Introduction The book that I selected is called “Getting Life” by Michael Morton, who is a man that was wrongfully convicted of killing his wife in Texas in 1986. This book takes us from a happy young couple to the day of the murder, through the investigation into his wife’s murder, Michael’s trial and conviction, 25 years in prison, appeals, release from prison, and reintegration into society. One unique fact about this case is that is the first case where the prosecutor in a wrongful conviction case was subsequently convicted of prosecutorial misconduct, stripped of their law license and sentenced to serve time in jail. This book relates to death penalty cases where there are overzealous police and prosecutors who get tunnel vision about …show more content…
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 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.
This is a case study about a young man by the name of Korey Wise who was wrongly incarcerated in the Central Park Jogger case of 1989. Due to being the age of sixteen he was the only one out of the five boys wrongly accused to be sent to an adult prison. In this prison Korey was victim to many forms of abuse, physical and mental to name a few. He was found guilty despite the lack of evidence. None of the DNA samples or Semen matched up with Korey.
To recap the case of Ciny Jones, the young woman was found strangled in her car outside a grocery store in Centervale. In the past five years, the Centervale Police Department (CPD) has been working countless leads to identify a suspect. Centervale’s Police Department received news in the last year of a DNA sample recovered on Jones’s purse strap connected to a young man by the name of Jason Rivers. Due to prior drug abuse, Jason Rivers was found incompetent to stand trial. After a while, the State Mental Hospital cleared him of substance abuse and was competent to be placed on the docket for trial.
At first, McCowen refused to give another sample of his DNA and denied having intimate relationships with Christa, but finally in spring of 2004 he agreed to give his DNA. He was apprehensive about providing his DNA because he said that Christa had told him that"[he] could never tell anyone we had sex because her family would never accept the fact of her dating or having anything to do with black people. "(3) The DNA sample verified that he and Christa had sexual intercourse. District Attorney Michael O'Keefe had blamed the prolonged match due to the number of cases and limited resources at the State Police crime lab (13).
Michael Morton V. State of Texas In 1986, Michael Morton was having a normal life, he had a wife, a kid, and a job. That same year his life change completely. Michael Morton was doing his daily routine, as in going to his job, coming back to his wife, and kid. When he came back from his job, he found his wife murdered in their bed.
David Feige’s Indefensible: One Lawyer’s Journey nto the Inferno of American Justice invites people from all walks of life to a second hand experience of the criminal justice system hard at work. What is most interesting about Feige’s work is its distinct presentation of the life of a public defender in the South Bronx. Instead of simply detailing out his experiences as a public defender, Feige takes it a step further and includes the experiences of his clients. Without the personal relationships that he carefully constructs with each of his defendants, Feige would not be able to argue that the criminal justice system is flimsy at best, decisions always riding on either the judge’s personal attitudes or the clients propensity towards plea bargaining.
Ellie Meriggioli Amendment 8 Wisconsin State Journal, “Marcellus Williams Didn’t Die but Others Will,” August 28, 2017, page A9. This article is about a man named Marcellus Williams. Marcellus was supposed to be pumped with poison and die. But just hours before planned death penalty the governor of Missouri, Eric Greitens called it off to review his case again. Marcellus was on trial for the murder of Lisha.
Making a Murder, a popular crime documentary on the streaming service Netflix, brought an important case to light: the murder of Teresa Halbach and the conviction of Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey. The documentary focused on pieces of evidence that intend to show the innocence of both individuals. When also looking at the evidence of the prosecution, even more questions on their guilt or innocence come to mind. As a country, we follow the ideal that you are innocent until proven guilty. In the case of Steven Avery, individuals believe that this was not taken into consideration.
The State of Florida vs. Casey Marie Anthony who did not report her missing daughter Caylee Marie Anthony for 31 days. It was the maternal grandmother Cindy who reported in a 9-11 call and said that she had not seen Caylee for 31 days and that Casey’s car smelled like there had been a dead body inside it. A utility worker found Caylee’s remains in a wooden area. A high profile case captivated the nation. The prosecution and defence lawyers have agreed upon only one thing that is the juries are invariably unpredictable.
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,
Compelling Evidence In today’s society, high-tech gadgets and the media have given the impression the essential necessity for forensic evidence in order to convict. Once in a while, cases like the Laci Peterson murder come along with little forensic evidence but a whole lot of circumstantial evidence and motive. In the following paragraphs, I will discuss the forensic evidence discovered that led to the conviction and death sentencing of Laci’s husband, Scott Peterson.
The book that I have chosen for this semester was “Life in motion”, an autobiography by Misty Copeland. I personally chose to read this book because it is about a dancer and I am a dancer. This book stood out to me because she is my inspiration and has been for a long time. I look up to her and I decided well, to read a book about my inspiration.
In Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy, he writes to illustrate the injustices of the judicial system to its readers. To do so, Stevenson utilizes multiple writing styles that provide variety and helps keep the reader engaged in the topic. Such methods of his include the use of anecdotes from his personal experiences, statistics, and specific facts that apply to cases Stevenson had worked on as well as specific facts that pertain to particular states. The most prominent writing tool that Stevenson included in Just Mercy is the incorporation of anecdotes from cases that he himself had worked on as a nonprofit lawyer defending those who were unrightfully sentenced to die in prison.
In 1892, a young woman named Lizzie Borden was accused of murdering her father and stepmother (“Lizzie Borden on Trial” 2). This accusation was influenced by the lack of evidence at the scene of the crime. There appeared to be no murder weapon, very few witnesses, and the house did not show any signs of an intruder (“Lizzie Borden on Trial” 5). Once the scene was investigated, it was determined that the cause of death for both victims was multiple blows to the head by an axe. Two axes were found in the home, and neither had a speck of blood (“Lizzie Borden on Trial” 14).
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee the term mockingbird symbolizes innocence in a person. In the novel it focuses on the fact that innocence, represented by the mockingbird, can be wrongfully harmed. There are two characters: Tom Robinson and Arthur “Boo” Radley that are supposed to represent the mockingbird. In the novel, Tom Robinson is the best example of a mockingbird because he is prosecuted for a crime he did not commit. Also, he was judged unfairly based on the color of his skin in his trial.