He sentenced Grimes to 30 days in jail and ordered him to pay a $500 fine. Given the fact that a lie by a police officer can deprive a person of their liberty, this seems like a reasonable sentence. Only the use of monitoring in patrol cars revealed Continue Reading...
Perjury
Aristotle believed there should be guidelines governing the act of giving testimony (Kennedy, 2004, p. 227-228). For example, a jury member should place greater weight on the reputation and social standing of the witness, than on the content Continue Reading...
The court ruled that the police impaired her free choice by going beyond the evidence connecting her to the crime and introducing a completely extrinsic consideration in the form of an empty but plausible threat to take away something to which she a Continue Reading...
J. Simpson or John Gotti. In both cases, the defendants are entitled to the presumption of innocence only in court; but there is no such "presumption" in the intellectual "court" of one's mind.
A lawyer with integrity would refuse to represent any d Continue Reading...
The infamous O.J. Simpson murder trial turned out to be a good case in point of what an officer should not do with regards to a criminal case. As the lead investigator looking into the murders of Mr. Goldman and Ms. Simpson, Detective Mark Fuhrman Continue Reading...
However, as criminals become more aware of undercover tactics, the covert officer is required to provide more and more proof that he is indeed a criminal- which leads to the officer committing acts that compromise his or her integrity for the sake o Continue Reading...
Is discretion ethical?
Not only is police discretion ethical, but it is absolutely essential if police are to be expected to perform their functions effectively. Without discretion, police would, for one example, be duty-bound to conduct a traffic Continue Reading...
Michigan, in which police officers had failed to satisfy the knock requirement of a "knock and announce" search warrant before obtaining incriminating evidence. The Court decided that technical violations of proper warrant execution in "good faith" Continue Reading...
Introduction
An effective police officer must be truthful. Increasingly, there is frustration informed by lack of integrity and support for the actions of discipline that are taken by the senior officers against those who breach the rules. Integrity Continue Reading...
Constitutional, Legal and Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice
Police abuse remains one of the most serious and divisive human rights violations in the United States. The excessive use of force by police officers, including unjustified shootings, seve Continue Reading...
Rule: Any out-of-court statement offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted is generally inadmissible as hearsay. (801-802) However, hearsay may be admitted, in a prosecution for homicide or in a civil case, if the declarant, while believing Continue Reading...