Finally, the nation's sensitive period is over. Oops, and I just realised that I haven't written for a month, I thought I wrote something last month, nevermind. Oh, that was for the other blog, and my essays.
This post may not be relevant to the society I'm living in but still I feel that I should write about it. Great I forgot what I want to write. Interrogations and confessions, and something else...death penalty. Haiz, seems as though I'm digging my own grave again, and it's just before my semester exams...Capital punishment has always been a source of controversies, like euthanasia, and confessions are closely linked to capital punishments. Like many before me had argued, what's the fundamental reason for having capital punishment? And thus, what is the fundamental reason for confessions and like wise for euthanasia? If it is for justice, as in an eye for an eye, a life for a life, but then the victim had already died, well, in most cases, it's homicide cases. So there is the argument that it's for the family members, to 'console' them. But then, their family member's lives cannot be resurrected, so are the writers/debaters trying to say that it's to appease the family members and close ones' anguish and hatred. But then, is this justice? What is the definition of justice? And does it really appease their anger, or does it make them even more bitter? And this is also what I have my doubts about during one of the counseling lectures.
In counseling, one of the methods or rather aim is to try to reduce the family members' the 'why me/her? why they have to die?' etc. thoughts and the feelings which accompany these thoughts (I can't write the exact emotions they are/were experiencing as it's a mixture of almost everything negative,and it also depends on the individuals.), though e.g. retribution etc. But the thing is will they really be freed of these emotions, or will it cause them to have the mindset that whatever wrong the others do, they will receive retribution, and thus become bitter, full of vengeance? What is the definition of best interest of a person?
Another argument is that capital punishment is to deter potential criminals from acting out serious crimes. However, there are statistics which showed that every time a execution is made public, there is a rise in homicides, and they are one victim and one criminal. Is capital punishment sending out the wrong messages? (oh, and by the way, this argument is not original, my apologies to the person) Is it telling the public that it is alright to punish those who have committed a crime or just by do something wrong, here, the definition of wrong is being defined by the public? and thus, justice killings are carried out thus by individuals? Or on the other hand, if the conditions of the hanging place is bad ( usually the death penalty being broad casted is death through hanging), the public may be swayed to the criminals, which defied the purpose. On a side note, in lethal injections, which I just learned about a few days ago, there are witnesses to the injections, witnesses have to be there throughout the whole execution and sign a paper declaring that they witnessed the death of the criminal. The cause of death on the death certificate of the criminal is stated as homicide. Problematic.
Confessions play an important role in law enforcements. It is almost always considered case close when confessions of suspects are being presented in court. In cases which attract the attention of the public, the pressure on the investigators to catch the culprit is large, and in some cases, those investigators who want to close cases within a short period of time have the tendency to overlook certain matters and to have the impression that the suspect that they had are the criminals, there are such cases which happened and happening in real life, it's all on the frontline, innocence project website.
There is this particular case where they caught the suspect whom the neighbour pointed out might be the criminal of a rape and murder case( It's the Norfolk Four case). However, the suspect was merely trying to help the victim's husband, and called the police, and even offered to help the police. However, he never came out of the police station, which he went to offer his aid, for 13 years. The most outrageous part is that, k,the police caught another six to eight in total (cant really remember the no. It was two rows of 4. yeah, 8 of them in total. Four of them, whom were innocent, were convicted and jailed for 8-10 years until last year where they were granted conditional pardons, but not yet exonerated.)and they changed their hypothesis to fit the evidences presented on the crime scene, and the information from forensic science department, without even thinking that they might have caught the wrong person, not really the wrong person, the real criminal was one of them. However, from information gathered from the crime scene, it is quite obvious that the criminal was a single person and the testimony of 'criminals' changed according with the surfacing of new evidences, which they received from investigators. This case was really screwed up, and screwed up four innocent lives--I don't mean death. Best of all, the wrongly convicted are not even exonerated yet despite concrete and new evidences surfacing, one of which the interrogator, who was nicknamed 'the bulldog' was being charged of concocting false statements and bribery, but he was not charged for all the misconduct behaviors he committed during the time he was acting as a police investigator. Their current lawyers are still trying to exonerate them. Now, what is justice? Where is it? In another case, a lawyer was almost jailed for trying to exonerate a wrongly convicted person, the reason given for overturning the verdict was 'in the best interest of the law'. Legislations are not infallible, we have to face it. However, without legal legislation, order and peace would not be easily attained. What a dilemma. But then these loopholes and faults can and has been reducing, but much more can be done. It's fine to make mistakes, humans are not perfect, but once a mistake has been realised, it's better to correct it immediately instead of procrastinating it, which may snowball into worse scenarios, I'm very tempted to say consequences but the word would not fit into the phrase.
The above case mentioned also shows the immense psychological pressure which the suspects undergo in the interrogation rooms, where the phrasing of questions, the setting of the interrogation rooms also add to the pressure, which caused them to confess to crimes they did not commit. True, when facing hardcore criminals, the investigators have to do so, but what if they caught the wrong person, and the person happens to be a normal civilian who does not have such strong psychological defenses where the investigators do not even have to break down in the first place? It's not one rule fits all. Confessions are hard to recant. Even then when they have been exonerated, the bitterness of being failed by the legislation, which is supposed to protect innocents, the kind of self-defense they had to adopt in jail in order to survive the harsh conditions there, the views of the public ( in cases like the rape and murder case mentioned above, and it's not as though they asked for it, the procedure screwed up,)and the feeling of wanting to be free, not just physically but also free from being under someone's influence, instructions, kick in. They'll have a hard time trying to fit into the society, one video even showed that a few of them wished that they were in jail, jail was a better place for them, after they had been exonerated. Some of them may even end up destroying themselves, i.e. self-fulfilling prophecy, whereby they had been told that they are such and ended up believing it themselves and behave like what they are being told, or they refuse to listen to advices of doctors and family members on issues like their health.
Legal system, a seriously dangerous sector.
Law + media + society, a powerful double edge sword. Erm, I'm not opening a Pandora box right? Knew it.
http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/The_Norfolk_Four.php--this is the website on Norfolk Four and on false confessions
Other e.g. Guildfold Four, Birmingham Six.
PS:Sorry, for the sloppy work, and I've kept to it. ^-^
No comments:
Post a Comment