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Pros And Cons Of The Daubert Standard

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Framing Truths How do we know what is true? How do we know if a man sentenced to death was truly a murderer? A question echoed by thousands of people revolting against the death penalty as the story of Todd Willingham made it to the headlines. In The New Yorker, under the title of Trial by Fire, came the terrifying enigma: “Did Texas execute an innocent man?” followed by a thorough listing of the evidence that was used to convict Willingham of setting his house on fire and resulting in the death of his three children, and how they were later disproved. There is a great misconception about the source of controversy in issues like these. Many people would argue about the essentiality of the death penalty in deterring crimes and others would …show more content…

Under the modified Daubert standard, relevant scientific evidence is only admissible if it is centered upon testable hypotheses, conforms with the standard rate of potential errors, has been peer reviewed, and if the method is generally accepted in the scientific community (Hoog, 2008). However, there are three problems with the application of the Daubert standard. Firstly, David E. Bernstein and Jeffrey D. Jackson (2004) proved that there was no uniformity in the application of the standard in the sense that it’s only abided with in a portion of the states, and not necessarily with full adherence. Secondly, since the judge is not a scientist, it is difficult for him/her to, without doubt, determine the full honesty of the experts’ testimonies. An example from the Willingham case would be the two medical experts asserting that he was a sociopath although one was an irrelevant family counselor and the other, known as “Dr. Death” and later expelled from the American Psychiatric Association for ethical violations, had not even spoken to Todd Willingham. Last but not least, science is characterized by its incessant evolution in a way that a single new anomaly can easily falsify a strong scientific theory. In simple English, even experts know that there is no ultimate certainty to …show more content…

Anyone can end up in Todd Willingham’s place; anyone, even you or someone you might know, can have their life seized away from them under the title of justice due to the ignorance of the system in understanding how evidence should be interpreted and due to the gullibility that makes people believe almost anything they hear. So, despite the capital punishment being only issued if the suspect was found guilty beyond reasonable doubt, a question remains unanswered: In a system where science and pseudoscience are indistinguishable, how can one define reasonable doubt? Yes, there should be punishments to deter crimes; but, we should also acknowledge the fact that science says there is nothing called reaching the truth- there is only approaching it. So for the sake of that asymptote, we should bear in mind J.R.R Tolkien’s saying (1954) “Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in

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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).

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In 2015, Smalarz found that a misidentification testimony by very confident eyewitnesses has happened in about seventy-two percent of cases where innocent people have been accused and were later found innocent by DNA testing. Someone can tell you a story with details, confidence, and passion yet it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is true. In correspondence with Smalarz, in 1977, Randall Adams was sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer in Dallas, Texas. An alleged eyewitness, who in fact was the actual killer, framed Mr. Adams; he received immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony. Mr. Adams was in fact not involved in the crime.

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John Louis Evans, half of a well known criminal duo, committed over forty crimes while on parole with his partner, Wayne Ritter. Included in those many incidents were robberies, kidnappings, and extortion schemes. Eventually, these crimes turned deadly when the pair killed a pawn shop owner in the midst of a robbery. After only fifteen minutes in court for the murder, Evans was sentenced to be put to death by electric chair. Evans was put to death on April 22, 1983 in Yellow Mama, an electric chair built by a convict six decades before, and had not been used in over two.

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On December 23, 1991 a fire claimed the lives of three girls. The fire was thought to have caused the fire that killed them. Mr. Willingham was executed February 17, 2004 and claimed his innocence multiple times including the day he was put to death. Even though, Mr. Willingham has already been executed there is a lot of conflicts about his death. The conflict had arisen when many fire officials determined there was not significant amount of evidence to determine the fire was caused by him, or even that it was arson.

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My opinion on the Todd Willingham case is actually very simple: Evidence lies. Mr. Willingham was the victim of a combination of a greedy prosecution seeking a conviction in what “appeared” to be a cut and dry case and his own cowardice, both of which directly led to his conviction and subsequent execution. The documentary did a good job of painting Todd in a negative light, so negative that when asked who thought he was guilty midway through, the vast majority of our class thought he was. This is actually a real life representation of how the jury and prosecution probably felt until they were presented with new evidence. Mr. Willingham had a history of domestic abuse of his wife and because of this and the domestic nature of the crime

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In Roper v. Simmons there are two issues that must be addressed, the first being the issue of moral maturity and culpability. The defense in the trial phase of this case argued that Mr. Simmons was an at an age where he was not responsible enough to fully understand the effects and consequences of his actions. The majority draws on Atkins v. Virginia to argue that this specific precedent supports their case that the death penalty should not be imposed on the mentally immature or impaired. However, an important point to be made is that the Atkins v. Virginia decision is geared towards the clinical definition of mental retardation: significant limitations that limit adaptive skills. Also, another important question to consider is the competency and premeditation of Mr. Simmons’ crime in this case.

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The assessment of an affirmed expert capability in his or her field is not a novel idea, and it is well inside of the capacities of our skilled federal judiciary. Once a judge has chosen a witness is qualified to serve as a specialist, Daubert requires the judge to make an autonomous appraisal to "guarantee that any experimental confirmation or proof conceded is important, as well as solid. This includes an examination of the philosophy fundamental the expert assessment to figure out if it uses legitimate experimental techniques and strategies. Daubert recommends a few components to help government judges in assessing whether a specific experimental hypothesis or study is solid: (1) its observational testability; (2) whether the hypothesis or study has been distributed or subjected to associate survey; (3) whether the known or potential rate of mistake is

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Even with a matured technology, an immense amount of follow-up and research will still be required, and then who is to determine if the outcome will ultimately benefit the greater good or if an injustice will be imposed among the individual with no prior criminal history. Peikoff conveys both opposing and supporting outcomes of the public administrating this information, which includes: employer and academia abuses through unwarranted rejection or the ability to predict if a convicted criminal will be a repeat offender. The ultimate concern remains, can an individual be judged on actions not yet committed; therefore, being ruled by the what if? Piekoff ties the premises together by then expressing that acting on “biological predictions” (2013) would violate basic civil rights through the disregard of the Fourteenth Amendment, equal protection for all. A society who punishes individuals before proven guilty, solely based of scientific research, undermines the foundation of a free democratic country.

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When one thinks about the court systems and the way justice is served they see a system that is fair and just. A system that correctly provides punishment to the guilty party, and one that can discover the truth within the innocent party. On the surface level this appears to be true. Hundreds of thousands of people are incarcerated each year in the United States, which in reality provides a false sense of safety to citizens. While a large percentage of incarcerations are of guilty parties, according to a study in C. Ronald Huff’s book, Convicted But Innocent: Wrongful Conviction and Public Policy, approximately 100,000 innocent people are convicted every year.

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Even though attorneys and prosecutors should use scientific evidence

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Haag (2007) writes that the death penalty is feared more than imprisonment because of its finality in that the person is excommunicated from the living. As such, it is a more effective and necessary form of punishment. Berns (1996) writes that the law must be “inspiring or commanding ‘profound respect or reverential fear’” for it to be effective in deterring criminals. However, people in favor of abolishing the death penalty can argue that despite its deterrence benefits, the life of the murderer is important. This means that the victim’s life is less important even though the offender is the one who has committed a crime.

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(Miladinovic, Z., & Lukassen, J., 2015, February 25) The outcome of a just trial and its verdict, is based on proof of evidence, which ensures what 's best for the

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Some see the death penalty as the only means to extract justice for victims. Others see it as a morally reprehensible act where a second wrong is committed in order to make something right. With recent issues surrounding the death penalty in which execution hasn 't gone as planned sparking a nationwide debate, this is my outlook on why I 'm for the death penalty not only being abolished in the state of Texas but in addition to the entirety of the US..

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Death penalty is like the ‘’tooth for a tooth – eye for an eye’’ theory. Instead of acting inhuman to our fellow beings we should find a better way to solve the mind of criminals. Making the problem vanish is not a good idea. We should do psychological researching instead! I, myself have a lot of faith in humanity.

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Capital Punishment is the death penalty for those who commit murder. The thought behind this punishment is a life for a life. There has been debate on if the death penalty is right or wrong. Some poeple want the death penalty to be illegal while others argue it is needed to deter crime. There are many valid arguments regarding the death penalty.

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