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Date: March 29, 2024 Fri

Time: 11:39 am

Results for innocence

4 results found

Author: Dharmapala, Dhammika

Title: Do Exclusionary Rules Convict the Innocent?

Summary: Rules excluding various kinds of evidence from criminal trials play a prominent role in criminal procedure, and have generated considerable controversy. In this paper, we address the general topic of excluding factually relevant evidence, that is, the kind of evidence that would rationally influence the jury’s verdict if it were admitted. We do not offer a comprehensive analysis of these exclusionary rules, but add to the existing literature by identifying a new domain for economic analysis, focusing on how juries respond to the existence of such a rule. We show that the impact of exclusionary rules on the likelihood of conviction is complex and depends on the degree of rationality exhibited by juries and on the motivations of the prosecutor.

Details: Chicago: Law School, University of Chicago, 2011. 19p.

Source: Internet Resource: U of Chicago Law & Economics, Olin Working Paper No. 569
Illinois Program in Law, Behavior and Social Science Paper No. LBSS11-30, Accessed November 1, 2011 at: http://www.law.uchicago.edu/files/file/569-rma-innocent.pdf

Year: 2011

Country: United States

URL: http://www.law.uchicago.edu/files/file/569-rma-innocent.pdf

Shelf Number: 123210

Keywords:
Criminal Trials
Evidence
Exclusionary Rule
Innocence
Juries

Author: Dervan, Lucian E.

Title: The Innocent Defendant's Dilemma: An Innovative Empirical Study of Plea Bargaining's Innocence Problem

Summary: In 1989, Ada JoAnn Taylor was accused of murder and presented with stark options. If she pleaded guilty, she would be rewarded with a sentence of ten to forty years in prison. If, however, she proceeded to trial and was convicted, she would likely spend the rest of her life behind bars. Over a thousand miles away in Florida and more than twenty years later, a college student was accused of cheating and presented with her own incentives to admit wrongdoing and save the university the time and expense of proceeding before a disciplinary review board. Both women decided the incentives were enticing and pleaded guilty. That Taylor and the college student both pleaded guilty is not the only similarity between the cases. Both were also innocent of the offenses for which they had been accused. After serving nineteen years in prison, Taylor was exonerated after DNA testing proved that neither she nor any of the other five defendants who pleaded guilty in her case were involved in the murder. As for the college student, her innocence is assured by the fact that, unbeknownst to her, she was actually part of an innovative new study into plea bargaining and innocence. The study, conducted by the authors, involving dozens of college students, and taking place over several months, not only recreated the innocent defendant’s dilemma experienced by Taylor, but revealed that plea bargaining’s innocence problem is not isolated to an obscure and rare set of cases. Strikingly, the authors’ study found that over half of the participants were willing to falsely admit guilt in return for a perceived benefit. This finding not only brings finality to the long-standing debate regarding the possible extent of plea bargaining’s innocence problem, but also ignites a fundamental constitutional question regarding an institution the Supreme Court reluctantly approved of in 1970 in return for an assurance it would not be used to induce innocent defendants to falsely admit guilt.

Details: Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network, 2012. 52p.

Source: Working Paper: Internet Resource: Accessed June 19, 2012 at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2071397

Year: 2012

Country: United States

URL: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2071397

Shelf Number: 125362

Keywords:
Guilty Pleas
Innocence
Plea Bargaining

Author: Batts, Anthony W.

Title: Policing and Wrongful Convictions

Summary: Few events subject the criminal justice system to as intense scrutiny from policymakers, elected officials, the media and the general public as the exoneration of a wrongfully convicted defendant. The multimillion-dollar settlement recently announced by New York City in the notorious case of the Central Park Five has once again brought the injustice of wrongful convictions and the corollary injustice of failing to convict the real assailant to the forefront of the national consciousness. (In that case, five black and Latino teenagers were convicted on the basis of false confessions of the brutal - and widely publicized - rape of a young woman jogging in Central Park. All were tried as adults and sentenced to lengthy prison terms, then exonerated years later when the real perpetrator confessed to the crime - a confession corroborated by DNA evidence.) As this and other high-profile wrongful convictions continue to spark controversy, a dispassionate, thoughtful examination of the systemic causes of wrongful convictions and their potential solutions can benefit all components of the criminal justice system and the community at large.

Details: Cambridge, MA: Harvard Kennedy School, Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management, 2014. 32p.

Source: Internet Resource: New Perspectives in Policing: Accessed September 29, 2014 at: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/var/ezp_site/storage/fckeditor/file/pdfs/centers-programs/programs/criminal-justice/ExecSessionPolicing/PolicingWrongfulConvictions.pdf

Year: 2014

Country: United States

URL: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/var/ezp_site/storage/fckeditor/file/pdfs/centers-programs/programs/criminal-justice/ExecSessionPolicing/PolicingWrongfulConvictions.pdf

Shelf Number: 133475

Keywords:
Exoneration
Innocence
Judicial Error
Wrongful Convictions (U.S.)
Wrongful Imprisonment

Author: Sangero, Boaz

Title: Safety from False Convictions

Summary: This book provides readers with an exploration of ways to reduce the rate of false convictions in the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system should be seen as a Safety-Critical System, specifically a system that deals with matters of life and death, where any error is likely to cause grave harm to both the individual and society. Implementing safety in criminal law is necessary, both morally and economically. Incorporating into the criminal justice system a modern safety theory that is commonly accepted in other areas, such as space, aviation, engineering, and transportation, is an idea that was developed jointly by myself and Dr. Mordechai Halpert and presented mainly in the coauthored article "A Safety Doctrine for the Criminal Justice System." This is the starting point of the book. The book expands the preliminary proposition and engages in the application of the modern safety theory and methods in the criminal justice system. Thus, for example, the book demonstrates how the fundamentally important Identify-Analyze-Control method can and should be implemented in the system, using Nancy Leveson's STAMP's model ("System-Theoretic Accident Model and Processes"). This is the first book that proposes a general theory of safety for the criminal justice system. It provides specific safety rules for certain types of criminal evidence and criminal law procedures.

Details: Ramat Gan, Israel: The Author, 2016. 256p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 29, 2016 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2816292

Year: 2016

Country: International

URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2816292

Shelf Number: 140077

Keywords:
Criminal Law
Eyewitness Testimony
False Convictions
Innocence
Plea Bargaining
Wrongful Conviction