The West Memphis three murders are known all over the world. Three little boys brutally murdered, three high school boys wrongly accused, and sentenced to life behind bars, or death row. That’s all people know, they’re oblivious to the facts that show they weren’t the killers for the young boys. The accused boys were; Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley. At the time they were teenagers, but they were judged by the way they dressed in black, who they hung out with, and the music they listened to. They called the boys “goth” and took advantage of that to blame someone. The seventeen boy, Jessie, was proved to be mentally special. But the officials still took Jessie’s confession, and that’s all they had against him. How was he …show more content…
Experts say that the DNA leads terry to the crime scene and the neighbors say that they say him with the children that night they went missing. He claims that the hair strand could be his due to the children always playing at his house. Other evidence, bite marks, on Steve’s face was ruled to be an adult bite mark. That excludes Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley as the offender. Dr. Thomas David, also pointed out some unusual anatomy in the teeth structure that caused the wound. After the murders, Terry’s dentures “went missing”, he says he must have left them at a restaurant and someone stole them. Soon after they said they would help find them, he surprisingly found them in his home. With the dentures lined up with the evidence, there is a perfect line up, besides one tooth. That one tooth wasn’t on the dentures, it must have been a natural tooth. The part where the dentures were wasn’t as deep as where the natural tooth would go. If you turn the photo around (upside down), it looks more human than not. It is entirely possible that the perpetrator was standing behind Stevie, looking down on his face and bit him. That’s always been my gut feeling. Bites to children carried out by an adult shows a need to control, to own or possess the child. The film makers highlighted some of Terry’s abuse. He has admitted to assaulting his wife, and he has been accused of beating his kids. A
“There. We have a, there’s a note left and our daughter’s gone.” Were Patsy Ramsey's words while on the phone, reporting her six year old daughter’s disappearance to 911 at 5:52 a.m. on Christmas day in 1996. The missing six year old girl was JonBenet Ramsey. When she was found murdered, it was obvious she suffered from various injuries.
Imagine that you are taking a brief walk at night with your dog or by yourself and suddenly feel suffocated. The next thing you know, you have become the next victim of a gruesome sexual attack. However, you could never tell your tale because, at the lowest point of this heinous ordeal, you realize that your rapist will now turn into your murderer. This is the case of the Hillside Strangler, a story of two cousins, Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi, and the brutal crimes they were charged with.
The case of Cyntoia Brown is about an innocent victim, who had been punished for finding the courage to fight against the ones who had hurt her. Ultimately, this case is the greatest injustice act against a person ever yet. Her whole life, she had been facing abuse and inequity. She was only 16 when she has murdered Johnny Allen in 2004, and is now serving a life sentence, with an eligible parole on her 69th birthday. What the jury hasn’t been told about is that Cyntoia has been repeatedly drugged and physically and sexually
There had been no physical evidence to link Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols, and Jessie Misskelley with the crime. However, they were convicted after Jessie Misskelley was questioned and had then went on to admit to supposedly committing
I believe that Danforth, the judge, is to blame. He chose to listen to the girls as a verifiable source of information. He makes the ultimate ruling on who lives or dies based on their accusations. He created more fear instead of peace within the community. He didn 't question their credibility until someone else brought that issue to light.
In the 'Slender Man ' case, I believe that the two 12-year old girls are not competent to stand trial for attempted murder. In order to determine an adolescent’s competence to stand trial, their developmental immaturity, intellectual disability, and mental illness should be evaluated (Bath & Gerring, 2014). However, it is important to remember that these factors do not immediately rule that an adolescent is incompetent; it is the presence of one of these factors that can increase that possibility (Bath & Gerring, 2014). In this case, two 12-year old girls lured their friend into the wood to murder her in honor of ‘Slender Man’, a mythological character. Both these girls have demonstrated deficits in their development neurologically, intellectually, emotionally, and psychosocially (Scott & Grisso, 2004).
In February 2012, a 28-year-old man followed a 17-year-old youth and killed him on a residential street. The youth hadn’t done anything; he did not commit a crime, and he hadn’t provoked the older man. He was shot simply because he seemed “suspicious.” This was the story of Trayvon Martin’s death in Sanford, Florida at the hands of George Zimmerman (Cooper). Zimmerman, the killer, is a white man while Trayvon was an innocent black youth.
The article “On Punishment and Teen Killers” written by Jennifer Jenkins is an article with very weak ethos. The author argues that teens who commit heinous crimes should receive life without the possibility of parole and that the victims rights should be considered. The author is a victim of a crime committed by a teen, her pregnant sister was brutally murdered by a teen gunman who wanted to “see what it felt like to shoot someone” (2). By bringing her sister into the paper the author lowers her credibility because she is emotionally connected to the case and has an obvious biased opinion. This leads to the readers to question her reliability on an unbiased opinion in the article.
The Felony Murder Rule Haley Roemmich Peru State College The Felony Murder Rule INTRODUCTION The felony murder doctrine is the legal principle which provides that any death that occurs during the commission of a felony or attempted felony can be legally treated as a murder. This doctrine holds true regardless of whether there was intent to kill. The felony murder doctrine represents one the few instances in criminal law where the element of intent is waived (Garoupa & Klick, 2006).
Out of the 337 cases where innocent men and women were wrongfully imprisoned nearly half of the true suspects were identified and convicted. The racial heritage of those who have been exonerated is fairly diverse, consisting of “206 African Americans, 104 Caucasians, 25 Latinos, and 2 Asian Americans” (The Innocence Project). (Transition) Although The Innocence Project has changed the lives of many who others would not afford them the opportunity to prove their innocence, they would not have been able to do so without the recent
Between 1976 and 1977, the Metro Detroit area was gripped with fear due to the Oakland County Child Killer case. At least four children were killed, and local area residents are still trying to get a resolution for these unsolved child murders in Michigan. Also known as the Babysitter Killer, there are many people who believe that Chris Busch was the Oakland County Child Killer. Unfortunately, despite a lot of notable evidence and a large public outcry, the police never got past the initial questioning phase with any of the suspects. The families of the murdered children have been waiting for one major question to be answered for 40 years: if it wasn't Busch, who was the Oakland County Child Killer, and why hasn't he or she been caught?
Although many may argue that the accusations presented by the plaintiffs seemed quite plausible, further investigation proved many such claims to be false. For example, although Price and Bates accused the young African-American men of raping them on the freight train, “the Scottsboro doctor who examined the girls less than two hours after the alleged rapes […] was able to show on cross examination that the girls were both calm, composed, and free of bleeding and vaginal damage” (Linder). The fact that a certified doctor was able to prove that the young women were virtually unhurt after the supposed rapes shows that the girls were lying to the court. Although their claims made sense to the prejudiced judicial system, Price and Bates were simply using their positions in society as young white women to gain unwarranted sympathy from the all-white jury. Because scientific evidence was able to contradict the prosecution’s allegations, it was evident that false accusations were being made by the plaintiffs.
May 25, 1997, Sherrice Iverson, a 7-year-old girl lost the chance to grow up and live a full life. Jeremey Strohmeyer, a teenage boy walked into the women’s bathroom and intentionally molested and strangled the innocent child. David Cash was a key factor to whether that girl had a chance to a future or not. Choosing to ignore what he witnessed, he walked out of the bathroom leaving the teenage boy and 7 year old girl alone. Because of Cash’s decision, it created a controversial debate of whether he should continue to go to Berkeley.
Therefore, when a person argues that a juvenile was not aware of their crime is a discrediting claim. In 1990 in the city of Chicago, a couple expecting their first child were murdered in cold blood in the hands of a juvenile teen. The teen shot both the husband and the wife who pleaded for their lives and the life of their unborn child. Author of “Juvenile Justice Information Exchange”, Jennifer Jenkins states, “He reported to a friend, who testified at his trial, about his ‘thrill kill’ that he just wanted to ‘see what it would feel like to shoot someone’”. This killer was aware of his crime and was aware of who his victims were due to planning the murders months before.
8: I think that… as a juror… we have to really think, we have to think about all the evidence, about all the outcomes. Well if I voted guilty at the initial vote, we would’ve let the boy die but as a juror being given jury duty… one of the highest duties of citizenship… is a big duty and being trusted and chosen to have a person’s life in your hands is just way too much pressure to handle and is one of the hardest things to do in your own lifetime and a one of a lifetime experience that you will just never forget. I would say that a case like this takes so much time and needs to have a proper moral to end up with the right