Richard Miles: Eyewitness Testimony

Knox was pressured by police and detectives to accuse another person for the murder of Meredith Kercher. She was also pressured by police into lying and saying that she was in the cottage at the time of the death of Meredith Kercher. Amanda even faced some consequences for not lying to the police and give a false confession. For not giving into the pressure by police Amanda Knox wasted four years of her life in prison. Later on Amanda was tricked into signing a document given by her interrogators stating that she did commit the crime.

Arthur Leigh Allen was previously a mental patient, he had stated that he had wanted to commit a sequence of murders which led him to be investigated by the authorities (Katz 4). Also, Bryan Hartwell, a survivor of the zodiac, said Arthur’s voice and physique were the same as what he had seen of the nefarious killer (Newton 416). The police investigated Arthur Leigh Allen’s home, they found numerous objects such as explosives, handwritten letters, handguns and a zodiac brand watch (Katz 5). Was it just a coincidence that the suspect had a zodiac brand watch and the other items or was the Zodiac Killer right under their nose? To add, “police speculated that perhaps Allen has committed the murder and an accomplice wrote the letters” (Katz 5).

Have you ever wanted to know what it feels like to have a serial killer on the loose? The Zodiac is a serial killer that terrorized all of California, and he claimed to have taken the lives of many innocent civilians through the letters he sent. While his identity remains unsolved to this day, investigators have many theories as to who it might have been. Although plenty of people believe the identity of the Zodiac Killer is Arthur Leigh Allen, others are convinced it is a few lesser-known suspects. Even though the Zodiac’s identity is still uncertain to this day there are some truths that investigators have confirmed.

In the case of Commonwealth v. John E. DuPont (1996), the defendant John DuPont was convicted in February 1997 of guilty, but mentally ill, with a verdict of third-degree murder. DuPont and his defense team had tried repeatedly to persuade the jury that he was legally insane. The definition of legally insane includes that the defendant did not know the nature of the act he or she committed or did not know it to be wrong. After weeks of testimony the jury determined that DuPont was mentally ill, but was legally sane. Meaning the jury felt that beyond a reasonable doubt the DuPont was guilty of murder, although mentally ill, at the commission of the crime.

His sentence is changed from manslaughter and he has now been sentenced to 18-20 years in prison for manslaughter, followed by four to five years in prison for illegal possession of a firearm. (Ryan, 2013) During a trial, the evidence is again presented to a court of law or a jury. Being sentenced to Capital Punishment is very unlikely to happen for Burke, as the state of Massachusetts has abolished Capital Punishment and only uses it in very severe cases where the suspect is tried federally (McCarthy, 2014) instead of regionally, like the Boston Bomber Case. Burke most likely got this sentence, because he pleaded guilty, possibly after enough evidence was gathered to prove his guilt and thereby “has taken responsibility for shooting the victim, resulting in his death, over what appears to have been a dispute about money” (Boston.com, 2013) Burke is most likely to receive this sentence, because it is exactly the crime he committed. He committed manslaughter which was proven by the messages on the phone and apparently other evidence that has been found.

Good spent more than seven years in jail for rape and murder has been exonerated because of a tainted testimony from a former State Police chemist. This shows that evidence is an important role in pleading someone guilty. When you convict someone of a crime, make sure you know the evidence and information on the case before sentencing

73 year old Alvin Moore was represented Miranda in his trial. They lose first instance, In July 1963, Ernesto Miranda was finally sentenced to 20 to 30 years in prison for the kidnapping and rape of Lois Ann Jamesonthe. In every state in America, there is at last one higher court to which a person can appeal his conviction. In Arizona, in 1963, there was only one level of appeal, the Arizona Supreme Court, Moore appeal the case , Alvin Moore pointed out that police had not observed proper procedure in their arrest and interrogation of Miranda. Moore was convinced that the police had used Miranda’s ignorance of his rights to their advantage and that they had manipulated him into witnessing against himself ,Moore and Miranda also lose this court ,because One of the key procedures of an appellate court is to review earlier court cases to see how those cases might relate to the case under review .this cases was : Escobedo v. Illinois (1964) and Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), they involved some similar

Think about how often people get arrested and how often trials are held every year, let alone everyday. Oftentimes, innocent people are accused and charged for a crime that wasn’t there fault. This was the case for Adnan Syed, an innocent guy who was put in jail for a murder case. On January 13, 1999, Hae Min Lee was murdered at the age of 17. The evidence for this case was very unexplainable, but of course, the state went after Hae’s ex-boyfriend Adnan who really had nothing to do with the murder.

By July 25, 1991, he was charged with four counts of murder, as the hearings went on, Dahmer kept gaining charges. During a preliminary hearing, he pleaded guilty to fifteen counts of murder, but claimed it was because he was insane. Jeffrey Dahmer’s trial finally began on January 30, 1992. The defense tried to make an insanity plea but failed. Many psychiatrists were called to the stand to testify on behalf of the insanity plea but they proved that Dahmer was not mentally ill and the plea was not granted.

Rock v. Arkansas was a case, which took place in 1983. The defendant, Vickie Lorene Rock, was charged with manslaughter. She was convicted of killing her husband in July 1983. The defendant was unable to remember everything that had happened the night of her husbands killing. So therefore her defense attorney had a doctor, by the name of Bettye Back, twice hypnotize Vickie Rock to allow her to remember fully what happened the night she killed her husband.

American sniper Chris Kyle was murdered February 2, 2013. His murderer Eddie Ray Routh plead insane and blamed mental illness, he was found guilty of his crimes and sentenced to life in prison after the evidence of him ordering fast food after the murder was brought forth. An act he cannot perform with his “mental illness.” Ruth Lee Johnson J.D. graduate of Harvard Law school writes about the defense saying “Insanity is a legal term, not a medical term.” This gives the jury the power to determine insanity, opposed to a psychologist. Does the jury have the qualifications to make such decisions and even if some are truly insane how can you differentiate between them and those who want an easy way out?

The 5 men arrested for the attack spent between 6 and 12 years in prison for a crime they did not commit. This event could have influenced Harper Lee because in the book it is a white lawyer defending a black man for rape charges and the same kind of thing happened in real life with the central park five. The five men who were tried in court sued the city of New York in 2003 for malicious prosecution, racial discrimination, and emotional distress. The case was settled in 2014 for $41 million. Later in 2014 the 5 men are trying to get another $52 million from the state of New York.

The men had been convicted for the rape and murder of an 11 year old in 1983, even though there was physical evidence that either of them had been involved. The convictions were thrown out on Sept. 2, 2014, after the men had spent 3 decades in prison. One thing

I am 21 and for as long as I can remember I have heard many stories about innocent people being accused of and being punished for crimes they did not commit. On Monday, March 20th of this year, I met Anthony Ray Hinton and learned about his story. Arrested on suspicion of two capital murders at age 29. He was convicted and sentenced to death despite having a reliable alibi and passing a polygraph test. It was only after repeated efforts by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) team that the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturned his conviction based on his attorney’s deficient representation and he was eventually exonerated after 30 years in solitary confinement on Friday, April 3rd, 2015.

Capone was away from Chicago at the time so he was curious upon who ordered the shooting. The assailants had presumably intended to kill Moran himself, but he arrived late at the scene but got away without a trace. After a long and complicated investigation, two Capone gunmen were accused of the killings and sent off for trial, but one of them was murdered and the other was given an alibi by his girlfriend, proving him innocent. However, he was later on murdered. The territory that Moran owned stayed under his power for a while, but the North Side gang never recovered.