Self-study
P1
Criminal courts frequently rely on accomplice witnesses (witnesses who testify regarding the role of an alleged co-conspirator in a crime) and jailhouse informants (witnesses who provide testimony based on information obtained while incarcerated) for prosecutorial information. █████████ ███ █████████ ████████ ██ ████ ███████████ █████████ ████████ ███████████ ████████ ███████ ███ ██████████ █████████████ ████ ███ ████████ █████ ███ ███████ █ █████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████
Intro topic ·
Testimony from accomplice witnesses and jailhouse informants
This testimony is usually based on conversations between the witnesses and the defendant.
P2
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Problem ·
Cooperating witnesses have an incentive to lie
They get a reduced sentence of other benefits in exchange for the testimony.
P3
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Purported safeguards ·
Courts recognize risk of cooperating witnesses, but say there are enough safeguards in place
These safeguards include cross-examination of a cooperating witness's motivations.
Main Point ·
Critique / problem: safeguards not enough
Premise ·
Prosecutors may imply a benefit for the cooperating witness
Because it's not an explicit deal, they don't have to be disclosed to the jury. So, even cross-examination might not reveal the cooperating witness's incentive to lie.
P4
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Premise ·
Jurors might not realize how much a cooperating witness's testimony can be influenced by their incentives
Research on confession testimony shows that jurors don't realize how much a defendant's incentive to confess affects their decision to confess. This suggests that jurors might not realize the impact of incentives on a cooperating witness's testimony.
P5
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Explanation for juror's reaction to confession evidence ·
People tend to explain behavior of others in terms of internal feelings rather than external factors
So, jurors didn't seem to realize that a defendant's confession was due to external pressures (threats); they interpreted the confession as if it had to be an admission of guilt.
Similar explanation for reaction to cooperating witnesses ·
Jurors may not realize that cooperating witnesses are affected by external factors
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Problem-analysis
17.
The author would be most ██████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████ █████ ███ █████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███████████ ██████████
a
It encourages unacceptably █████ █████████ ██ █████████ ██ █████████████ ███ ██████ ██████████
Unsupported. Passage did not talk about how prisoners were treated.
b
It fails to █████████ ████ ███████████ █████████ ███ ████ ███████████ ████ ██████████ ████ ███████ ████████
Unsupported. Passage did not talk about how cooperating witnesses may face retaliation. In any case, this would cut against the author's main argument since fear of retaliation works against a cooperating witness coming forward with testimony. Recall that the author’s concern is with false testimony.
c
It frequently places ██ ██████ ██████ ██ ███████
Unsupported. Specifically, “frequently” is unsupported. An unfair burden is placed on jurors only when the testimony is false. Hence, answer choice C is inviting us to make an unwarranted assumption that cooperating witness testimony is frequently false. We simply don't know that. We only know that it is sometimes false.
d
It is justified ████ ██ █████ ██ █████ ███ ███████████ ███ ██████ █████ ████████ ███████ █ ██████████
Unsupported. The passage isn't suggesting that testimony of cooperating witnesses should be treated as evidence of last resort. It is just trying to say that this is problematic evidence.
e
It likely leads ██ ████ █████████ ██████████ █████████ ████████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████████
Supported. The author would agree that the court’s reliance on the testimony of cooperating witnesses is likely to lead to unwarranted sentence reductions. Because there is