CRM 1300 Study Guide - Miscarriage, Financial Compensation, Eyewitness Identification
Document Summary
Crm1300 readings: roberts and grossman chapter 22. When justice fails: wrongful convictions in canada: canadian cjs based on adversarial model, theory being that the truth will eventually emerge through this system. The prevalence of wrongful convictions: wrongful conviction occurs when an individual has been arrested on criminal charges. Most jurors unaware of the unreliability of eyewitness identification, may place too much faith in its accuracy. Inadvertent human error, sloppiness, exaggeration, misinterpretation and bias work to contaminate evidence at the crime scene or the lab: also, suppression or tampering of evidence can lead towards wrongful conviction. Juries said to believe defendant who confesses to a crime over the evidence that states otherwise; often the most powerful piece of evidence: coerced false confessions may occur, leading to wrongful convictions as well. Cases used jailhouse informants: risks with using jailhouse informants, they have much to gain and little to lose not allowed to testify in most provinces with the safeguards they have.
