confessions is that police are suspected of feeding details of a crime to a compliant suspect. The book asked the question “why do innocent people confess in detail to crimes they had not committed” The relational is that if an individual gives the police exactly what they want then that will, in turn, let those being questioned to be able to go home (Garrett, 2011).…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    In Re Gault
    • 324 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In Re Gault

    On the morning of June 8, 1964, the sheriff of Gila County, Arizona took into custody one Gerald Gault, without notifying his parents, after his neighbor, Mrs. Ora Cook, reported receiving a offense and inappropriate phone call from the 15 year old boy. Once his mother found out where he was, the county’s Children’s Detention Home, she was not permitted to take him home. According to Gault, it was his friend Ronald Lewis who made the phone call and once Gault heard Lewis talking on the phone in such a matter he took the phone from Lewis, hung it up, and sent him out the door. Gault was not informed of his charges, he was not given the option to an attorney, he was also not given the opportunity to question of even face his accuser. Once Gault was released from the Detention Center, the Dean center his mother a notification informing her when Gault’s hearing would be. At the hearing, Judge McGhee ruled that the boys behavior was that of an delinquent child and was sentenced to 6 years in a juvenile detention center. After receiving this sentence, his mother went to the Arizona supreme court which “vigorously cross-examined McGhee’s actions. He justified his actions by providing the 2 reasons and their basis as to why the boy was ruled delinquent. The supreme court upheld him, and her appeal, denied. She then went to the supreme court for help. She stated that Gault was not informed of his charges nor was he told of his rights to counsel, to confront the accuser, or to remain silent. She also said that she was not properly informed of the boy’s hearing and the fact that the court admitted a “unsworn hearsay testimony” and did not keep any records of the proceedings. The supreme court ruled 8-1 in Gault’s favor, stating that this was a clear violation of Gerald Gault’s 6th Amendment…

    • 324 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Wrongful Convictions In Kenneth Ireland
    • 1763 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Wrongful Convictions In Kenneth Ireland

    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.…

    • 1763 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Criminal Procedure Probable Cause Article
    • 474 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Criminal Procedure Probable Cause Article

    Journalist Peter Lance was pulled over early in the morning on New Year’s Day when Officer Bruno Peterson said he observed Lance’s car stopped at a green light for three to five seconds. Officer Peterson said he pulled on side of Lance and saw him looking down so he shone his light toward the car. Lance then looked at the officer then looked back down into his lap before looking up and driving through the green light. Lance was pulled over a block-and-a-half later and when the departments drinking and driving officer showed up and conducted the investigation. After conducting the investigation the arresting officer Beutel, reported that Lance failed his breathalyzer and field sobriety test. The case went before a judge and both sides presented their stories and evidence. After hearing both sides, the judge decided to dismiss the case saying Officer Peterson did not have probable cause to stop Peter Lance to begin with. (Meagher, 2011).…

    • 474 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Gloria Killian Forgiveness
    • 1279 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Gloria Killian Forgiveness

    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…

    • 1279 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Inaccurate Eyewitness Testimony
    • 1411 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Inaccurate Eyewitness Testimony

    In society it is substantially common for people to be exonerated for a crime they did not commit. Unfortunately it is even more common for that to happen when they are incarcerated due to inaccurate eyewitness testimonies. Eyewitness research has demonstrated that there are a multitude of ways to conduct identification processes, however, the processes that police often use today are more likely to encourage inaccurate identification. In addition there have been many case studies of exonerated people that show the downfalls of eyewitness testimony. Wrongful incarceration has consistently demonstrated that inaccurate identification carries a big weight when it comes to wrongful identification, in fact, in the article Contamination of Eyewitness Self-Reports and Mistaken-Identification Problem by Laura Smalarz and Gary L. Wells, they state that there is an average of thirty three percent of witnesses who make an identification from a lineup identify a known innocent filler. There is a lot of thought behind the processes of identification but there are so many variables that can taint a subject’s confidence.…

    • 1411 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Boston Marathon
    • 354 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Boston Marathon

    beginning a man was falsely accused of being involved in the incident. He maintained his…

    • 354 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    The Scottsboro Boys Trial
    • 1974 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Scottsboro Boys Trial

    Even when all evidence proves a black man's innocence his word seems to be false…

    • 1974 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More

Related Topics