You Are a Defense Attorney Defending a Client Against a Murder

Multiple Choice

You are a defense attorney defending a client against a murder charge. Your client is the former boyfriend of the victim, and it has been established by several witnesses that the breakup was not a pleasant one. Your client was identified as a suspect from the very beginning. During the trial, the prosecution presented a witness who claimed to overhear your client praying for forgiveness in his holding cell. The prosecution also presented the murder weapon, which was a softball bat with your client's fingerprint on the handle. Your client was convicted. The witness who the prosecution called to testify about supposedly overhearing your client pray is an example of a jailhouse informant. The prosecutor had doubts about the veracity of this testimony, especially considering that the witness demanded that his own charge be dropped in return for his testimony. The prosecutor decided to present the witness anyway, figuring that it might not be totally proper, but that since he was convinced your client was guilty, it was ok to bend the rules in order to secure the conviction. This is an example of:

A) cognitive dissonance.
B) selective information processing.
C) noble-cause corruption.
D) harmless error.