It really depends on the child and their capacity to recall and identify events and people. The most famous case I know where a child witness was the key witness was the Lester Street Murders in Memphis, TN. On March, 2008, Jessie Dotson went to 722 Lester Street, where his brother, Cecil, lived with his girlfriend and their children. Jessie killed four adults were multiple gunshot wounds, killed two children, ages 2 and 4, who were beaten and stabbed. Three other children, one just 2 months old, also were beaten and stabbed, but survived the attack. Nine-year-old Cecil "CJ" Dotson Jr., who survived being stabbed in the head, identified his uncle Jessie as the lone attacker and that he was responsible for murdering 6 others and trying to
The case of the century, the one that everyone made sure to keep up on through the many months it was on; “People of the State of California vs. Orenthal James Simpson.” This case is one that nobody will forget. There were many months of blood, sweat, and tears put in by both sides for the final verdict, O.J. Simpson had been found not guilty.
On Tuesday November 12, 1963 Ponyboy Curtis and Johnny Cade go missing after the scene of Bob Sheldon’s murder. The two boys were seen running by the the park just before the incident, witnesses say that there had been a gang fight including Curtis, Cade, and Sheldon. Police believe Curtis and Cade are on the run because of the devastation last night. Police caution everyone in the area of Tulsa of Ponyboy Curtis and Johnny Cade as we are unaware if they are armed with weapons.
The question still stands. Is Steve Harmon guilty? Monster is a screenplay, written by Walter Dean Myers, in the perspective of a character named Steve Harmon. This book does an exceptional job of expressing Harmon’s thoughts and emotions throughout the trial. In this story, Steve Harmon is a sixteen year old boy, on trial with his neighborhood acquaintance, James King, for the accusation of the robbery and murder of Alguinaldo Nesbitt. Before the trial began, other members of the gang, Bobo Evans and Osvaldo Cruz, admitted to being guilty. Steve Harmon, being the overachieving student and well rounded person that he is, was found innocent. Whereas the careless thug, James King, was found guilty. However, despite the final decisions of the
October 2nd, 2002 was the start of a long and horrific three weeks in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area. People were terrified to be in the area and everyone was on edge. What appeared to be random killings, turned out to be a well-organized series of senseless shootings that took the lives of ten innocent people. After days of people being scared to death and much confusion, investigators discovered that there were two suspects in the shootings; John Allen Muhammad and his teenage partner Lee Boyd Malvo and they were in a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice sedan designed to terrorize people. This break in the case came when one of the suspects called the tip hotline and told them to look into a murder in Alabama, which lead to the case being
In·flu·ence - noun - the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself.
The Atlanta Child Murders is an unsolved case in a way. Simply because no one was ever convicted of the murders of the young boys that were located in Atlanta over a span of two years. However, Wayne Williams was the prime suspect in the murders of the children, but was only convicted of murdering two adult men. The method of killing the young boys was by strangulation as well as the two adults. Wayne Williams was spotted on a bridge by a stake out team after a loud splash was heard in the river. Wayne Williams was stopped and questioned, to which he gave an alibi which turned out to be null and void since the address and phone number he gave did not exist. This caused a deeper investigation to insue. Including multiple polygraph tests which
Police were called to a Gas station where a man had been shot and upon arrival the man was found to be shot and was able to tell officers that he had been shot by Bryant at bryants house and that he made it to the gas station. The victim saw Mr. Bryant as a constant threat so he left the area but did not tell the police if the problem was only with him. The victim died shortly after which left a lot of unanswered questions. ("Law school case brief Michigan V Bryant", 2013).
No one ever saw him hurt someone or anything nor did anyone care about him because he was black and poor. He claims he did not.They knew the killer had to be black and somebody unnoticed, all the classic killers were white so this was not normal. On October 21, 9-year-old Yusuf Bell went to the store to get something for his neighbor, and never showed up ever again, his body was missing for a month. Jeffery Mathis, an 11 year year old,disappeared while on an errand for his mother. This was a constant routine, all these little african american boys would go out and never return back to their homes.Luke was with a man at the shop with a man that had a scar on his face, he did not return home that night. Luke was killed by something called a choke hold.Patrick Boldizar thought he could catch the killer. He went out to skate and play games.He noticed that he was being chased by a car. He was walking to his dad’s restaurant to get money and never came back home.They found him in the woods,near his house, he was killed from behind, he had rope print all around his neck. Jojo bell went to a basketball court. He left in a white wagon with Wayne, after this, he was never to be seen again. Two more bodies were found after
A 24 year-old man whose name Denea Peterson has been charged a wild shooting which resulted in a significant injury to innocent mother and her child. According to the criminal compliant, Peterson was a member of the 10Z gang and he had violent argument with a man who is only identified as OTZ at various locations. According to complain in June 22 of this year at around 2pm Peterson realized the light colored SUV OTZ and his friend had been riding then approached them and began fired gun at least eight times. Most of the bullets hit their vehicle and one that missed them struck a mother and her child who was just walking down the street they were not intended target. Minneapolis police and prosecutor worked with this case in order to bring
“In countries with a properly functioning legal system, the mob continues to exist, but it is rarely called upon to mete out capital punishment. The right to take human life belongs to the state. Not so in societies where weak courts and poor law enforcement are combined with intractable structural injustices. “In our present day society we as Americans have the cognitive dissonance that what the courts say are final, but also hold to the fact that the majority’s opinion rules. In recent news we have seen massive riots following the killings of African American men by caucasian police officers. These all follow after one of the most prominent not guilty verdicts of the 21st century on the Rodney King beating. With these riots we see the words of Teju Cole begin to take life.
Throughout history there have been several events across the country that has helped abolish slavery and segregation such as “Brown vs. Board of education” and the “Emmitt Till Murder Case”. In small towns however there have been events that have changed the beliefs of communities. Some will eventually be known nationally. Others will never be heard of by those that live outside of those small communities.
What causes you to be more anxious, a cop’s presence or a white van’s? Despite the heavy belief that white vans are suspicious or dangerous, would you believe many are more uncomfortable with the police around? This is because we fear their power over us. We learned to be obedient and to respect those with authority. In our minds resisting the formal social controls is a deviant act and would result in a negative consequence. Should we fear and question those in power? According to Annie Sunderberg and Ricki Stern’s film The Trials of Daryl Hunt this just might be the case. The film sets place in 1984 North Carolina, where Daryl Hunt was convicted of raping and murdering 25 year old Deborah Sykes. That is to say that Hunt was convicted of these allegations, not that he had committed these crimes.
Wayne Williams is currently serving a life sentence for the murders of two adult men, but prosecutors believe Williams is responsible for killing twenty-three children during a time branded as the Atlanta Child Murders (Rowson, 2015). Since his conviction in 1982 Williams has professed his innocence, which has generated vast speculation among criminal justice experts concerning Williams’s involvement in these crimes (Rowson, 2015). A recent study conducted by the Department of Justice (DOJ), the FBI, the Innocence Project, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers revealed that before 1999 the FBI used faulty hair analysis in 96 percent of cases (Rowson, 2015). Furthermore, Williams’ attorney received a letter from the DOJ
In 1958 Gary, Indiana Michael Jackson was born to parents Katherine and Joseph Jackson. Michael went on to become the lead singer of the iconic family musical group The Jackson 5 and after their huge success he reinvented himself as a solo artist. Michael Jackson was one of the greatest artists of all time, he was credibly deemed the King of Pop. Throughout all of his successes he faced many struggles physically, mentally and emotionally. Behind the scenes, Michael seemed to have been struggling with self-identity amongst other things. The world watched as his natural African-American features morphed into a Caucasian male. Everyone speculated about the differences, but, Michael outwardly denied the changes, after a few years of alterations