A friend of mine, Twyla Johnson, of Des Moines, Iowa needs your help. Twyla 's sister was murdered in 1975. No one has ever been held accountable for this murder. The detective on the case in 1975, now retired, has told Twyla the names of the persons believed to be guilty. He went to the prosecutor 2 times, but it was said there wasn 't enough evidence to convict.
Upon reading and visiting the locations of the murder of Katrina Suhan in the South Amboy State Vs Thomahl Cook Case, I have had mixed reactions and feelings. Also, upon reading online that the defendant (Cook) had appealed his conviction, several questions were raised. If you have read the Supreme courts documents of Thomahl Cook’s appeal you will notice like I did, that there are multiple discrepancies in the police investigation.
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,
Is it better to assume a man is guilty based on stereotypes and prejudice? Evidence must be substantial and confessions must never be forced or excessive. All evidence must be legally obtained, but sometimes things don’t happen the way they are supposed to. For in May of 1993, unspeakable acts rocked the community of West Memphis, Arkansas. Three boys would go on an innocent bike ride and never return, and three older boys were blamed.
They say that it is better that ten guilty men go free then one innocent man be wrongly convicted. On a 60 Minute broadcast, reporter Lesley Stahl did a story regarding the wrongful imprisonment of an innocent man based off of a rape victim’s eyewitness identification. The man convicted of the crime was sentenced to life plus fifty years at the age of twenty-two for a crime he never committed. Eleven years later, his innocence was finally proven when DNA was able to exonerate and clear his name.
The murder of Lynne Harper was a tragic and uneventful occurrence to have taken place in the small community of Clinton, Ontario. What is also uneventful is that an innocent fourteen-year-old teenager, named Steven Truscott, was wrongly accused and charged with Lynne’s death. This was all because Steven last saw helping Lynne out by giving her a lift on his bicycle. The legal system failed Lynne, Steven, and their families because the Police and Crown did not follow proper procedures. Even after Stevens’s exoneration, the real murder was never caught and was able to continue living their life, unlike Steven who loss a part of his childhood and adulthood.
The possible biases in jury decision-making will be discussed, including those related to having a celebrity on trial. In addition, this paper will examine the taboo nature of sexual assault cases, the problems that often arise in such cases, and the psychological toll on the victim. One issue with this case is the prosecution’s lack forensic evidence. In a “he said, she said” case that lacks the evidence that jurors expect in order to make their decision, it comes down to whether they believe the defendant or the prosecution. When DNA is not available, other types of physical evidence are examined (LaPorte, G., Nguyen, M., Schwarting, D., Scott, F., Waltke, H., Weiss, D., 2017).
Will there ever be Justice for Michelle O’Connell? Melvin Valimattathil Houston Community College Abstract The shooting in St. Augustine was a tragic event. An event that led to dishonesty and a loss of trust towards the Sheriffs Department. But most importantly; a loss of a human life.
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.
When you work in the Army, you do not have much of a choice when you are given an order, which makes it hard to define what actions from troops in the Army are the result of just following orders and what actions are ultimately their willful decision. In the book Gentlehands by M.E. Kerr, we can judge whether we believe Frank Trenker, also known as Gentlehands, should face justice for his actions as an SS Nazi soldier or if he should be left alone in peace. Mr. Trenker, like almost all Nazi soldiers at the time, killed millions of innocent people. He also lied on a legal document upon entrance to America. What sets his case apart is that he committed acts that were beyond his orders, such as tormenting his prisoners.
It took nine years for the jury to realize Bloodsworth was innocent. This shows our preamble has a flaw if people are sentencing other to jail even though they're innocent, causing the innocent to rot in jail wrongfully.
Additionally, the media got into the investigation by asking questions about the events before the murder. The National Enquirer, for instance, took a different angle to investigate the case; however, by doing this, the media almost made it impossible for proper investigations to be held by the criminal justice system. Ogletree Jr. maintains that the press failed terribly by trying to assume what the lawyers or witnesses thought at different times of the trial, which was a fail (Ogletree). Consequently, there should be a level of protection from the media. Public figures should not have their cases aired or followed to prevent tampering of evidence or misconceptions.
In a murder case where an 18-year-old, Sarah Johnson was sentenced to life in prison for committing a first degree murder for both her and dad. The case reopened when a retired crime lab technician Michael Howard “testified that whoever shot Diane and Alan Johnson at close range on September 2, 2003, would have been hit by a "rain" of blood spatter” (http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/03/03/johnson/index.html?eref=sitesearch). Howard came up with his theories proving that, Sarah was not even close in committing those murders and it is a wrongful conviction. Based on blood spatter, Howard disclosed that the shooting which took place was at a very close range and blood would have been all over the assailant, where as there was no blood pattern found on Sarah’s clothes. In fact, the pajama pant, Sarah was wearing on the day of shooting had no trace of her parent’s DNA or blood.
This is an important element when deciding who the best and worst jurors were. There were no facts as to who was right or wrong because we didn’t see the crime in question. All
Pamela Foddrill: Examining the Investigation Introduction The tragic abduction and death of Pamela Foddrill beginning on August 18th, 1995, relied on investigators from the Indiana State Police, FBI, multiple Greene County police agencies, and Greene County Prosecutors to arrest and convict the five individuals who committed this heinous act. Those who were arrested and eventually convicted for different criminal offenses are Roger Long, Jerry Russell Sr., John Redman, Wanda Hubbell, and Plynia Fowler. One could look at the investigations these agencies completed and evaluate them in two phases, forensic evidence and investigative processes.
