PT153.S1.P3.Q18

PrepTest 153 - Section 1 - Passage 3 - Question 18

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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.
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Main Point · Critique / problem: safeguards not enough
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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.
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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
Show answer
18.

According to the third paragraph, ███████ ██████████ ███ ██ ██████████ ██ ███████ █ █████████ ████ █ ███████████ ███████████ ██████████ █████████ ███████

a

current safeguards are ████████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████

Not stated.

1%
b

current safeguards fail ██ █████████ ███ ██████████ ██████ ██ █████████ ████ ██ ████████ ███ ████████

Not stated. Passage talked about coercion only in P5.

5%
c

juries may not ██ ████ █████ ████ █ ███████████ ███████ ███████ ██ ███████ ██ █████████ ████ ███ ███████████ ██ ████████ ███ █████████

Stated.

89%
d

jurors tend to ████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████████ █████████ ██ ████ ████████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ██████████

Not stated. Passage did not compare on which testimony is more reliable.

2%
e

prosecutors are typically ███ █████████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ██ ███████████ █████████ ██ ████████ ███ █████████

Not stated. Passage did not talk about whether prosecutors are penalized for bartering.

3%

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