PrepTest 153 - Section 1 - Passage 3 - Question 19

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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.

Problem · Cooperating witnesses have an incentive to lie

They get a reduced sentence of other benefits in exchange for the testimony.

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

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.

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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.

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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

19.

In using the phrase "jurors' ███████████ ███████████ ██ ██████████ █████████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ███████████ ███ ██████ ████ ██████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ███████

Question Type

Meaning in context (of word, phrase, or idea)

Structure

This is a meaning of a phrase in context. Make sure you read a little bit before and a little bit after the target phrase. In context, superficial examination is meant to contrast with a more robust examination that would consider the confessor's internal disposition as well as external factors.

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The external factors are what a superficial examination of confession evidence fails to take into account.

87%

failure to distinguish ███████ ██████████ ████████ ███████ ██ █ █████████ ███ ██████████ ████████ ███████ ██ █ ███████████ ███████

The passage did not suggest that jurors would confuse confessional evidence offered by a defendant with confessional evidence offered by a cooperating witness.

lack of the █████████ █████████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██████████ ████████

The passage did not suggest that jurors lacked expertise to accurately evaluate confession evidence.

unwillingness to assess ███ ████████ ██ █ ███████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ████████

The passage did not suggest that jurors were too lazy to assess the veracity of confession evidence.

tendency to disregard ██████████ ████████ ████ ██ █████████ ████ █████ ████████ █████████ ██ █████

The passage did not suggest that confession evidence would be disregarded if it conflicts with other evidence.

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PrepTest 153 - Section 1 - Passage 3 - Question 19

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