Testimony Essays

A witness's testimony is the evidence. The credibility of evidences is one of the most important parts of a trial. A credible witness has the first-hand knowledge of the case and accurately states the facts. They're consistent in telling and re-telling their stories. A credible witness is confident and knowledgeable. If a witness has an emotional or personal interest in a trial's outcome, their credibility can be challenged for bias. A witness's credibility is important because it can make or break

Introduction Eyewitness testimony has been discussed to be one of the most arguable sources to be used in the jury system, especially on its reliability. The podcast series “Serial” presented by Sarah Koenig, has illustrated a crime case back in 1999, which is still a mystery until now, contained many perceptions indicating the reliability of memory in eyewitness testimony. The suspect of the crime is Adnan Syed, a seventeen-year-old high school student who is also the victim’s ex-boyfriend. There

Eyewitness testimony is sent to sensory memory whereby it involves retaining information and details. In order to recall specific features of a person, the victim must be very observant and concentrate during the event and after when trying to remember these details. This can be transferred to short-term memory, which has the capacity of remembering 7±2 memories, and if subjects rehearse what they have seen then the memory can be stored in long-term memory. Memories can then be retrieved when needed

Through her own traumatizing personal experiences, Jennifer Thompson has the profound experience to advocate against the strength of eyewitness testimony. As found in her case, the eyewitness testimony that she gave against Ronald Cotton, the accused rapist, was most likely the piece of evidence that put him behind bars. Thompson was a college student with a 4.0 GPA who studied the face of her attacker in order to identify him to the police. She prepared for the identification. She was the perfect

Eyewitness Testimony What would you do if you were a juror in a court room during a trial? Outside is a beautiful calm day where the sky was blue and the grass was green, but inside there was nothing but blood and tears and you had a serious decision to make. You stood in the front of the room, sweat on your forehead and knees buckled. On one side you have a loyal, non criminal alibis that states that this man was not at the scene of the crime, but on the other side you have an amazing, truly

Over time, the topic of whether eyewitness testimony should be used in the courtroom or not has been debated back and forth, with both sides making a valid argument. Over the years, thousands of people are accused of committing a crime that they were not involved in. As published by The Week, the article “Is Eyewitness Testimony too Unreliable to Trust?” states, “Every year, more than 75,000 eyewitnesses identify criminal suspects in the U.S., and studies suggest that as many as a third of them are

Blurred Vision: The Fallibility of Eyewitness Testimony On an early, foggy morning in April 1981, a Dallas, Texas woman awoke to find a man with a knife on top of her in her bed. After trying to get the knife from her attacker, she was cut on her hand, neck, and back, and then raped before the attacker fled the scene. According to the Innocence Project, in the report “Reevaluating Lineups: Why Witnesses Make Mistakes and How to Reduce the Chance of a Misidentification,” the victim originally told

results in the case. There was no weapon recovered. The majority of the evidence presented in this case was circumstantial evidence produce by witness testimony. Lack of a witness of the actual stabbing: None of the witnesses that testified about seeing parts of Mr. Butler’s altercation testified that they saw the stabbing occur. All their testimony stated was that they allegedly witnessed Mr. Nealy come out of an apartment building, exchanged words with Mr. Butler, squared up with Mr. Butler, exchanged

“Judicial gatekeeping of police-generated witness testimony” by Sandra Guerra Thompson is a synopsis of how the current judicial system works in regards to police-generated testimony. Specifically, the testimonies included are witness testimony, eyewitness identification testimony, police offer testimony about defendant confession, and a police informant’s testimony regarding a defendant’s incriminating statements. Guerra argues that these types of testimonies and evidence can be unreliable and persuasive

In the McDonald’s Coffee Case, the Judge and Jury found McDonald’s conduct to be callous, reckless and willful (Dedman, 1). The jury made its verdict based on the age of the Plaintiff, the temperature of the coffee, the testimonies of the witnesses and the rhetoric of the attorneys. It is important to note however, that the jury was also influenced by their collective knowledge and experience on the matter and their perceptions of the witnesses’ credibility and demeanor (Tozer

“training”. Mr. Cruz and Mr. Evans confirmed this theory that he participated in it. Mr. Cruz and Mr. Evans participated in the crime and they both stated in their testimonies that Mr. Harmon had been a participant in the robbery. Mr. Cruz testified that “Steve was going to be the lookout.” and Mr. Evans confirmed this in his testimony. He testified “ ‘You indicated that Mr. Harmon gave you the all-clear signal so you could proceed with the robbery, is that right?’ ‘Yeah.’ ” These two quotes from

WBEZ Chicago, Sarah Koenig, the narrator of the podcast series, brings up the fact that there are major inconsistencies in testimonies pertaining to the murder of Hae Min Lee. Big inconsistencies in testimonies made from accomplices, witnesses, peers, loved ones, etcetera, are detrimental to the legitimacy of any trial, but more specifically a homicide case. In testimonies made by Jenn Pusateri and Jay the severity of their involvement, according to their own stories goes back and forth from witness

with a babysitter. Later on, Barnett admitted that she did not have a babysitter at the house, and that she left the baby home with no intentions of coming back. She stated that she "knew Alison would die in a day or two" (p. 83). The prosecution testimony consisted of Barnett being

reject them. Hume believes the problem with testimony is the final issue with the question of miracles existing. Hume believes that testimonies cannot be believed because there is no evidence to support it. Hume believes that the biggest issues lies with the testifier; for instance, the testifier’s character, corroborating witnesses, and empirical evidence. The authority of any scripture (e.g., the Torah, the Bible, the Quran) is based on the testimony of the witnesses. The witnesses usually claim

Steve Sparrow was murdered. The custodian came in and saw someone jump out the window. Four suspects were found, Victor Vireo, Hector Hawk, Melanie Meadowlark and Wendy Warbler. The evidence found was collected and thoroughly analyzed. Eyewitness testimony, analysis of hairs and fibers, blood analysis, fingerprint analysis and DNA analysis were used to find the perpetrator. The most significant pieces of evidence tested for was Blood Type, DNA, fingerprints and hair analysis. Blood type narrowed the

Brown held that the murders did not have a blueprint tying them together, but his testimony actually had the reverse effect and this allowed ten other cases to be used as evidence against Williams (The Atlanta, n.d.). Finally, based on extensive testing and investigating by experts on the carpet and vehicle fibers, the prosecution was

against Charles Manson in the trial. Ms. Fromme testified about Charles Manson´s role in the family. Ms. Fromme talked about Mr. Manson being a ”father figure” for her and to the other girls in the group, and they looked up towards him. Ms. Fromme´s testimony was important because it was meant to show the jurors what kind of domination and control Charles Manson had over her and the other members of the Manson family. The prosecutors saw Ms. Fromme as an important eyewitness because she could testify

He testified that he helped Adnan bury Hae Min Lee's body, and his testimony was used as evidence against Adnan in the trial. Jay's testimony has been called into question and was a central point of discussion in the Serial podcast. Jay Wilds' testimony was called into question by some people, including the creators of the Serial podcast, because of inconsistencies in his statements. For example, Jay provided

case presented evidence and witnesses in the case. None of the witnesses, in this case, witnessed Wayne Williams commit any murders. The witnesses were there to testify about what they noticed Wayne Williams do, that was not normal or unusual. The testimony which was the most damaging was Angelo Foster who was a former press secretary to the mayor. He gave information about a conversation that he had with the defendant’s father. This conversation took place at the office of the federal Bureau of investigation

Shoah served a variety of functions including testifying, persuading and leaving a legacy as well as promoting moral messages. The witnesses play the role of testifiers as they are telling the story of their history by providing their personal testimonies. According to Felman, a witness that testifies is taking responsibility for the truth, as history has to be told from the perspective of a witness to the event (Felman, 90). Furthermore, the function of a witness who testifies is to appeal to the