Bias in Blue: Instructing Jurors to Consider the Testimony of Police Officer Witnesses with Caution

Jurors in criminal trials are instructed by the judge that they are to treat the testimony of a police officer just like the testimony of any other witness. Fact-finders are told that they should not give police officer testimony greater or lesser weight than any other witness they will hear from at trial. Jurors are to accept that police are no more believable or less believable than anyone else. Jury instructions regarding police officer testimony stand in contrast to the instructions given to jurors when a witness with a legally recognized interest in the outcome of the case has testified. In cases where witnesses have received financial assistance or plea deals for their testimony, a special instruction is given. In many jurisdictions, when a criminal defendant testifies, the jurors are told, despite the presumption of innocence, that he has a “vital” interest in the outcome of the case and that jurors can give his testimony less weight. Courts have routinely and almost universally refused to allow similar instructions for police officer testimony. Instructions highlighting that officers may be biased or have an interest in the outcome of the case are almost never given in a criminal trial. To the contrary, jurors are effectively told they must not consider the police officer’s status as a police officer when considering her testimony. In many cases, however, police officers are not disinterested parties. They work hand-in-hand with prosecutors in building a case against a defendant. In undercover buy-bust stings, search warrant cases, and assault on police officers cases, police officers are not only the sole witnesses to the alleged offense, they are also invested in the outcome of the case. These cases would not exist without the police officer’s involvement. These crimes—sometimes police-manufactured—are often the result of departmental interests. For example, police go out and act in an undercover capacity and claim to buy drugs or purchase sex because of the agendas that they themselves or their offices have set. Later, they may have to justify decisions they made about the selective use of limited departmental resources with arrests and convictions. Law enforcement may also be motivated by the money at stake in the civil forfeiture related to a criminal case. Recent events in Chicago, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Ferguson, Staten Island, South Carolina, and other locations have created a public dialogue on police credibility. Despite the strong interests of law enforcement, the law has treated law enforcement as impartial when, in reality, officers are in many instances “biased advocates.” This Article calls for jury instructions that reflect the reality of these police officer interests

White Supremacy’s Police Siege on the United States Capitol

On January 6, 2021, law enforcement failed the people and the institutions it was supposed to protect. This article explores how white supremacy and far-right extremism in policing contributed to the insurrection at the Capitol. Police officers enabled the siege of the Capitol, participated in the attack, and failed to take seriously the threat posed by white supremacists and other far-right groups. The debacle is emblematic of the myriad problems in law enforcement that people of color, scholars, and those in the defund and abolitionist movements have been warning about for years. Police complicity in the attack on the Capitol has shown that the infiltration of police departments by white supremacists and far-right extremists has made the country less safe. This article illustrates how these problems in policing, exposed on January 6, harm people of color, and proposes solutions to reform policing in the United States

Federal Criminal Defendants Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire? Brady and the United States Attorney’s Office

The Supreme Court decided Brady v. Maryland in an effort to ensure fair trials and fair outcomes. The Brady decision requires prosecutors to disclose exculpatory evidence regarding guilt of the defendant. The Brady rule is meant to ensure innocent defendants are not convicted for crimes they did not commit. This rule should have unanimous support from both prosecution and defense teams, and yet Brady violations continue to occur within prosecutor offices around the country. No offender highlights the short comings of the current system more so than the United States Attorney’s Office. Since the Brady decision, the USAO has repeated ignored their obligation, through sheer bad-faith or a misunderstanding of their duties. Additionally, they have been staunch opponents of suggested, enhanced Brady protections. Whatever the reasons for the USAO’s non-compliance may be, one thing is clear: reform is needed. This Article highlights the history of the USAO with respect to the Brady rule. It describes the USAO’s wanton disregard for its obligations, and discusses the appellate courts’ increasing frustrations due to their shortcomings. This Article discusses a series of infamous Brady violations, which judges and scholars have written extensively on. Finally, this Article discusses the future of the Brady rule in current Department of Justice, under the leadership of Jeff Sessions. This Article looks back on Sessions’ personal history of Brady violations, and suggests that if real reform is to occur, it is going to have to begin with court rules or the legislature

Analysis of Hungarian biofuel supply chain

In the last century the increased energy demand of the world population is a huge amount and this trend is proceeding through the increased energy need of developing countries. The dramatically price growing of fossil fuels represents the fact that the traditional energy sources can’t cover the energy supply of the whole world. Despite the repetitive conflict between food and fuel, use of agrofuels still topical question of nations. The use of renewable energy sources is not only an obligation but also a source of opportunities. In spite of the fact that many nations implement them to the energy structure successfully and in a high measure, some countries couldn’t use them in high quantity however its ecological manner would be optimal. The subject of this paper is the biofuels which can (partly) substitute the fossil fuels in Hungary. During the last years, our country took some steps to stimulate the market of biofuels. This paper, using PEST analysis, focuses on the macro-economic conditions which can determine the success of biodiesel and try to connect with supply chain analysis. Using this two method it would be defined the source of risk which could affect the return of the invested capital to a biofuel unit

Performance and selection of winter durum wheat genotypes in different European conventional and organic fields

Sustainability is a key factor for the future of agriculture. Productivity in agriculture has more than tripled in developed countries since the 1950s. Beyond the success of plant breeding, the increased use of inorganic fertilizers, application of pesticides, and spread of irrigation also contributed to this success. However, impressive yield increases started to decline in the 1980s because of the lack of sustainability. One of the most beneficial ways to increase sustainability is organic agriculture. In such agro-ecosystem-based holistic production systems the prerequisite of successful farming is the availability of crop genotypes that perform well. However, selection of winter durum wheat for sub-optimal growing conditions is still mainly neglected, and the organic seed market also lacks of information on credibly tested winter durum varieties suitable for organic agriculture