RLS: Eyewitness Accounts

Link to article: 
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/editorials/why-an-eyewitness-account-alone-shouldnt-send-anyone-to-prison-20170828.html

First Order Knowledge

  • "More than 70 percent of the convictions that have been overturned through DNA testing nationwide involved eyewitnesses who got it wrong."
  • "The Philadelphia Police Department has incorporated many of the reforms."
  • "Brinkley was 15 when he was sent to prison for life for allegedly shooting egg deliveryman Charles Haag in December 1997."
  • "Ronald Brinkley confessed to the murder several times over the years"
  • "Two recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings that prohibit life sentences for minors without the possibility of parole"

Second Order Knowledge

  • More than 70 percent of the convictions that have been overturned through DNA testing nationwide involved eyewitnesses who got it wrong is reliable as it is based on statistics measured by the authorities.
  • Scores of scientific studies over the decades have shown that eyewitness are often inaccurate despite it being studies of educated individuals.
  • The assurance of the conviction of Ronald Brinkley by the District Attorney's Office is doubtful because other than eyewitness accounts, there are no further evidence that supports his testimony, despite claimed self confessions.

Knowledge Question

  • To what extent are eyewitness accounts reliable and trustworthy for judgmental and political purposes?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The James Lange Theory

Image
The James Lange Theory is a theory of emotion theorized by William James and Carl Lange. The theory suggests that the emotion occur as a result of how the body interprets the physical reactions. Based on the example above, it shows that once you run, your body would react by having the heart beat faster which then leads to the emotion of tiredness. And once you feel tired, you would choose to stop running or slow down. However, the theory also received criticism. One major criticism involves that the theory was loosely based on controlled experiments that were conducted by neither James or Lange. They theory was also not widely accepted or agreed by different people, thus new different opposing theories have emerged including the Cannon Bard Theory where the physical and body reactions are caused by emotions, so it is the opposite of the James Lange Theory. 
Read more

Paper 2 Outline

Prompt: Pride can lead to failure and self-destruction or to accomplishment and self-fulfilment. Discuss the presentation of pride and its consequences in at least two of the works you have studied.  Thesis statement: The Thief and the Dogs by Naguib Mahfouz portrays a marxist ideology through the protagonist, Said Mahran who is characterized of having excessive pride using the tragic hero archetype that leads to his self-destruction. In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe exhibits the dangers of inflexibility in a post-colonial world where change his inevitable through the characterization of the protagonist’s hubris, resulting into his suicide. Both authors communicate the necessity of flexibility and adaptation in a constantly changing world.  Topic sentence 1 (character): Both authors of TATD and TFA utilizes the tragic hero archetype on its respective protagonist, Said and Okonkwo, by characterizing them of having excessive pride in order to demonstrate the dangers...
Read more

Coriolanus: Caius Martius

Caius Martius is the protagonist of William Shakespeare's play, Coriolanus. He is primarily portrayed as the tragic hero of Rome who won the tragic battle against the Volsces and saved Rome from being invaded. At the same time, Shakespeare does not portray Martius as the typical hero who is admired by the citizens after he has saved the day because he saves the day for his own pride rather than his own love for Rome. In addition to that, Caius Martius is also hated by the common people of Rome as he often insults them and treats them like actual low class citizens with no value and respect whatsoever, by cursing and pouring slurs at them. He also has a odd relationship with his mother, Volumnia, as his mother encourages him to maintain that violent, proud and cynical attitude, wants him to be injured in battle and has an awkward "tension" with his mother. He is also characterized as impatient and often interrupts, as highlighted in the conversatio...
Read more