On October 3, 1974, at around 10:45 pm, Elton Hymon and Leslie Wright of the Memphis Police Department were responding to a “prowler on the inside” call. They made the scene and observed a woman in the house next to the intended home of the call. She was standing on her front porch pointing at the house. She advised that she had heard glass breaking and someone was breaking into the house next door. As Wright showed both officers on the scene on his radio to dispatch, Hymon went to the rear of the house.
In the State of Texas v. Cameron Todd Willingham case, smalltown Todd Willingham was convicted and put on death row after being unjustly convicted of setting his house with arson and murder. The police’s preconceived opinions of him played its role in this case. However, when clouded judgment is involved mistakes are made. In this case, the results may have been an innocent man's life was destroyed and he ultimately died because of it. Police took his lack of injuries and the fact that he never tried to re-enter the house to save his kids as evidence in their case against him.
Before the sun had broken on June 6th, 1996 Darlie Routier (26) of Rowlett Texas was pleading with the dispatch operator for immediate help. In this almost 6 minute long call (in which the police get there in 3 minutes and about 45 seconds in) Mrs. Routier seems to be in complete shock, as she begs the operator to quickly send police. However, in between brief periods of hysterical breathing and unintelligible sobs she soberly remarks how she picked up the suspected murder weapon and this could have tainted any fingerprints that were there before. It was her attitude that landed her in the media’s glare, however it was the evidence in this case, all circumstantial, that landed her on Texas’s Death Row. In this paper I aim to highlight and elaborate
Photography, measurements, and reconstruction of bloodstain all complete. I then took samples of the blood for DNA analysis. It was determined later that the blood was Jessica’s bloodstains and the semen belonged to sex offender Couey due to the sexual assault he committed to 9yr.old Jessica. Trace evidence: Jessica’s left thumb and Couey’s two index fingers were stamped on an old pizza box discovered in Couey’s bedroom closet. A glass table in the bedroom produced more matches.
Even when Michael’s new defense team, through the innocence project, found a crime that was eerily similar to the method of murder and subsequent events to the one that Michael was convicted of, the new prosecutor in Williamson County fought hard to keep DNA testing from taking place, even stating that they objected to the testing now because the defense hadn’t requested it before (Morton, 2014). There was further evidence of ineffectiveness in that the coroner who’d changed his estimated time of death between the autopsy and trial, had come under scrutiny for his findings in this case, as well as several others, with claims of gross errors “including one case where he came to the conclusion that a man who’d been stabbed in the back had committed suicide” (Morton, 2014). This was only one of the many injustices that were committed against Michael Morton throughout his trial. In August of 2006, the defense was finally granted permission to perform DNA testing on the items that had been taken from his wife’s body (Morton, 2014). Although this testing did not reveal any information about the guilty party, it did at least give Michael the knowledge that Chris was not sexually violated before or after her death (Morton,
In September of 1961, a woman from District of Columbia had an intruder break into her apartment. While the invader of the home was there, they had taken her wallet, and also raped the woman. During the investigation of the crime, the police had found some latent fingerprints in the apartment. The police then established and processed the prints. The prints were then connected back to 16 year old Morris A. Kent.
The West Memphis Three case is a prime example of the flaws within the criminal justice system. The evidence used to convict the three boys was largely circumstantial and relied heavily on police coercion that led to false confessions. Moreover, the prosecution's use of a satanic expert in an attempt to attribute the crime to satanic rituals added unnecessary hysteria to the proceedings. The Police Department made numerous errors during the course of their investigation, including losing crucial evidence, such as blood samples found in a lady's bathroom at a local restaurant, and using flawed interrogation techniques to extract false confessions from the boys. This case underscores the need for thorough investigative practices to ensure that
House was tired in Union County Court and prosecutor link the stain and fibers found on Carolyn’s clothes for the characteristics to House. As a result, House was found guilty of the crime and sentenced to death. After the trial ,House immediately petition appeals for the verdict House’s lawyers argue that House deserved a new trial not only because the new evidence showed he didn’t commit the murder but it also shows her husband was really guilty of the murder. Upon this argument, all courts in the state level reviewed the case and confirmed that even with the new evidence it wasn’t essential to the guilty factor. Moreover, courts showed because of not properly citing certain constitutional claim in Tennessee court.
As with any criminal case, there are always a number of issues pertaining the stages of the crime and also the media and the general public’s opinion of the case. Many of the issues and explicit actions of certain individuals that had happened during the Corryn Rayney case had affected the interpretation of the case in someway for both government workers and the general public. By analysing the issues of the case, it allows a much more detailed view on the case and how most of the issues are linked in one way or another. One of the issues regarding this case was where a police officer had been found attempting to pressure forensic pathologists to alter their case reports to align with their best interests.
Christopher Simmons was a seventeen year old juvenile from Missouri whom in 1993 along with two of his friends, Charles Benjamin and John Tessmer, planned to rob and murder Shirley Crook in her home (Roper v. Simmons, 2004). On the night the crime was to be committed, Tessmer pulled out of the plan, and Simmons and Benjamin would continue on as planned. The two broke into the Ms. Crook’s home, robbed her, tied her up, covered up her eyes, then drove her to a state park and threw her off a bridge. During the trial, evidence, videotaped reenactment and testimony outlining the premeditated plan, allowed for the jury to easily convict Simmons of the crime. Even though Simmons had no previous criminal record and was a minor at the time the crime was committed,
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (hereinafter “FBI”) began investigating Mr. Weed Townsend, the defendant’s father for illegal possession of child pornography. (Id. at 3.) On January 7, 2016, Mr. Stringfellow was subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury in Los Angeles. (Id. at 1.) During that proceeding, Mr. Stringfellow was asked if he had any knowledge about his father’s whereabouts, and
Interview Tierney Crocker is a 21-year-old white female. Crocker is a full-time student here at MCLA. She is currently a junior and majoring on Business with a concentration in event management. She works mostly weekends at the Pittsfield Country Club as a waitress. She believes her ethnicity is Irish because her family, mostly her mother has told her that.
This concern led to absence of expertise dependability on the part of the state. It was out of this failing that the state had a direct impact on the case. This aggravating conduct provides a superb outline for prospective courts, owing to the fact that the methodologies engaged by the FBI do not diverge considerably across circumstances. This exceedingly speculative testimony brings about concerns to the courts on the specifics that should be of concern in such
Since the founding of our judicial system there have always been individuals claiming innocence to a crime that they have been found guilty of, traditionally, after their sentencing no matter how innocent they may or may not be would have to serve, live and possibly die by the decision of their peers. The Innocence Project, founded in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck alongside Peter J. Neufeld faces this issue by challenging the sentencing of convicted individuals who claim their innocence and have factual ground to stand upon. The Innocence Project uses the recent advances in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing to prove their client’s innocence by using methods that were not available, too primitive or not provided to their clients during their investigation,
According to Howard, being in that kind of shooting environment and get no blood on your body is not possible and lab researchers say that there was no blood on Sarah’s clothes. However, there was DNA found on Sarah’s bathrobe which Howard was unaware of and defense prosecutors in return questioned Howard’s creditability. Howard brought up the issue regarding collecting the evidence and also countered defense by questioning on their integrity on the state’s investigations. Howard’s contributions helped in reopening the case
