False Witnesses In The Crucible

When questioning a witness, one must consider their mannerisms. Are they being forthright and responding in a timely manner or are they evading the question, arguing or even hesitating. Someone who is not credible will feel as if their back is against the wall and lash out or act defensive. As with all things, it is easier and better to tell the truth. With the truth, there is no need to try and recall the exact phrasing or small details that you used to embellish your story. The truth gives a witness confidence to answer the questions without hesitation which lends itself to

Hypocrisy is the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform; pretense.

A narrative is a way of retelling a story, the most common way to retell a story is in words. People use narratives in literature and in social studies.The narrative my group and I choose was the narrative of John Brown.John Brown, an abolitionist, led a slave revolt in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. However, it was unsuccessful attempt. John Brown was portrayed as a traitor and was sentenced to death . Textbooks often portray John Brown as a insane man during the Civil War time period but in reality he wasn’t. The idea that John Brown was insane man for leading a slave revolt is a false narrative and should be disrupted.

Many wrongful convictions are due to mistaken eyewitnesses, jailhouse snitches, or false evidence. I think many of the wrongful convictions could be solved with harder evidence, more information. A case should not rely on a single eye witness but multiple. For those in prison, those who snitch saying the defendant confessed, testifying can be a bargaining chip; the state will often reduce sentence time or

Generally, it is difficult to fathom the rationale behind a false confession. False confession is commonly defined as an admission of guilt to a particular crime even though the confessor is not accountable for the crime. The phenomenon of false confession have been dated back into the past, during the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, where a large numbers of individuals were accused of witchcraft on a basis of confession extracted using physical torture and threats. (Kassin, 2010). In addition, even after a few centuries, the phenomenon of false confession continues. However, as opposed to the Salem Witch Trials, majority of the false confession today are confessed under psychological duress. Furthermore, according to Horgan, Russano, Meissner and Evans (2012), individuals have a tendency to

First, the factor that leading innocent people be charged is flawed eyewitness identification. Eyewitness is one of principal evidences that policies are looking because someone has knowledge about the crime. A study of contributing causes of wrongful convictions show us that 72% are eyewitness because of misidentification ( The causes of wrongful conviction, 1). This study demonstrated that eyewitness is the highest in wrongful convictions. For example, in the documentary Mr Stephens was the eyewitness which, it is the strong evidence that Detective Williams used against Butler. Mr Stephens told the police that he saw a 6-feet tall men between 20 to 25 years-old. Even though the description given by Mr Stephens did not match with

Over the past few decades, hundreds of people have been falsely imprisoned. Many of their cases were founded on the account of one or more eyewitnesses. The criminal justice system often relies on eyewitness accounts to piece together a crime and identify the perpetrator. But studies showing the faultiness of our memories, particularly in stressful events, suggest that witnesses may not be as reliable of a source as we think.

It is unlikely that social consequences of false memories can be avoided. Elizabeth Loftus was intrigued to study false memories, and is perhaps personally responsible for subsequent developments throughout the history of false memories. Some of this history addresses various theories aimed at isolating how or why false memories occur. These include Source Monitoring Framework, Activation Monitoring Theory, Fuzzy Trace Theory, and strategies for persuasion which can lead to the development of false memory. Such persuasion leads to the present discussion concerning how persuasion in the judicial system has created false confessions and wrongful eyewitness testimonies, due to the Misinformation Effect. Additionally, Recovered Memory Therapy psychotherapy, a method used to reclaim lost memories, reveals itself as problematic where false memories are concerned.

The witness impacts the jury decision on many cases because the way they are. In the Trayvon Martin case Rachel Jeantel, the witness seemed like an illiterate hood person. The witness was on the stand for a couple hours. The defense would question her and agitate her to prove the jury that Mr. Martin was a hoodlum. They had persuaded the jury to believe that George Zimmerman had killed Trayvon believing he was a danger to himself or others. 19 year-old Rachel Jeantel was the last person to speak to Trayvon. They believed that the witness was “Ghetto Trash.”

“the right to a speedy and public, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.”

Eyewitness accounts play a huge role in general in trials and verdicts, but may be unreliable many times, with certain views placed on evidence provided by children. Unreliability may arise from not being able to recount the identity of the accused, the actions and speech occurring during that time, the relationship of individuals towards the person in question, and many

Exodus 20:16 tells us this, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." This is one of the Ten Commandments given to Moses by God. The Bible also says, in Exodus 23:1, "Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand in with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness." God values honesty. It was bad enough that the Ewells brought these false charges against Tom, but when the jury decided that Tom was guilty, even when evidence was given to prove otherwise, the entire town was

A jury trial is a privilege that we all have so that we are administered a fair and impartial trial; thus, it must be taken seriously. Depending on each state, when summoned for the jury selection process, and chosen to serve as members of the jury, we are required to take an oath or an affirmation. Additionally, the consideration of the circumstances that lead us to be a witness, should be prevalent in our minds. It is important that we listen to the entire case and determine if the offender, based on the facts given during the trial and not on personal biases, should be convicted. I think this is important because the future of one person is determined based on the testimony of the witnesses whom have sworn truthfulness. Nonetheless, I

Furthermore, there can be several factors at play when a wrongful conviction occurs and each case is unique. Three of the more common and detrimental factors that will be explored in this essay are eyewitness error, the use of jailhouse informants and professional and institutional misconduct. Firstly, eyewitness testimony can be a major contributor to a conviction and is an important factor in wrongful conviction (Campbell & Denov, 2016, p. 227). Witness recall and, frankly, the human emory are not as reliable as previously thought. In fact there has been much research showing the problems with eyewitness testimony such as suggestive police interviewing, unconscious transference, and malleability of confidence (Campbell & Denov, 2016, p.227). All of these components lead to eyewitness error and essentially false incrimination. Secondly, another factor that can contribute to wrongful conviction is the use of jailhouse informants. Campbell & Denov (2016), describe jailhouse informants as prisoner informants that “provide information to law enforcement officials in exchange for money, property, or the promise of leniency in sentencing” (p. 229). This can be problematic because jurors place value on the


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