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Homework answers / question archive / Write a policy paper Introducing Wrongful conviction and analyzing the wrongful conviction of Kristin Blaise Lobato
Write a policy paper Introducing Wrongful conviction and analyzing the wrongful conviction of Kristin Blaise Lobato.
10-12 pages
Must be in APA format.
Please see the attached outline
Outline: (one suggestion)
Include multiple references to support your argument or to make a parallel argument
1 Huy Vuong Prof. Warren JS 189 03/23/2021 Topic materials: Wrongful Conviction (Kristin Blaise Lobato) Outline: I. Introduction a) Wrongful conviction is a scenario where innocent people get punished in the justice system for the offenses they did not commit. b) Wrongful conviction or miscarriage of justice is caused by procedural errors in the collection, testing, and presentation of forensic evidence, false confession, and eyewitnesses' misidentification. c) Kirstin Blaise Lobato was exonerated after serving 16 years in jail following the wrongful conviction in the murder of Duran Bailey in 2001. d) Thesis Statement: The aim of this paper is to present policies that will reduce the similar miscarriage of justice from happening in the future. II. Literature Review a) Jurors’ education on identifying reliable witness testimony (Leo, 2017). i. The policy aims at having the Jurors taught how to distinguish between reliable and unreliable eyewitness testimonies (Kleider?Offutt et al., 2017). ii. Findings 1. Jurors relies so much on the eyewitness evidence (Kleider?Offutt et al., 2017). 2. Memory error is common among the eyewitnesses (Leo, 2017). 2 iii. Pros and cons of policy 1. Teaching the jurors reliable eyewitness testimony identification is simple and not time-consuming (Kleider?Offutt et al., 2017). 2. The policy does not guarantee the accuracy of the eyewitness evidence (Zalman et al., 2012). b) Cross-examination of the prosecution’s expert witnesses and forensic evidence i. The defense should cross-examine the forensic evidence presented during the trial, to avoid misrepresentation of the evidence (Leo, 2017). ii. Findings 1. Some forensic scientists are corrupted and hence they deliberately misrepresent forensic evidence (Zalman et al., 2012). 2. Contamination of the interrogations occur during forensic investigations (Leo, 2017). iii. Pros and cons of policy 1. The policy would reveal the expert’s corruption and contamination of interrogations (Kleider?Offutt et al., 2017). 2. The policy would prolong the trials and hence delay justice c) Fair trial - Not giving criminals incentives for them to testify (Zalman et al., 2012). i. The policy seeks to stop police and prosecution from promising the criminals things like lighter sentences for them to testify (Leo, 2017). ii. Findings 1. Most of the testimonies that criminals provide when they are given incentives are false (Leo, 2017). 3 2. The incentives given by the police in an exchange of testimony are unreasonable (Kleider?Offutt et al., 2017). iii. Pros and cons of policy 1. The policy discourages the making of false testimonies (Zalman et al., 2012). 2. There is a delay in the collection of evidence (Kleider?Offutt et al., 2017). III. Conclusion A. The three policies will increase the accountability of the enforcement officers and court personnel in ensuring that the evidence used to convict criminals is accurate and reliable. 4 Annotated bibliography IV. Zalman, M., Larson, M., & Smith, B. (2012). Citizens’ Attitudes Toward Wrongful Convictions. Criminal Justice Review (Atlanta, Ga.), 37(1), 51–69. a) The justice system is failing people by convicting innocent individuals. After serving for many years, these individuals are exonerated. Exoneration at this time does not have a significant impact on the individual’s life since their time had already been wasted. The causes of wrongful convictions are varied. Nonetheless, all wrongful conviction incidences have elements of errors and irregularities. Unfortunately, the justice system does not recognize these irregularities when they happen. This necessitates reforms in the justice system. b) This article helps to put the wrongful conviction of Kirstin Blaise Lobato into context. In this case, the justice system failed Kirstin by not detecting irregularities and procedural errors that were present in Kirstin's case. V. Leo, R. (2017). The Criminology of Wrongful Conviction: A Decade Later. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 33(1), 82–106. a) Wrongful conviction is one of the fields that criminology studies focus on. Many theories and methodologies have been made trying to understand what causes wrongful convictions and how they can be prevented. All scholars agree that inaccuracies and errors in the justice system are the causes of wrongful convictions. These errors can reduce if all the actors in criminal justice take responsibility for their actions and mistakes. 5 b) I will apply the theories and methodologies identified in this article to explain Kirstin’s wrongful conviction. I will also apply the recommendations that the article made to develop policies that can help to prevent incidences similar to that of Kirstin from happening in the future. VI. Kleider?Offutt, H., Knuycky, L., Clevinger, A., & Capodanno, M. (2017). Wrongful convictions and prototypical black features: Can a face?type facilitate misidentifications? Legal and Criminological Psychology, 22(2), 350–358. a) Eyewitness testimonies are not as accurate as they are believed. This is because memory lapse can happen at any time. A slight memory lapse leads to eyewitness misidentification and ultimately wrongful conviction. When memory error happens, eyewitnesses tend to rely on the stereotypical features of people. This may lead to harsh sentencing. b) The jury made a substantial reference to eyewitness testimony. I used the principles of reliable eyewitness testimony that this article outlined to assess the eyewitness misidentification in Kirstin’s case. I used the same principles to recommend the policy that should be used to improve eyewitness testimony. 6 References Kleider?Offutt, H., Knuycky, L., Clevinger, A., & Capodanno, M. (2017). Wrongful convictions and prototypical black features: Can a face?type facilitate misidentifications? Legal and Criminological Psychology, 22(2), 350–358. Leo, R. (2017). The Criminology of Wrongful Conviction: A Decade Later. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 33(1), 82–106. Zalman, M., Larson, M., & Smith, B. (2012). Citizens’ Attitudes Toward Wrongful Convictions. Criminal Justice Review (Atlanta, Ga.), 37(1), 51–69.
