PT153.S1.P3.Q21 > Analytics

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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

21.

Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ███ █████ █████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████

It attempts to ███████ █ ██████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████████

Correct.

85%

It attempts to ████ ████ ████████ █ █████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████████

It’s not calling into question any claims made in the previous paragraph. It’s trying to explain the previous paragraph.

It summarizes the ████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███ ███████████

It’s not a summary, it’s an explanation.

It outlines potential █████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ███████████

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.

It expands upon █ ████████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██████████

No proposals were made in the first paragraph, so there's nothing to expand upon.

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PrepTest 153 - Section 1 - Passage 3 - Question 21

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