Eyewitnesses: 60-Minute Segment Of Ronald Cotton And Jennifer Thompson
This week’s topic was very interesting to learn about how important eyewitnesses can be when a crime and accidents do occur. In the case that was presented in the 60-minute segment of Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson is exactly how legal system can fail us when it comes to the eyewitnesses’ identification testimony and how a person’s perception and memory can be altered.
The aspect of psychology and law research from this week’s course material is most relevant to the topic of perception and memory. The memory has different stages the first is encoding the process of entering perception into memory. The second is storage the fees of a memory process referring to the retention of information. The third phase is the retrieval the process
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She was sleeping when one night an attacker had broken into her apartment, a knife was placed on her throat and was raped. Jennifer at the time of the attack was trying to study her attacker’s face, she was trying to pay attention to the detail and if she survived she could help the police catch the attacker. Jennifer was lucky enough that she did escape out the back door by fixing her attacker a drink. The detective and Jennifer worked together to composite a sketch of a face of the attacker. Then a photo-line up and the physical lineup was introduced and Jennifer kept identifying the same person. The police arrested Ronald Cotton 22 years of age. During the trail Jennifer was asked do you recognize the man who did this to you? Jennifer “pointed the finger” to Ronald Cotton. It took the jury 40 minutes for the verdict to state guilty to all counts. He was sentenced to life to 50 years and was taken to North Carolina Central Prison. Ronald Cotton was writing to his attorneys to get a new trial. While in prison a new inmate came in and Cotton had a strange feeling from him and stated that “you look familiar and resemble a drawing of which I am falsely imprisoned for did you commit this crime, the inmate said no” his name was Booby
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Essay On Ronald Cotton Case
481 Words | 2 PagesAndrew Davis September 27, 2016 Forensics Mr. Malgeri Ronald Cotton Case Ronald Cotton was sentenced to jail in 1995, after serving ten years for a crime he didn’t even commit. Eye witnesses are considered to be the best form of evidence in an unsolved case. Mr. Cotton was convicted primarily by an eyewitness named Jennifer Thomson-Cannino, who was sure she identified the right male. Years go by and the case was re-ruled and the jury ruled Jennifer 's description as a misidentification.
Jennifer Thompson Case
2086 Words | 9 PagesOn July 28th, 1984, in Burlington, North Carolina, a young college student by the name of Jennifer Thompson was raped at knife point in her off-campus apartment at three in the morning. The man broke into her apartment, snuck into her bedroom and raped Ms. Thompson for a little over twenty minutes. During the rape, Ms. Thompson was aware that trying to fight off her attacker would not end in her favor because she was only five feet-one inches tall and a hundred pounds. Therefore, Ms. Thompson decided to fight with her mind by trying to memorize every feature and identifying mark, such as scars and tattoos that her assailant might have.
Injustice And Redemption In Picking Cotton By Jennifer Torneo
872 Words | 4 PagesHowever, his time in prison was hard and he was frequently transferred from prison to prison, sometimes spending extended periods in solitary confinement. While imprisoned, he met a fellow inmate named Bobby Poole who was in jail on similar charges. There was an uncanny resemblance between them, and Cotton requested that they be brought back to court so Jennifer could potentially name Poole as her attacker. However, Jennifer once again named Ronald as her rapist, and now so did the woman who accused Poole initially. This resulted in another life sentence being tacked on to Ronald’s
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Summary Of Picking Cotton
1188 Words | 5 PagesIn the book “Picking Cotton”, the former Burlington Police Chief Mike Gauldin, who was the lead detective on Jennifer’s case, was certainly sure that Ronald Cotton was the guy he was looking for after Jennifer picked him twice (Jennifer, Ronald, Erin 80); also, on the McCallum’s case, the polices also chose to trust eyewitnesses when they did not have enough physical evidences. Furthermore, judges can be wrong sometime. Wise and Safer, who are authors of the report “ what US judges know and believe about eyewitness testimony”, surveyed 160 U.S. judges to determine how much they know about eyewitness testimony on a small test( Wise, Safer, 427-432). However, the survey responds the average judges in the U.S. only 55% correct within 14 questions (Wise, Safer, 431-432). Moreover, most of the judges who were surveyed did not know key facts about eyewitness testimony.
Analysis Of When Our Eyes Deceive US
516 Words | 3 PagesThe article “When Our Eyes Deceive US” speaks about the wrong decisions that can lead to a wrongful conviction. This particular article decided to focus on cases of wrongful convictions of sexual assault. The first case mentioned was that of the wrongful conviction of Timothy Cole. His victim positively identified him three times (twice in police lineups and one in person at the trial), he was exonerated by DNA testing. To the utmost misfortune, the real rapist had been confessing to the crime for nine years.
How Does The Law Treat Repressed Memories
673 Words | 3 PagesJohnson states that according to the APA, “it is not possible to distinguish repressed memories from false ones without corroborating evidence” (par. 2). This brings up a critical issue how could the jury decide if a memory was false or a repressed one that was eventually remembered. According to Johnson, the three stages of memory are encoding, Consolidation/Storage, and retrieval (par. 3) An error at any stage of the memory process can lead to the creation of false memories (par. 4). Johnson suggests that under extremely traumatic events false memories have a significant chance of being formed.
Witness For The Defense Elizabeth Loftus
1447 Words | 6 PagesPart One is very informational and contains the bulk of the book’s research. The information was presented in a thesis format; Loftus stated a claim and then supported her ideas with research and quotations from experts in the field of law and memory. Part One is helpful for psychologists, attorneys, and interested law people. The major principles concerning the errors in eyewitness testimony are supported by research and are accepted by psychologists (Kassin, Ellsworth, & Smith, 1989). Part One will contribute to the future of psychology by showcasing how the memory works and the different ways it is manipulated and changed: this will allow jurors and lawyers to become more wary when dealing with a traumatized
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1531 Words | 7 PagesTwo hours later local Kentucky law enforcement discovered a 500-foot blood trail that ended at a frozen lake where Miss Hansen’s body was found unclothed and slashed. After the police investigation was well on its way, law enforcement discovered DNA evidence matching the victims inside Mr. Woodall’s Van and inside his home. Leading to the arrest of Mr. Woodall on charges of kidnapping, murder, and rape of Miss Hansen. During the entirety of the criminal justice process, Mr. Woodall had maintained that he had indeed committed the crimes he was accused of, and instead of offering a defense of those actions, chose to instead attempt to attack the sentencing process that took place in order to avoid receiving the death sentence. According to the Kentucky Supreme Court, this admission of guilt forfeited his constitutional right to the Fifth Amendment’s protection from self-incriminating oneself because the trial went straight into the penalty phase.
Multistore Model Of Memory Analysis
1358 Words | 6 PagesHow reliable are the two models or theories of the cognitive process of memory, “|…|the process of maintaining information over time” (Matlin, 2005) , known as the multistore model (MSM) and the levels of processing model (LOP)? Both of these models have been widely criticized, but simultaneously they have improved our knowledge and understanding of how the process of memory works. In this essay both of these models of memory will be evaluated by presenting the strengths and limitations of each. The first model, the multistore model, was put forward by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) which suggests that the concept of memory involves three stores; the sensory stores, the short-term store (STS), and the long-term store (LTS).
Rhetorical Analysis Of Scott Fraser
1835 Words | 8 PagesThis creates a major issue within a judicial system. It takes a few eye witness testimonies towards the prosecuted individual to incarcerate them, even if they did not commit the crime. It is because of this reason that Scott Fraser chooses to speak out against eye witness testimonies. In his speech, he argues that memory is fallible and should not be as heavily relied upon within the judicial system.
The Credibility Of Eyewitnesses In Criminal Investigations
441 Words | 2 PagesThis clearly sows that the memory is an active process and is expected to alter an opinion based on understanding society (Simple Psychology, 2014) . Eyewitness testimony is unethical as the evidence that is supplied can be provided by someone with stress or anxiety issues this can assist by distraught the image of the suspect. Wrongfully sending an innocent individual to prison. Bloods worth’s case displays it is unethical as there was no psychical evidence nor appearance matched that supported Bloodsworth was responsible for the murder and rape of the victim. Three eyewitnesses were able to identify the perpetrator out of the five and this was based from evidence that he was spotted with the young girl hours earlier before the crime was
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1397 Words | 6 Pages, (2003) study. Gabbert investigated the effect of post event discussion on the accuracy of eye witness testimony; where participants
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