The number one unethical issue that was the most salient to me was the police moved and manipulated evidence of pornography within the house. The statement was that child pornography was all over the house, but photos did not show that. Additionally, once they found Arnold’s child pornography it led to further investigation. The instant they found out he taught computer classes to children from home, it led to the accusation of molestation and his son, Jesse, was accused as well. They both did not have a fair trial, the judge and community concluded they were guilty before any facts due to the intensely publicized case. Due to the social context, the plea bargains were ridiculous in the way that if Jesse pleaded innocent he would be in jail for the rest of his life, but if he pleaded guilty it would be a few years in …show more content…
Obviously, the decision he had was to plead guilty knowing he was at a loss because he know where the judge stood on the decision. Arnold pleaded guilty with the hopes that it would reduce his son’s prison time. Because of the father-son relationship Jesse’s case was hard to overcome once Arnold pleaded guilty. Furthermore, the convictions lacked physical evidence and relied on children’s testimonies gathered by discredited investigative techniques. It was alarming that detectives asked leading questions when dealing with suggestible children. They told the parents and the children that they know something happened to the child. Implying the sodomy did occur and they were there to get the children to admit to such accounts. One witness I would consider unreliable was the child who went through hypnosis and “remembered” the abuse. However, when asked again to recount his story he mentions he remembers