Brenton Butler Case Summary

The small town of Salem, Massachusetts faced an onslaught of murderous hysteria in 1692.  Accusations of witchcraft abounded, creating an aura of fear encompassing the entire town.  Trials, using confessions extracted by torture, sent hundreds to their death.  The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, illustrates the suffering of Salem by incorporating people present at the time.  Characters in the play capitalize on the social inequality of the small town for their own gain.  This tactic festers still within the judicial system, highlighted during a murder inquiry in 2000.  In his documentary, Murder on a Sunday Morning, Jean-Xavier de Lestrade depicts a trial in Jacksonville, Florida and the misconduct within proceedings therein.  Both Salem and Jacksonville

The Christopher Vaughn case is a popular case in which ballistics and blood spatter aided in solving. Vaughn pleaded not guilty in court, and the defense stuck to the case that it was a murder-suicide case involving his wife. Paul Kish, a blood spatter expert assigned to the case, said that the evidence found at the crime scene did not correlate with Vaughn’s story. Vaughn’s blood was found in many different places; the center console, on his wife’s shorts, on the front and back of her seatbelt, and on the carpet between her shoes. Vaughn’s original statement did not mention the blood present on the seatbelt. When investigators at the crime scene unlatched and then re-latched her seatbelt, the wife’s chin was directly above the bloodstain. She was shot under the chin, therefore it was previously concluded that it must have been her blood present on the seatbelt. However, the Illinois State Police crime lab proved that it was in fact Christopher Vaughn’s blood on it. His wife’s blood was also found on the center console, but it was disturbed before it began to congeal. In addition, it appeared that some of her blood on the console was wiped towards the passenger seat from the driver’s seat. Kish concluded that someone had come into

Do you remember what you did on this day, exactly one week ago? You might remember some things about that day, or you might remember nothing. How about if I asked what you did 6 weeks ago on this day? Could you tell me? This was quite the battle for Adnan Syed, a young oriental male who was accused of murdering his long-time girlfriend in January of 1999. Hae-Min Lee, Adnan’s girlfriend, went missing in January and her body was found buried in a local park 3 weeks later. Adnan Syed is innocent of killing Hae-Min Lee because of three reasons: Cristina Gutierrez, Adnan’s lawyer, failed to put him in a position to win the trial, Jay is not an effective witness, and the window of time does not match up. Adnan is not at fault

Murder on a Sunday morning is a documentary assembled and directed by a French filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade. The documentary presents a case of a young boy who was wrongly convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. Brenton Butler, a 15-year-old boy, was charged with shooting and killing Mary Ann Stephens, a 65-year-old tourist woman, in a parking lot in Jacksonville, Florida on May 7th, 2000 (De Lestrade, 2001). In an attempt to protect their image and not scare away tourists, the Jacksonville police officers carried out a hasty arrest which led to the prosecution of the wrong suspect. 15 minutes after Mrs. Stephens was shot dead while walking with her husband, the police hurried and picked the first black suspects who happened to be available.

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

Brenton butler, a 15 year old young man that lived in Jacksonville Florida was arrested for committing murder in 2000. A man, Mr. James Stevens and his wife were robbed at gunpoint in front of a Ramada Inn in Jacksonville Florida. During the course of the robbery, the wife was shot and killed in front of her husband. He was able to give a description of the assailant and so he did. The assailant committing this crime has been characterized as a six feet tall skinny black male of age in between 20 and 25 years of age (Mr. Stevens 2000). Although Brenton Butler is much younger than the description given, and Butler is much shorter than the description as well, at least half a decade younger, he was still positively identified as to being the

On April 9th, 1974, a young woman at the age of 17 was found in a farmhouse in Blakesburg, Iowa. Her name was Mary Jayne Jones, and she had been sexually assaulted and shot in both her heart and head at close range with a high-powered rifle. Miss Jones was originally from North Carolina, but had moved to Iowa to assist her expectant sister, Mrs. Pat (Jacque) Williams, but decided to stay. At the time, she was working at Henry’s Drive-in restaurant in Ottumwa, Iowa. Mary was living with one of her coworkers, Lynn Guyette, and was dating a man named Art. Her landlord, Roy Ware, said that he received a letter dated April 9th containing a rent check and notice of Lynn living there, and Mary’s family in North Carolina also received a

The Justice system has shown a pattern of taking the side of law enforcement. As of today, police brutality, specifically excessive force still remains as one of the most serious human rights violations. From the severe beatings, to the unjustified shootings, and inexcusable aggressive rough treatment all contribute to police officer misconduct. Many officers need to be opened minded about the way they address victims, suspects, and criminals. Yes, they have the upper power, but in any situation everyone is a human being and should be treated as such; the majority of this unacceptable behavior goes unnoticed or unreported. As a result, this creates complications for everyone as a whole, therefore, officials face corruption allegations, and the public is fighting for their rights.

Our Constitution has long required the criminally accused to be tried by their peers. The question before us today is whether Florida’s death sentencing scheme violates the Sixth Amendment in light of the decision in Ring v. Arizona., 536 U.S. 584 (2002). We hold that it does violate the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial.

On August 28, 1986, a woman named Queen Madge White was found dead in her home in Rome, Georgia. She was a 79-year-old widow and was found to be beaten, sexually assaulted, and strangled to death. Her home had also been burglarized. Timothy Foster, an 18-year-old black male, confessed to the crime and officers recovered some of the stolen items from Foster’s home. The State subsequently indicted him for malice, murder, and burglary and the jury that was selected convicted him of capital murder and assigned the death penalty. However, when the jury selection process of his trial was underway, the State used peremptory challenges to strike every black prospective juror that was qualified- four to be exact. This selection process had two phases-

Earlier this week, Wade Jamison was fatally shot in his home. The people who are allegedly responsible for this horrific crime are Melvin Simms, R.W. Simms, and Harlan Granger. The Simms brothers carried out the crime, while Mr. Granger paid them a large sum of money to do so. It is thought that the brothers broke into Mr. Jamison’s house around 1:00 A.M. Wednesday morning and tried to shoot Mr. Jamison while he was sleeping. When Mr. Jamison woke up and fought back, the Simms brothers fatally shot him with the gun that T.J. Avery allegedly stole from the Barnetts.

On the 27th of May in 1997, an 18-year-old, high school senior, Jeremy Joseph Strohmeyer, raped, beat, and strangled the seven-year-old, Sherrice Iverson to death in the Primm Valley Hotel Arcade. Strohmeyer was charged, 15 months later, with first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, and sexual assault on a minor. Along with Strohmeyer, that night, was his friend, David Cash, however, he got away with no charges, how so?

In reviewing the facts of the case, we find that Christopher Simmons, then 17 and a junior in high school, along with Charles Benjamin and John Tessmer, planned the commission of a burglary with the intent to commit murder under the perception that they were minors and as such would be able to get away with the crimes. Upon his capture, Simmons, admitted to the crimes and provided law enforcement with the details of the crimes. Because of his age and the nature of the crime, Simmons was considered to be

The Zodiac killer is one of the most infamous killers in American history. He murdered at least five people between the 1960s and 1970’s. His victims were often couples who were in secluded places around San Francisco. He received widespread media attention due to his habits of taunting the police and newspapers with coded messages. He signed his letters with his symbol, which was a circle with a plus sign over it. Although several suspects have been identified, the cases involving the zodiac killer have never been solved.

The case that I chose to analyze is the murder of Carrie and Steven Turner March 6, 2015 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Carrie (52) and Steven Turner (61) were from Durham, North Carolina, but had recently moved to Roxboro, North Carolina because their home in Durham was burned down while they were on a vacation cruise. They owned a store in Roxboro, and had planned on selling it and moving to Myrtle Beach to retire. The chain of events leading up to their death is long and suspicious, and I believe that none of the police departments involved followed the proper protocol, or else these deaths could have been prevented. First, their home was burned while they were on vacation, and is still under investigation to see if it was an accident or arson case. Second, four individuals were arrested