Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:
Wrongful Conviction Case Profile
Description: This assignment is designed to explore the flawed and complicated nature of the U.S. criminal justice system through the stories of wrongfully convicted and exonerated individuals. This paper requires you to act as an investigative journalist or a biographer by selecting a single case of wrongful conviction to examine in depth. The person that you select can be dead or alive. After your subject is approved by the instructor, you will present a detailed paper regarding the facts of the case in conjunction with what we have learned from scholarly research on the causes and consequences of wrongful conviction (examples listed below). That is, cite relevant course material pertaining to the miscarriage/s of justice that led to the false conviction.
Goal of Assignment: Provide a thorough case profile of an individual who was falsely convicted and subsequently exonerated.
Step 1—Subject Approval Process: To have the subject of your profile approved, log onto the discussion board called “Wrongful Conviction Case Profile.” You must have your subject approved; if your subject is not approved, the essay will not be accepted.
Step 2—Research Case Information that must be included in case profile: • Name of exoneree: • Crime exoneree was convicted of: • Some background about the person you studied, e.g. where they’re from, what their family or personal life was like. Be sure to mention details pertinent to the case. Step 3—Write Profile • Describe the crime of which this person was accused. • How did this person come to be linked to the crime? • How long was this person imprisoned? • How does the exoneree describe their experiences in prison? How did maintaining their innocence affect their time in prison? Did it make it more or less difficult? • What was life like for this person after s/he was released from prison? How did the label of “exoneree” affect him/her?
Examples of Miscarriages of Justice Topics to relate to your Subjects Case: 1. Interrogations of Juveniles or the Cognitively Impaired: - Standards for treatment of juveniles or the cognitively impaired in custody - Debates about IQ or developmental stage as an indicator of suggestibility - Vulnerability of juveniles to suggestive interrogation practices, etc. 2. Forensic and/or Junk Sciences: - Crime lab scandals (i.e. FBI) - Forensic uses of DNA (for law enforcement and in court) - Implications of arrestee databases, etc. 3. Access to Effective Counsel: - Different kinds of indigent defense systems and their problems - Measures of ‘effectiveness’ and tests for ineffectiveness
- Distinguishing strategy from incompetence, etc. 4. The Role of Juries: - Jurors’ understanding of complex scientific or witness testimony - Unanimity requirements - Implications of different requirements for jury size/note-taking - Dynamics of influence in deliberations, etc. 5. Life after Exoneration: - Physical, social, emotional, health-related, financial consequences - Reparation and compensation schemes - Expungement of record problems faced by exonerees and the consequences - Political will for providing reintegration services, etc.
Requirements • Format: Strict APA format; Essay Style; 3-5 Pages—excluding title and reference page. No abstract required. • Citations: 7—3 from assigned material, 5 from your own research. You may use academic books or journal articles, popular books, editorials by journalists, or websites, newspaper accounts, law reviews, judicial opinions, government documents, or journalistic accounts. However, the quality of your citations and the way that you use them will be analyzed and graded for validity and authenticity.
