Conflict Of Interest In Criminal Justice

The Netflix series Making a Murderer has many important and prominent areas of discussion in correlation to what has been learned throughout Dr. Koon-Magnin’s Intro to Criminal Justice course. This paper will discuss ten examples from the series that associate with the learned concepts, terminology, and/or processes taught within the Criminal Justice online course. As a short overview for the reader, the following list will reference what the paper’s contents shall consist of and what will be analyzed in further detail: direct evidence, real evidence, plea bargains coupled with confessions and parole, the appeals process, the different types of courts, witnesses coupled with the weight of professional testimonies, the different types of prisons, …show more content…
There are multiple examples regarding a conflict of interest within this series. One is obvious and mentioned in the show and that is when the deputy first assigned to visit with the raped and assaulted woman named Penny was a good friend of Steven’s cousin who at the time was involved in a case already against Steven. This lady, named Sandra, was also married to a sheriff. This easily allowed the cops dealing with the case to have a personal vendetta against Steven, thus having the desire to convict him rather than finding out the truth. Another noted example within the series was Brendan’s first lawyer, who was a distant relative of the victim and rightfully stepped down as Brendan’s lawyer. The largest conflict of interest incidents involved the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s department’s involvement in the new criminal investigation of Steven Avery while a current civil lawsuit was pending involving Avery and the state of Wisconsin. Authorities told the public that Manitowoc Sheriffs were not involved but that proved to be false as coincidently it was Lt. Lenk, a Manitowoc Sheriff who had previous dealings with Mr. Avery, found the Toyota key in plain view after the trailer had been rigorously searched by other officers. Conflict of interest is important as it causes individuals to have a biased and subjective opinion on a matter. This allows evidence to be misconstrued, processes to be both unintentionally or intentionally done incorrectly (interrogations), and numerous other side effects caused by having a conflict of interest. Therefore, having any degree of conflict of interest can and likely will abuse the criminal justice system creating a false sense of justice and discovery of the