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.
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.
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.
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.
The author argues that the problems are real, but does not provide any solutions. Coming up with an explanation could be the first step towards a solution, but the author doesn't discuss any solutions in the passage.
e
It expands upon █ ████████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██████████
No proposals were made in the first paragraph, so there's nothing to expand upon.
Difficulty
82% of people who answer get this correct
This is a moderately difficult question.
It is somewhat easier than other questions in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%140
148
75%156
Analysis
Purpose of paragraph
Structure
Critique or debate
Law
Problem-analysis
Science
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
82%
163
b
2%
150
c
12%
155
d
1%
148
e
3%
152
Question history
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