Summary: Texan Who Died In Prison Cleared Of Rape

The court system is made up of many operational parts that all work together to achieve an overall goal. For my courtroom observation I have chosen the State of Florida v Casey Marie Anthony trial. This trail took place on the 23rd floor of the Orange county courtroom in Florida which seats about 50 people. Casey Marie Anthony (the defendant) is on trial for the death of her two-year-old daughter Caylee Marie Anthony. She is being tried for first degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child, and four counts of providing false information to police. Around two months after being indicted on those charge’s police found Caylee Anthony body in a wooded area near her mother’s home.

On July 23, 1995, Janet Downing was found stabbed to death in her Somerville, Massachusetts home. With strong compelling evidence and creditable eyewitness testimony, Edward O’Brien was arrested for Downing’s murder. O’Brien was only fifteen years old and good friends with Downing’s son Ryan at the time of the murder. The first initial hearing judged that O’Brien would be tried as a juvenile, however this judgment would later be reversed. At a second hearing, a new judge ordered O’Brien to be tried as an adult, based on the severity and cruelty of his crime. In the fall of 1997 after a two week trial, Edward O’Brien was found guilty of the first-degree murder of Janet Downing. He was later sentenced to life in prison without parole for his vicious crime.

With millions of criminal convictions a year, more than two million people may end up behind bars(Gross). According to Samuel Gross reporter for The Washington Post, writes that also “even one percent amounts to tens of thousands of tragic [wrongful conviction] errors”(Gross). Citizens who are wrongfully convicted are incarcerated for a crime he or she did not commit. Many police officers, prosecutors, and judges are responsible for the verdict that puts innocents into prison. To be able to get exonerated many wait over a decade just to get there case looked at, not many are able to have the opportunity of getting out. People plead guilty for crimes that are not committed by them to avoid trial, but by doing so the right decision wasn’t made.

Jeffrey (The Milwaukee Cannibal) Dahmer and Albert (The Grey Man) Fish were two of the most notorious serial killers of all time. Both were violent cannibals who preyed mostly on young boys. Jeffrey and Albert had awkward relationships with their parents. Both of their parents were religious, which eventually would what is what I would believe to have caused them to struggle with themselves throughout their life, and would have something to do with their lack of control when it came to their impulses. They are easily considered to be monsters, sadistic, predators, and most of all purely evil. There is the belief that no two individuals are the same, which may be true. The fact is, these two men, who killed at two different time periods, were more alike than they were different by their method of killing, victim type, and convictions.

On December 18, 1992, a minor was arrested and charged with first degree murder of his parents and was sentenced to life in prison.

Steven Avery, born on July 9, 1962 was born and raised in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Avery’s parents, Dolores Avery and Allan Avery owned an auto salvage yard that Steven Avery worked at in his earlier years. Steven Avery and his family were not really liked in the town and mostly stayed to themselves. The Avery’s believed that the town’s people thought very little of them and always isolated them around town. At the age of 22, Steven Avery was wrongfully convicted of rape. Avery’s first incident with the law was when he was 18; March 1981, Avery was convicted of raiding a bar with a friend and sentenced to two years in prison. The sentence was stayed and instead Avery served ten months in the Manitowoc County Jail, he was placed on probation for

There are more than 2,000 child offenders serving life without parole sentences in United States prisons for crimes committed before the age of 18 and Lolita Barthel is one of them. The United States is one of only a few countries in the world that permits children who commit crimes to be sentenced to prison forever, without any possibility of release. Only eight states in this country Alaska, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, New Mexico, New York, and West Virginia and the District of Columbia prohibit life without parole for youthful offenders. Unfortunately, adolescents, like adults, commit horrible crimes and make terrible mistakes. And, like adults, they should be held accountable but in accordance with their age, stage of development, and greater capacity for rehabilitation.

Step into the shoes of Cameron Todd Willingham. He was one of the 59 accused criminals sentenced to death by the United States judicial system in 2004. Thought to have murdered his three children by arson in the family home, Willingham was put on death row on January 8, 1992. However, he was different from the other convicts. Willingham was actually innocent. The fire was an accident. The truth got out many years too late though, and Willingham died by lethal injection on February 17, 2004 at the age of 36 (Eric). From 1973 to 2015, more than 150 innocent men and women have been sentenced to death row.

The Department of Justice says, "States began passing laws requiring offenders convicted of certain offenses to provide DNA samples." That DNA evidence can help convict someone of a crime and it helps to uncover more things about the crime itself. Investigators have been using forensic science to help them solve cases since before the 90 's, mostly fingerprints that were found at the crime scenes and on the victims (O 'Brien). DNA evidence has solved countless cases including ones that happened over a prolonged period of time because of the technological advancements there is

Society most of time tends to be keen on helping each other. One way we help each other is by allowing inmates, no matter the crime, to join rehab. Steve Earle the author of ‘A Death in Texas’ was in drug rehab at one-point, finished rehab, and got clean of drugs. Earle then wrote about Jonathan Wayne Nobles a man on death row for killing two people. While Nobles was on death row he took drug rehab and got clean of his drug addiction. Allowing Nobles to clear his mind and get better. Earle thought Nobles was rehabilitated and so did a lot of prison workers who knew Nobles his whole prison life. Nobles had a positive impact on a lot of inmates and workers. He also found religion and did some amazing deeds. I think rehab and having positive actions can really change

People that go to prison live life in a very different world than the people outside of the walls of the prison. Most of the time they have nothing to do and all they think about is the way to get out. In an Essay by Steve Earle called "A Death in Texas," he writes about a man he believes may be rehabilitated. Earle was a drug user himself and prison reformer, so he probably wanted the best for everyone because he had been in that same place. Earle writes about a man named Jonathan Nobles, a convicted and executed murder, and Earle believes that Nobles might have changed his ways. Earle wrote back and forth and spent time with the murderer before coming to this conclusion. Many people just want to be out

When convict individuals for criminal acts and making sure the right person is captured it may be best for law officials to use DNA evidence that would exonerate wrongfully-convictions. In recent years there has been great advancements in technology that would allow investigators to use when trying to prove evidence on individuals who are sitting on death row. Citizens have also, made great efforts ensuring innocent people are not convicted for crimes they did not commit. According, to the Equal Justice in 1973, there were at least 156 people released from the criminal justice system for being wrongfully convicted. When innocent people are wrongfully convicted it not only take away many years of their lives, and causing hurt to the victim’s

In the book picking cotton a young woman’s life was haunted by a terrible crime while a young man’s life was ruined by false accusations and evidence. This book is one which many can relate to, due to the fact that that we live in a society where crime as such happens everyday and situations such as lack of evidence and false accusations put people in jail for crimes they did not commit. In our genetics class we learn a lot about how DNA plays an important role in our lives. The book makes me take this way more seriously than I did when talking about it in class because it shows how a simple sample of DNA can rid someone of a lifetime in prison for a crime they did not commit. Ronald Cotton was accused of a crime he did not commit, after 10

Was giving Brock Turner a six-month jail term a right thing to do? This question lingered in many people’s mind after The Stanford University rape case became a high-profile case. The case caused a national upheaval after the judge decided to give Brock Turner, the former Stanford University swimmer a 6-month jail sentence after sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. In addition, Turner was released after serving only three months in jail despite being found guilty. Turner was charged with the assault of “Emily Doe” while she was unconscious. The high-profile case upset many human rights activists, and the victim, her family. The Stanford University case has revealed the reason why many rape cases, especially on the campus remain unreported. Brock Turner deserved a longer sentence after being found guilty to show the world that justice can be served for sexual assault victims.

In this case the convict 's name is Christine Marie Paolilla, she was 17 with a boyfriend by the name of Christopher Snider. Christine is serving life in prison for fatally shooting four of her friends. Christine wasn’t arrested till three years and one day later, after the murder was committed. The day she had been arrested was July 19, 2006, the murder was July 18, 2003. Christine was convicted in late year in the late year of 2008. Christopher Snider, the partner of Paolilla committed suicide in the midst of the year