Abeer 1

Abeer AlMutairi
Professor Agosta
UWRT 1102-021
29 March 2016
Research Log
Citation:

Abeer AlMutairi. Opinion on Criminals. Survey. 27 March

2016.

Date Accessed:

3/29/16

Type of Source:

Primary Source, Survey

Inquiry Questions
Answered:

How do people perceive criminals after they are

released?
What conditions are in place for a person to be falsely
convicted?
What happened to these criminals after leaving prison?

Keywords:

Falsely convicted, wrongly

Summary +
Commentary:

This is a survey I took by myself, which is composed of questions that

I used to interrogate anonymous people public opinion. It's related to
how they perceive falsely convicts, how the court system is, and how
the offender's identity affects their criminal behaviors. This survey
serves the societys viewpoint. The Questions targeting large part of the
society segments that showing a fair tendency to what peoples opinion
about criminal. The majority of the respondent seems to agree that
false convicts could become a criminal at any time, and most of them
believe that the court system is flawed. Generally, the consensus seems
to be that ex-convicts are treated less favorably either wrongly

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convicted or guilty, and it is majorly linked to their background and
false confessions.
This survey gave me a point of view of how society might view
criminals and wrongly convicted. It was useful because I have gained
information on how society perceive these criminals who wrongly
convicted and made me wonder how a criminal think and feel. I believe
that the stress of being wrongly accused can lead a person to act
differently, even to those who are close to them.
Further Questions:

How they would clear their name? How they handle the gossip and
rumors? Do they have to live shameful whole their lives?

Citation:

HUFF, C R. O. N. A. L. D. "Wrongful Conviction and Public

Policy: The American Society of Criminology 2001
Presidential Address." Criminology. 40.1 (2002): 1-18.
Print.

Date Accessed:

3/30/16

Type of Source:

Secondary Source, book

Inquiry Questions
Answered:

What conditions are in place for a person to be falsely convicted? Is it

based on their background activity? Does the witness wrongfully
identify the criminal?

Keywords:

Wrongly convicted

Summary +
Commentary:

C. Ronald Huff is Professor of Criminology, in his book that

highlighted the causes of falsely convicted criminals. He discussed
why the wrongly convicted case is really important. He listed some
causes of wrongly convictions which mainly about eyewitness error,
law enforcement officers and prosecutors who engage in misconduct,
Including the withholding of evidence; false confessions. False

Abeer 3
testimony; lineups misleading. Inappropriate use of informants, or
snitches, ineffective assistance of counsel; Community pressure for a
conviction. Forensic errors, inefficiency and fraud; and "the ratification
of the error." All of these can lead a person to be in place for a falsely
convicted. Usually, more than one factor contributing to the error and
there are interaction effects between these factors. He began his
research by doing a survey analysis cases that are not clear. He tried to
seek for answers on what happened to accused these people which
there are totally innocent. This survey went over the public opinions
and perceptions of the accuracy of the court system.

This book is a very good source for my piece, especially since I dont
have a clear idea see of how the falsely accused criminal was convicted
and people around them reacted to. This book made wonder how the
court system is flawed, and how to improved it.

Further Questions:

how the court system is flawed? how the court system could be
improved? What is the crime rate in USA (specially falsely convicted)?

Citation:

Chris Seward. Researchers: More than 2,000 false convictions in past

23 years. NBCNews. Web. 21 May 2012. 30 March 2016.

Date Accessed:

3/30/16

Type of Source:

Secondary Source, Article

Inquiry Questions
Answered:

Are there any falsely convicted criminals that were sentence for crimes
and released later? How the court system is flawed? What

Abeer 4
happened to these criminals after leaving prison?

Keywords:

Wrongly convicted, falsely

Summary +
Commentary:

Sylvester Smith who was accused of molestation two

young girls, Age 4 and 6, and released later on due new
evidence. Mr. smith who was dating the mother of the
girls and sent to jail. Twenty years Later, the two victims
recanted, saying that their grandmother told them to
blame Mr. smith but the real criminal was their cousin
who was in that time 9 years old. He lost roughly 20
years of his life to prison, while the alleged perpetrator
was free to commit other crimes. After the Judge
announced that Smith is innocent due to two witnesses
recanted their testimony, Mr. smith who is 61 years old
since, live happily with his wife

Smith's case illustrates how the system court is flawed

due to evidence manipulation. His case shows that after
leave prison, he was able to reintegrate back into
society without any certain stigma that comes with the
mere fact that you were in prison. Also NBCNews
compiled the database from The National Registry of
Exoneration, the researchers become aware to this
problem, that there are more than 1,100 other cases in
which convictions were overturned due to 13 separate
police corruption scandals, most of which involved the
planting of drugs or guns on innocent defendants. This
article helps me see that there were more falsely
convicted criminal than I thought. Also how their lives
would be after release and how they found out that he
was innocent.
Further Questions:

How could the justice system would improve?

Abeer 5

Citation:

Pierce, Alan. "Give Ex-Convicts an Equal Chance to Become

Contributing Members of Society." ForceChange. N.p., n.d. Web. 2
Apr. 2016

Date Accessed:

2/4/16

Type of Source:

Secondary Source, Article

Inquiry Questions
Answered:

How are falsely convicted criminals treated after release compared to

the guilty criminals? What happened to these criminals after leaving
prison?
Does society give ex-convicts a chance to successfully reintegrate back
into society.?

Keywords:

Wrongly convicted

Summary +
Commentary:

Pierce wrote a petition to get people to sign up to improve the

opportunities to ex-convicts and help them successfully reintegrate
back into society. She revealed that it extremely difficult for exconvicts to be considering for jobs, education and housing after
released, and therefore is not treated very well by the society because
of people's fear of these criminals. Furthermore. She shows the impact
of having the criminal record available after completing a probation
period which will lead these criminals back to prison unless if we gave
them the opportunity to be part of the society by finding houses,
seeking education and be hire without discrimination. Many people
participate in this petition through the Internet which shows that many
of the views are consistent with it.

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This made me think about the difference between the ex-convicts live
after prison either guilty or falsely convicts. Also about how to improve
the court system and how it can affect people. This can be useful in the
final project to give an example of how flawed the court system, and
how it treats sentenced previously, and how it can improve the court
system.
Further Questions:

What is the crime rate in USA (specially falsely convicted)?

Citation:

CBSNews. "Record Number of Wrongful Convictions Overturned in

2013.". CBS Interactive. Web. 4 Feb. 2014. 4 Apr. 2016

Date Accessed:

4/4/16

Type of Source:

Secondary Source, Journal Article

Inquiry Questions
Answered:

What is the crime rate in USA (specially falsely convicted)?

Keywords:

Wrongly convicted, criminals, guilty

Summary +
Commentary:

CBSN News presented a report from The National Registry of

Exonerations that highlighted the case of falsely convicted criminals
overturned in 2013. The National Registry of Exonerations says 87
people falsely convicted of crimes were exonerated in 2013. They have
documented more than 1,300 such cases in the U.S. since 1989 and
also identifying another 1,100 "group exonerations" involving
widespread police misconduct, primarily related to planted drug and

Are there any falsely convicted criminals that were

sentence for crimes and released later?

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gun evidence. The report shows that nearly 40 percent of exonerations
recorded in 2013 were either initiated by law enforcement or included
police and prosecutors' cooperation.
If someone is wrongfully convicted, that person is punished for an
offence he or she did not commit and the actual perpetrator of the
crime goes free. This could lead to more crimes and may suggest crime
rate have some relevance to criminals being who they are.
Further Questions:

How they found out that these criminal were innocent?

Citation:

Criminal Justice Degrees Guide. "10 Infamous Inmates

Who Were Wrongly Convicted - Criminal Justice Degrees
Guide.". N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Apr. 2016.

Date Accessed:

4/4/16

Type of Source:

Secondary Source, Article

Inquiry Questions
Answered:

How are falsely convicted criminals treated after release? Are there any
falsely convicted criminals that were sentence for crimes and released
later? How was it found out that were falsely convicted?

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Keywords:

Wrongly convicted

Summary +
Commentary:

The Criminal Justice Degrees Guide compiled ten wrongly convicted

criminals that were released later on due to new evidence or testimony.
Many of these people were convicted and were facing 50 years to
lifetime sentences and some of them were sentenced to death as well.
The list has the names of the criminals that shows how they convicted
and how was it found out that were falsely convicted.

The Criminal Justice Degree Guide helps me see that there were more
falsely accused criminal than I thought there were. They use dates and
statistics to accurately describe the falsely accused criminal. With this
information it will be useful to get factual information on criminals.
Further Questions:

Is there any Compensation should be given to the falsely

accused that were s sentences and some of them were sentenced
to death as well for lifetime?

Reflection:
Based on my research, I can tell which of these sources we strong and why. The criminal guide,
NBCNews, and my survey. These sources based on factual information on criminals which is
reliable and by given dates and statistic to accurately describe the falsely convicted. Most of my
research is secondary sources. My whole project was dependent on my analysis skills and ability
to find useful information where ever it maybe. It hard to find interviews or go out and make
observations for this subject. Based on what I understand on primary and secondary sources, that
the primary is a document or physical object which was written or created during the time under
study while secondary involves more in interprets and analyzes primary sources. For primary
sources, I created and administered a survey to seek peoples opinion about criminals especially
falsely convicted which was for anonymous people. I believe that the design and wording of my
questions impact the answers. I made some changes to helped me get more information out of
my survey and to be clear enough to the respondents. I managed a brainstorm on key words to
call falsely accused criminals. Then I start gathering information from reliable sources and
connecting to each other. The only problem that I face was the time so for the future I will start to
gather everything earlier.