Discussion Board Forum Instructions
Topic: Evidence Admission and Suppression
Each state has adopted a variety of rules regarding what facts are deemed proper evidence. Only what a court deems admissible evidence may be considered in reaching a verdict of guilt or innocence. Evidence that is suppressed because it was gathered in violation of the Constitution may have a profound impact on the guilt of a defendant. However, the ability to limit what information a juror has access to is becoming increasingly more difficult to control.
The prevalence of smartphones and tablets allows jurors to gather data about a defendant, victim, crime scene, or witness that was not authorized or even presented at trial or in fact was specifically prohibited by law to be used to determine guilt. But, the temptation to know “the truth” can drive jurors to ignore the mandates of the Constitution and the laws governing proper evidence.
Thread:
If the goal for a trial is the search for justice, evaluate why there are rules that limit a jurors access to information.
Should guilt or innocence only use information gathered in compliance with the Constitution and approved by the judge?
What happens if there are no rules?
Should there be exceptions, and if so, are exceptions still a decision in the hands of the judge or can individual jurors make up their own rules about what is useful information to decide guilt or punish?
Be sure you provide the scriptural, constitutional, and scholarly basis for your positions.
You are required to post a thread (at least 250 relevant words) that is responsive to the prompt questions. In addition to the thread, you are required to reply to 2 other classmates threads. Each reply (at least 200 relevant words) will move the discussion forward, identifying new issues, and bringing clarity to the issues being discussed. Each main point of the thread and each reply must be supported by at least 1 scholarly, criminal justice source published within the last 10 years. In addition, both the thread and each response will relate every major point in your posts to scriptural/biblical principles and include one or more relevant biblical citations. All in-text citations will follow current APA formatting. A reference section using APA formatting must also be included for both the thread and each of the two replies. All posts will be graded according to the requirements set forth in the Discussion Board Forum Grading Rubric.
Responding to a classmates post requires both the addition of new ideas and analysis. A particular point made by the classmate must be addressed and built upon by your analysis in order to move the conversation forward. Thus, the response post is a rigorous assignment that requires you to build upon posts to develop deeper and more thorough discussion of the ideas introduced in them. As such, reply posts must do more than merely affirm, restate or unprofessionally quarrel with the previous post(s). Instead, your responsive posts must make a valuable, substantive contribution to the discussion.
GRADING RUBRICS:
All key components of the Discussion Board Forum prompt are addressed in the thread.
Thoughtful criminal justice analysis (considering assumptions, analyzing implications, comparing/contrasting concepts).
Every major point is supported by at least one scholarly criminal justice source published in the last 10 years.
Relates each key issue to scriptural/biblical principles with use of one or more relevant biblical citation.
At least 2 unique replies are present
Moves discussion forward, identifies new issues, and brings clarity to issues being discussed.
Spelling and grammar are correct. Sentences are complete, clear, and concise.
Sources cited in-text are free of current APA citation errors.
All sources are provided in a Reference section at the end of thread in current APA format.
