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
16.
Which one of the following █████████ ██ ██████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████
a
Do jurors give ███ ████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ████████ ██ █ ███████████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ██ ██████████ ████████ ████████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████
The passage states that
b
To what extent ███ ███████████ ███ █████████████ ███████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ █████ ██████████ ██ ██████████ █████████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████████
The passage discusses potential downsides of offering incentives, not restrictions on the ability to offer them.
Prosecutors
c
Is the bartered █████████ ██ ██ ██████████ ███████ ███ ████ ██ ████ ████████ ████ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ █ █████████ ██████████
The passage does not distinguish between accomplice witness and jailhouse informant with regard to who is more reliable. The passage treats both as cooperating witnesses.
d
How common is ███ ███████████ ██ ███████████ █████████ ███ █████████ ███████ █████ ██████████
e
To what extent ██ ██████ ████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ███████ ████ █ ███████ ██ ██████
The passage does not talk about the variance in jurors’ ability to detect lies.