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Police corruption and misconduct
Ethical violations with in law enforcement
Police corruption and misconduct
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The Azaria Chamberlain case is a reminder that the criminal justice system does get it wrong, with each error bearing its own human cost. Lindy Chamberlain’s conviction was based largely on the use of unreliable or improper forensic science during the
The Canadian case I selected in which a wrongful conviction occurred was of Robert Baltovich. In 1992 Baltovich was wrongfully convicted of the murder of his girlfriend Elizabeth Bain and he was sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for the next 17 years (Innocence Canada, 2016). This case took place in Scarborough, Ontario and Baltovich spent eight years behind bars for a crime he did not do. Baltovich got a retrial and he was finally released on April 22, 2008. Bain’s murder still remains a mystery, her car was found with a bloodstain on the back seat but her body was never discovered.
Throughout the court of Canada there has been many records of wrongfully convictions that have occured. Today we still investigate those cases and why this lead for an wrongful act. Thomas Sophonow, David Milgaard, and James Driskell are three of the many that were wrongfully convicted. They were all imprisoned for murder and served jail time for 5 or more years.
The source examines the impact of victims being wrongfully convicted and imprisoned, and the international approach to the issue. Australia has signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) signed by the Australian government in 1972, which states once a person has been wrongfully convicted and they have received a punishment, by law they are entitled to compensation unless its proved there is an unknown fact which has arisen. However, this was never adopted into Australian law, as a result any individual wrongfully convicted and imprisoned isn’t entitled to any compensation under Australian law. Australia’s commitments to signing this is that all states and territories must meet their obligations under article 14 (6) which are incorporation of the domestic article into domestic legislation to ensure a legal right to compensation. Though a state or territory government does have the ability to make an ex gratia payment to a wrongfully convicted individual through a request or their own doing.
Five percent of U.S citizens have been wrongfully convicted. The book “Monster” written by Walter Dean Myers is about Steve who is on trail for a murder that he didn’t commit. There is agreeance with the jury that Steve isn’t guilty because there is a lack of evidence of his involvement and it is inferred that Steve doesn’t have a criminal record. To begin with, there was a lack of evidence of Steve’s involvement. The author wrote “one of the men arguing she points to King”(Myers 114).
Have you ever been accused of something you didn 't do? Stealing something, not doing your homework, etc... Well there are people all over America that have been accused of stealing, killing or other crimes that they did not commit, and they were severely punished for it. People like Claude Jones, Cameron Todd Willingham, and Larry Griffin, were all falsely accused and punished for a crime someone else committed. Some were even put away because there was false evidence provided.
When the jury trial process is replaced with plea negotiations, we lose trust and reliability in the system. When we give efficiency that the plea bargain has provided power, it comes at a substantial cost. People who are indeed innocent of the crimes they were convicted have now been influenced into pleading guilty for the sake of efficiency. Not to mention the collateral consequences that accompany a person when they plead out. It also undermines the reliability of convictions in general (Gilchrist, 2011).
With millions of criminal convictions a year, more than two million people may end up behind bars(Gross). According to Samuel Gross reporter for The Washington Post, writes that also “even one percent amounts to tens of thousands of tragic [wrongful conviction] errors”(Gross). Citizens who are wrongfully convicted are incarcerated for a crime he or she did not commit. Many police officers, prosecutors, and judges are responsible for the verdict that puts innocents into prison. To be able to get exonerated many wait over a decade just to get there case looked at, not many are able to have the opportunity of getting out.
The principle in law that one is innocent until proven guilty has created much discourse. There are those who feel that the moment that one is arrested, there is reasonable belief that they committed the crime. However, there are those who feel that just as the principle states, one is, and should be taken as a victim and the outcome could be either way: guilty or not guilty. In fact, this argument is supported by the many cases of malicious prosecutions and mistaken identities.
Since the founding of our judicial system there have always been individuals claiming innocence to a crime that they have been found guilty of, traditionally, after their sentencing no matter how innocent they may or may not be would have to serve, live and possibly die by the decision of their peers. The Innocence Project, founded in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck alongside Peter J. Neufeld faces this issue by challenging the sentencing of convicted individuals who claim their innocence and have factual ground to stand upon. The Innocence Project uses the recent advances in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing to prove their client’s innocence by using methods that were not available, too primitive or not provided to their clients during their investigation,
Around 2 million Americans are currently residing in the jail system; around 5% of those inmates are believed to be innocent. With an estimate of around 230,000 innocent people currently living within the prison system, little action is taken to right these wrongs and assist them. The wrongfully accused often have little to no resources to aid them and they are stuck in prison for a crime they did not commit. These people face physical and mental abuse in prison alongside disbelief from those around them as they try to convince people of their innocence. Prisoners who are falsely accused faced impacts on both their mental and physical health.
Therefore, this is an outdated claim, due to our justice system changing and adapting to public beliefs. There may be a few wrongful convictions in the criminal justice system, however that does not make it cause more harm than good. In any system there are flaws, we cannot disregard all the good the justice system does. Although this system has flaws like all others, it is what safeguards our society's
Luckily, it is known what causes wrongful convictions and how to fix them. Many wrongful convictions are due to mistaken eyewitnesses, jailhouse snitches, or false evidence. I think many of the wrongful convictions could be solved with harder evidence, more information. A case should not rely on a single eye witness but multiple.
According to one on my sources, “The Registry reports that official misconduct was a contributing factor in 571 of 836 homicide exonerations 68.3%, very often in combination with perjury or false accusation, which also was a contributing factor in 68.3% of homicide exonerations.” (“Causes of Wrongful Convictions”). One of my sources also states that, “The data for the 34 cases in the NRE database[1] shows that the wrongful capital prosecutions involved more than mere errors.” (“Causes of Wrongful Convictions”). In the end, many death row cases have false
For centuries, the public’s perception of any and every type of justice has been distorted into whatever the mass media decides to show and portray. Today, popular culture and television romanticize what really happens in the legal aspects of their communities. People believe that what goes on in the offices and court rooms in television shows like Crime Scene Investigation and Law and Order are actually non-fiction. Although there is some sort of truth coming from these shows, they are not entirely correct. Most people do not voluntarily conduct their research about what is happening in our society today.
