Examples Of Bad Evidence

1 page of how you know something is credible or not when talking about evidence in the courtroom

In the courtroom a lie can send someone to their death. With this in mind it is very important that a jury member can identify whether a witness, or piece of evidence is credible. Many instances of bad evidence or false witnesses have been recorded in the history of law, so we must make an effort so that no more people get charged for crimes they did not commit.

It may come to surprise many people that a witness testimony might not always be accurate. There are are many reasons for this as witnesses may “change”their memory when they are revealed new information about the crime. One famous case where this occured was that of Cameron Todd Willingham who was executed on February 17, 2004 for the crime of triple infanticide. Initially many witnesses said that Willingham attempted to get back in the house and save his children, but after Willingham became the primary

Again take the case of Ronald Cotton, evidence against him in his case were stretches at best as the best the police could come up with was the fact that the same type of rubber found on Cotton’s was also found in the scenes or the rape. This evidence is flawed because many shoes use the same type of rubber which could lead to just about anybody being charged. Evidence can also be wrongly interpreted by experts as in the case of Cameron Todd Willingham in which courts failed to get a second opinion on the damaged caused by the fire and instead relied on an evaluation by two unreliable fire inspectors (one was a trainee and the other has a record of saying every fire was caused by arson). It is important in a case like this to have a second opinion as the first opinion may be misguided. Is the evidence Identified by a reliable source or by someone who has taken a 40 hour