ipl-logo

Double Jeopardy Research Paper

775 Words4 Pages

The law on double jeopardy has a 1“legal heritage of 800 years”. It has been under criticism in recent years as guilty criminals can get away with crimes from a technicality in the justice system. This law stops the retrial of accused criminals who in their trials were proven guilty. I personally disagree with the current double jeopardy laws and believe that changes need to be implemented in the current law to make them more just.

The case of Raymond John Carroll is spread over decades and as it developed more witnesses came forward and better technology also developed. Carroll was accused of the murder of baby Deidre Kennedy. The trial started on the 18th of February 1985, he was found guilty by a jury 's verdict. Carroll appealed the verdict and was acquitted of the crime as the court of appeal found the forensic evidence couldn’t be relied upon as it caused a reasonable doubt. The prosecution also had no evidence to disprove that Carroll was not in Ipswich. Furthermore the court …show more content…

In 1999 the Queensland police retried Carroll on Perjury and once again the jury found Carroll guilty. They had substantial new evidence with more witnessed and developments in forensic technology. Once again Carroll appealed and was acquitted as the high courts found it “abuse of process” as they were trying to get around the double jeopardy laws.

The Law of double jeopardy is meant to stop people who have been tried once for a crime not to be tried again for the same crime. It 2“prevents prosecutors from repeatedly bringing charges against a defendant in hopes of eventually getting a guilty verdict” .This gives the accused once acquitted or found innocent a sense of security as they can move on with their lives without worrying about being retried. The principles of double jeopardy and the law still being used do have

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Mr. Gordon Wood Murder Conviction

    474 Words  | 2 Pages

    This is an analysis of the newspaper article on the appeal of the murder conviction of Mr. Gordon Wood. Mr. Wood was originally charged with the 1995 murder of Ms. Caroline Byrne and the trial was held in the Supreme Court of New South Wales in July 2006. During the court case it was stated that Mr. Wood had “hurled his model girlfriend off The Gap in Sydney in a spear throw that lobbed her so severely into a crevice, that a rescue team had to use force to free her body” (Sydney Morning Herald, 2007). Mr. Wood pleaded not guilty to all charges, however the jury found him guilty of her murder. The murder case was taken to State level due to the seriousness of the crime.

    Read More

  • Palko V. Connecticut Supreme Court Case Study

    628 Words  | 3 Pages

    Today marks the 80th anniversary of the devastating Supreme Court case of Palko v. Connecticut[1] in which the Supreme Court held that the 5th amendment right against Double Jeopardy did not apply to state courts. While Palko[2] was eventually overturned by the landmark case of Benton v. Maryland[3], Palko stood for 32 years as an impediment to peoples Constitutional rights. The Case[4] The case behind Palko perhaps explains the Courts dim view. Late one evening in 1935, Frank Palko[5] broke into a music store in Fairfield County Connecticut[6] , stole a phonograph and fled the scene on foot. Mr. Palko was quickly cornered by a police officer who he shot and killed.

    Read More

  • Court Case Of Harold James Blackburn

    1230 Words  | 5 Pages

    He believed that because Blackburn bore a striking resemblance to a photograph of the offender, he must be the culprit (New South Wales 1990). Furthermore, victim identification of Mr Blackburn through ‘operation photo’ fuelled this opinion despite negative identification and other conflicting evidence. In Addition, direct involvement by senior police into the matter resulted in confusion and miscommunication between the lines of enquiry and command which led to a lack of questioning to check the worth or value of the evidence created through ‘operation photo’ (New South Wales 1990). This essay will argue that the miscarriage of justice for Mr Blackburn was founded on police incompetence and negligence regarding the evaluation of evidence and a failure to objectively and neutrally approach the case. It will do this through critique of the evidence, in particular the identification evidence, presented or ignored which could implicate Mr Blackburn under the law as it stood then and as it stands

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Boblit And Brady

    1244 Words  | 5 Pages

    Boblit and Brady were arrested and charged with murder in the first degree. In court Brady stated that although he was an accomplice to the murder he had nothing to do with the physical act of murdering the victim. He testified that Boblit was the one responsible for the horrendous act of murder. Brady’s lawyer tried to defend him to the best of it ability so upon trial his lawyer obtained the sworn testimony of Boblit but a specific part of his testimony was never admitted into court. There was never a fact of omission of guilt admitted on the record by Boblit coping to murder even though his sworn statement admitting to the murders was on July 9,1958.

    Read More

  • What Is The Christine Jessop Case

    1340 Words  | 6 Pages

    Justice Fred Kaufman found in his 1997 report on the commission of inquiry into that wrongful conviction. In the Jessop’s original statement they had arrived home at 4:10 p.m. on October. 3, 1984, and Christine was not home. The focus of the police shifted to Morin, who was the Jessop’s neighbour and lived with his parents. The police discovered that Morin left work at 3:32 p.m. that day and could not have made it home before 4:14 p.m.

    Read More

  • Double Jeopardy Clause Of The 5th Amendment

    246 Words  | 1 Pages

    All clauses are adapted to the needs of the country at the present time. Change is always necessary to explore better and newer options. The double jeopardy clause of the 5th amendment hasn’t significantly changed since the constitution was ratified, but rather the way viewed. The Supreme Court's rulings in Palko v. Connecticut,  Benton v. Maryland and Heath v. Alabama show that there has been a noticeable trend towards various interpretations of the same clause over the last hundred years.

    Read More

  • Criminal Injustice With David A. Harris And Guest Beth Schwartzapfel

    1364 Words  | 6 Pages

    In this episode of “Criminal Injustice,” with David A. Harris, Harris and guest Beth Schwartzapfel, who is the author of two articles on this set of problems and is a staff writer on the Marshall Project, talk about the Brady v. Maryland rule as well as how this rule is violated daily to the point where it negatively impacts the whole system and why it is long overdue for change on this issue. Back in 1963, the Supreme court decided the case of Brady v. Maryland. In this case, the government withheld crucial evidence from the defense. The supreme court said that if the prosecution has material evidence in its possession that would exonerate or even lessen the punishment the defendant then the prosecution would have disclosed that evidence.

    Read More

  • Double Jeopardy Protection Of The Fifth Amendment

    189 Words  | 1 Pages

    Can the state try you twice for the same crime? Well that is where Double Jeopardy comes in under the protection of the Fifth Amendment. Double Jeopardy basically means that the court can’t find a defendant guilty for the same crime twice. There are several reasons why there is double jeopardy protection. First to protect that person from financial, emotional and social repercussions.

    Read More

  • Racial Profiling Case: The Lloyd Rayney Case

    852 Words  | 4 Pages

    Both men were successful in their appeals as a verdict of guilty could not be settled upon as the case was based on improbabilities and circumstantial evidence that could not lead to a definite

    Read More

  • Essay On Robert Pickton

    998 Words  | 4 Pages

    The trial began in 2006, evidence upon evidence was brought in to support the 27 counts of murder. The defense brought into question the legitimacy of

    Read More

  • Blood Spatter Research Paper

    1150 Words  | 5 Pages

    The creation of Blood Spatter Analyst has changed the perspective all crime scenes which are intensely solved in a completely new direction. It is the examination of shapes, distribution patterns and location of the bloodstain in order to find the real image which was created in the crime scene. All bloodstains and bloodstain patterns are evaluated by the force they were originally created. ( http://www.bloodspatter.com/bloodstain-tutorial). There has been a vast change and growing environment for the bloodstain spatters as there work now is recognized and appreciated within the law enforcement and the court officials.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of The Double Jeopardy

    1292 Words  | 6 Pages

    SHOULD THE DOUBLE JEOPARDY RULE BE RETAINED? The rule of double jeopardy stands different within each individual state throughout Australia. Dating back in common law to the sixteenth century, the basic guideline to double jeopardy prohibits abuse of process through disallowing prosecution for the same or substantially similar offences in a case after an acquittal. (Austlii [1], 2016)

    Read More

  • Dietrich V Queen Summary

    991 Words  | 4 Pages

    However, the main affect this decision has on today’s society is the way justice must be carried out in the court of law and the way a person’s rights should be protected even if they’re guilty or

    Read More

  • Essay On Wrongful Convictions

    1225 Words  | 5 Pages

    Wrongful convictions are one of the most worrisome and tragic downsides to the Canadian Criminal Justice System. As stated by Campbell & Denov (2016). “cases of wrongful convictions in Canada call into question the ability of our criminal justice system to distinguish between the guilty and innocence” (p. 226). In addition, wrongful convictions can have devastating repercussions on the person, who was found guilty, effecting their personal/public identities, beliefs and family lives. This essay will be examine some of the common factors that apply to the conviction of an innocence person.

    Read More

  • Due Process Model And Crime Control Model In The Criminal Justice System

    909 Words  | 4 Pages

    The principle in law that one is innocent until proven guilty has created much discourse. There are those who feel that the moment that one is arrested, there is reasonable belief that they committed the crime. However, there are those who feel that just as the principle states, one is, and should be taken as a victim and the outcome could be either way: guilty or not guilty. In fact, this argument is supported by the many cases of malicious prosecutions and mistaken identities.

    Read More

More about Double Jeopardy Research Paper

Open Document