if you have no interest in the criminal law, then this post probably isn't for you ;) this is just my personal rant about a class i love and some problems i have...
first off, i am so happy that i am doing my major in something that i absolutely
love. there is one class in particular which is hands down, my favorite class i have taken in the 4 years. next week is the last class and i don't want it to end. it also helps that the prof is totally amazing-she's a defence lawyer and i just love listening to her speak. there is no "ummm" or "welllll..." or any filler words, you know? i'm guessing it has to do with the fact she's a lawyer and needs to be a good, confident speaker ;)
anyways, i think this course has made me a cynic. the last couple classes have been about
wrongful convictions. i sat there in every class just listening to her speak so intently (as i do every week), and i just don't want the class to end. learning about this particular topic has just made me so frustrated, to say the least. did you know, that in the US, a wrongfully convicted person will spend, on average, 13 years in prison, from the time of sentencing to exoneration. talk about unreal. of course, that's an average, so some people are a lot more, others a lot less. we've talked about the main causes of WC; things like tunnel vision, jailhouse informants, eyewitness identification, false confessions, prosecutorial misconduct, expert witnesses etc...
it was when we talked about expert witnesses that really got me thinking. it's like you just can't trust anyone. sometimes the language they use can mislead a jury. i mean, how is a jury full of average people, supposed to take what the expert says, but then think, "well, i don't think they're right!" or "that's nice, but i'm going to disagree with you." i mean, it's just not likely! we call them 'experts' !! we put them on a pedestal. they say things like, "if i were a betting man, i would say it's more likely that ... a polar bear caused those wounds to a child, rather than a dog (as the defence was saying)" [that's a true quote, which this expert often said]. so the jury gets it in their mind that this expert must absolutely be right, because hey, he'd bet on it! they also say things like, 'well the fibers could have come from place X" but they're not forward in saying the chances of it not likely coming from that place..(i realize this may not be making any sense to anyone else ha).
to hear so many cases of wrongful convictions, it just blows my mind. they're not as uncommon as you may think. there was one mother whose baby had died. she was charged with the murder. for whatever reason, she was not put in prison, but she was kept in custody for 22 months. she had 2 other children. with no one else to care for them, they were put in foster care. what happens after 12 months in foster care? children can go up for adoption. so not only did this mother lose her baby, and was charged with committing the murder herself, her other 2 children were adopted! it's heartbreaking. do you take the children out of the stable family they've now become part of? (i believe they were young when it happened)..i don't know the rest of it, the prof didn't go into it, but obviously, whatever choice is made, it won't be easy for the children...
one dr. was known as "the guy" in canada for a particular field. however, 45 of his cases were recently called to review. 20 of those 45, he made errors which may have caused errors of the outcomes. 12 led to wrongful convictions.
anyways, this was just my mini rant, which i wrote in a fury haha. there are certain recommendations that have come into place since particular cases, that help eliminate particular language used by expert witnesses, but i just don't know if i'll ever be able to trust what they're saying, 100% ever again after hearing this lecture.
those poor, poor people whose lives are completely ruined by the system.
and just 2 examples of canadian cases: Donald Marshall, Jr. 11 years in prison for a for a murder he didn't commit. sentence the guilty person received when the caught him? 1 year.
David Milgaard-22 years in prison for a rape and murder he didn't commit.
via
i always seem to write weird, downer posts on fridays?? anyways, enjoy your weekend :)