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West memphis three case summary
West memphis three case summary
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More handpicked essays just for you.
West memphis three case summary
West memphis three case summary
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
A Murder in Virginia: Southern Justice on Trial By Suzanne Lebsock ((New York: W.W. Norton, 2003) Suzanne Lebsock is a historic author that enjoys digging into the past events of the American South. When Suzanne finds something interesting she dives into the history of the event and creates a historic fiction novel, that includes her own ideas and historical facts. Suzanne Lebsock has created more works of art like, “Visible Women: New Essays on American Activism”, “A Share of Honour”, “The Free Women of Petersburg: Status and Culture in a Southern Town”, and finally, “A Murder in Virginia: Southern Justice on Trial”. “A Murder in Virginia: Southern Justice on Trial” takes place in Lunenburg, Virginia in the year of 1895, where a white woman,
Eric Smith at the age of thirteen tortured and murdered a four year old child named Derrick Robie at a nearby woods. Eric was sentenced to nine years to life in prison. Eric was convicted for second degree murder. His reasoning for the murder was because Eric just wanted to see someone being hurt rather than him. The Robie family were suffering knowing one day he will be released back into society.
We are introduced to the author of the book, Bryan Stevenson who is a member of the bar in two states Alabama and Georgia. He then receives a call from the local Judge Robert E. Lee about a case which involves a man called Walter McMillian’s. He knew that he could have gotten into great danger but he decides to do the right thing and confront the case. In the county of Monroe an eighteen-year-old woman is brutally murdered. The murder took everyone by surprise and even after a few days of investigating no one could find concrete evidence to point out who was the killer.
The West Memphis Three was a trail convicting three teenagers: Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley of killing three little boys; Michael Moore, Stevie Branch, and Chris Byers. This trail was considered to be a satanic ritual because Damien Echols wasn’t considered normal to the other members of society in his town. He did “dabble in many religions” and Satanism being one with admiring photos of torture and death, but it was not a satanic ritual. The court used members that were far removed from any alleged "Satanic Panic" in West Memphis to give the defendants a better shot at a fair trial and unbiased juries. Damien Echols was sentenced to solitary confinement for eight years from his 20 years in prison.
During the “West Memphis Three” trials however, no eye witnesses came forth to the judges and said that they saw the boys do it. In determining if the defendants should be counted guilty, eye witnesses play a huge part in it. During the “West Memphis Three” trials, Jason Baldwin
Damien Echols was a 17 year old dropout at the time of the crime. He had been previously hospitalized because of his psychiatric problems and attempted to drink his own blood in hospital. He WAS put on suicide watch during his time in the hospital as well as claiming he was going to be the next Charles Manson or Ted Bundy. Although he was a suspect, the only thing tying Echols to the case was the blue wax on the boys shirts and the polyester cub scout hat fiber that was found on a shirt at his house (“The West Memphis Three Trials: An Account”). Another thing that was played upon was the fact that Damien also believed in practicing magic, as well as the fact he already had a criminal record for burglary and sexual misconduct (The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and
The prosecution was trying to make is look like Jodi was the victim of an abusive relationship. The defence was trying to make it look like Jodi was a person who killed Travis out of jealousy and rage. The jury was very confused on what and who to believe when it can to the evidence that had been show. The evidence crime scene investigators gathered was substantial.
In this PBS documentary, The murder of Emmett Till, Stan Nelson illustrates a racial hardship and crime against the African-American community. Lynching is a mob of Caucasian people that hang in African-American in a public place to show white supremacy. Emmett Tills murder trial was completely tried in a completely biased courtroom and there was even circumstantial evidence which places JW Millam and Roy Bryant kidnapping young Emmett Till, whose body was later found. I believe that in this murder and trial we see truly how far hatred and racism can rise by just one simple act. The murder of Emmett Till caused an uprise in the civil rights movement.
"A Murder in Virginia: Southern Justice on Trial" by Suzanne Lebsock is a compelling and thought-provoking book that explores the murder of Lucy Pollard, a white woman, in 1895 in rural Virginia. The book offers a detailed examination of the trial and the events that followed, shedding light on the complexities of race, gender, and justice in the American South during this time period. The author retells the events leading up to the murder, the investigation, and the trial. The book offers insight into the legal system at the time, including the role of juries, the prosecution and defense, and the role of the press.
After putting the pieces together and seeing where Trisha Meili was at the time she was attacked, they noticed it didn’t match up to where the teens were when they were. If you watch the video confessions, it turns out the teens didn’t know where the crime took place, when it took place, or how it took place- they only knew that it happened. There was no DNA match to any of the teens but they were still prosecuted. They created a scenario where there is a sixth perpetrator but even if they were correct that there was a sixth perpetrator, his absence in the confession made the confessions factually
During the nine boys testimonials six of the boys denied the rapee entirely, but the other three accused claimed that the other six boys were the ones who raped the two white
As you are shown in the film, after the identification of Brenton Butler and his so-called testimony to investigators, the police and prosecutors just stopped working on the case. Thus, evidence that would have supported Butler’s innocence and help find the actual killer weren’t discovered until Brenton’s defense attorney, Pat McGuinness did some investigation and research of his own. Thus, flowing from film from the trial to McGuinness’s investigation scenes shows the how he attained the information that he and his partner could present in the courtroom. While the prosecutors only had the one eyewitness, who claimed to have only caught a glimpse of the shooter and gave description that did not even match Butler. The film presents the conclusion that the police did not actually do the work to find the actual killer and if it wasn’t for Pat McGuinness and his partner wanting to find the culprit, it would never actually be solved.
The mid-1900s was not the best time for African-Americans, especially not for Emmett Till. Emmett Till was fourteen years old when he went from Chicago, Illinois to Money, Mississippi. Till was a wild boy who loved to joke around and pull pranks. He lived in a community in the North where there was segregation but nothing that compared to the South. This scared his mother who was not sure if Emmett was prepared to go.
As a class requirement, we were obligated to watch a documentary about Emmett Till. The documentary, titled “The Murder of Emmett Till” was a tell-all about a tragic story of a fourteen-year-old boy from Chicago. Emmett Till was sent to Money, Mississippi to spend the summer with some relatives. In the 1950s, life in Chicago was different than life in Mississippi. Racism was stronger in the south than in the north and Emmett Till was walking into an environment he had never encountered before.
Though, it wouldn’t have excused the most disgusting and pitiful actions taken by the Bryant family. As the town was known to be small, the incident was well known and talked upon by members of the community and family or occupants of the said store. It was on Friday August 26, Carolyn's husband Roy Bryant returned from Texas where he hauled shrimp from his trip. It was soon that a young black customer told Mr. Bryant what “the scene” was all about, and identified Emmett, who was the visiting teenager from Chicago, as the offender. Known back in that current time, he didn’t want to be labeled as a “weakling” or “coward”, he tried to seeing if he can get more information from his wife, but as she feigned ignorance, he was angered and angrily asked her to tell him her side of the story which is given later as a testimony in court.