ipl-logo

The Dreams Of Ada Essay

612 Words3 Pages

Introduction "Justice doesn 't mean the bad guy goes to jail. It just means someone pays for the crime" (LaGravenese, 2007). This quote summarizes Robert Mayer 's The Dreams of Ada perfectly. Mayer 's book follows the true story of the investigation into, arrest, and trials of Karl Fontenot and Tommy Ward for the kidnapping and murder of Denice Haraway. In the end the two are convicted, although all evidence suggests otherwise. The police and prosecutors are blind to the truth of the situation: Fontenot and Ward are innocent, and, as explained in this report, there is no evidence to prove they committed the crime, and all evidence brought forward by the prosecution is flawed or incorrect. Corpus Delicti Corpus delicti is a Latin term that means "body of the crime". The term …show more content…

Despite this, the police still use them, as they do with Tommy Ward, when he goes to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) to prove to the law enforcement agents that he had nothing to do with Denice Haraway. Ward takes the test, but the results of the polygraph are never revealed. The agent (WHO???) tells Tommy that he failed the test, and whether or not this is true, the results mean nothing. If it were true that Tommy failed the test, it would not mean he had a hand in the crime; his failure could be attributed to the 40% error rate of polygraphs (Dowler, n.d.). On the other hand, if Ward did not fail the test, then the police lied to him in an attempt to get him to confess. What makes the use of the polygraph significant to Ward and Fontenot 's innocence is the role it played in the investigation. There are two options: either Ward truly failed the test, or the police lied to him to elicit a confession. Either way, there is no strong evidence that proves, or even indicates that Ward had anything to do with Denice Haraway. Despite the validity of the test, Ward 's polygraph was the key that unlocked the door to his Karl Fontenot 's

Show More
Related

  • Hae Min Lee Adnan Syed Case

    1989 Words  | 8 Pages

    Looking at another person’s perspective of the case, Katie Clifford, in her view, “In our files, we have a lot of things, evidence they collected that got sent off and we don’t have reports for everything and we are curious about the results that we don’t have and whether or not those exist and just why they’re not in the files that we have.” Katie Clifford is one of Deirdre Enright’s students, Adnan’s former lawyer. Moreover, since we are considering possible suspects we should talk about how Adnan became the star suspect of this

    Read More

  • What Is The Murder Of Lynne Harper Uneventful

    162 Words  | 1 Pages

    The murder of Lynne Harper was a tragic and uneventful occurrence to have taken place in the small community of Clinton, Ontario. What is also uneventful is that an innocent fourteen-year-old teenager, named Steven Truscott, was wrongly accused and charged with Lynne’s death. This was all because Steven last saw helping Lynne out by giving her a lift on his bicycle. The legal system failed Lynne, Steven, and their families because the Police and Crown did not follow proper procedures. Even after Stevens’s exoneration, the real murder was never caught and was able to continue living their life, unlike Steven who loss a part of his childhood and adulthood.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Mayella Ewell Worthy Of Compassion

    646 Words  | 3 Pages

    Being a lonely, abused girl in hysterics in court, Mayella Ewell induced others in the courtroom to have compassion for her, but not everyone held compassion for a woman telling a lie that could have an innocent man put to death. Mayella Ewell

    Read More

  • Disability In Adah's Book Backward

    226 Words  | 1 Pages

    Being in the Congo forces Adah to look at her disability in a different way—almost like reading a book backward. "Nobody cares that she 's bad on one whole side," she says, "because they 've all got their own handicap" (1.7.11). People in Kilanga are missing arms, legs, and eyes, and they go on about their daily business like it 's no big thing. We have a feeling she has the same view of her body as many people in Kilanga do: it 's just a tool, a vessel to carry her through this life.

    Read More

  • Involuntary Manslaughter Research Paper

    1261 Words  | 6 Pages

    Ordinarily, there are two degrees of the offense: homicide and murder. A crucial part of each criminal case, including criminal manslaughter, is corpus delicti. Corpus delicti is the substance of the wrongdoing at issue. The indictment must demonstrate corpus delicti past a sensible uncertainty, with proof other than a litigant 's confession. In spite of the fact that a point by point exchange of corpus delicti is past the extent of this content, corpus delicti in a criminal murder case comprises of the passing of a casualty, brought on by the respondent, in an unlawful way.

    Read More

  • Stevenson Use Of Ethos Pathos Logos

    1949 Words  | 8 Pages

    This dangerous statistic demonstrates how widespread this injustice is. Stevenson logically verifies this point with references to the processes used to convict these innocent women. The story of Victoria Banks is a prime example of the

    Read More

  • Police Body Cameras Pros And Cons

    768 Words  | 4 Pages

    It keeps track of the evidence at the scene, always surveys the actions of the officer and it would enhance the trust of the

    Read More

  • Police Body Cameras Essay

    1229 Words  | 5 Pages

    so they have an accurate description of the suspect, which can lower the amount of unsolved cases, and provide video footage

    Read More

  • The Struggle Of The Black Community In Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

    1142 Words  | 5 Pages

    Walter McMillan was guilty of one thing and one thing only: having an affair with a white woman. At the time, this was seen as very scandalous, the Civil Rights Movement had ended but the deeply ingrained racism in the South had not. Because of this, Walter McMillan, known by many as Johnny D., was shunned and mistreated to the point that when a murder he didn’t commit was pinned on him no one thought twice about whether or not he could have done it. The Justice Department handled the case poorly by not fact checking witness testimonies, illegally moving the prisoner to death row without a conviction, intimidating a witness before a trial to convince him to lie, and so much more. One day Walter McMillan and several other prisoners get a visit from an upstart lawyer named Bryan Stevenson, a man who had just started a federally funded program known as the Equal Justice Initiative to help men like Walter.

    Read More

  • Convicting The Innocent Summary

    955 Words  | 4 Pages

    These wrongful convictions occur because the criminal justice system had many flaws. It was not only the system that had flaws but also the people on the board. The prosecutors "opposed testing, arguing that it would make no difference" whether or not those being convicted got DNA tested (Garrett 1). Confessions was one of the causes that often led to the downfall of those innocently convicted. In the case of Jeffrey Deskovic, the police officer was supposed to conduct the polygraph examination.

    Read More

  • Arguments Against Police Interrogation

    424 Words  | 2 Pages

    This practice is extremely unreliable and is already banned from use in Europe. More specifically, I think the practice of telling suspects that they have failed the polygraph test in order for them to confess to crimes that they may or may not have even committed should be banned. Many innocent people go on to confess to someone else’s crimes because they believe that the polygraph is infallible. By telling them that they failed the test even when they haven’t, it results in many innocent people being convicted of

    Read More

  • Revenge, Morality, And Justice In Killings By Andre Dubus

    834 Words  | 4 Pages

    Andre Dubus, short stories contain a common theme of revenge, morality, and justice. In “Killings” published in 1979, Andre displays the theme of revenge and justice through the development of characters, the title of the story, and the thrill of the suspense. Dubus neglects to take sides with the characters in the “Killings”, which leaves it upon the readers to make assumption whether the killings were justifiable. Dubus has a very unique style of writing, the main characters in “Killings” were given a choice that could’ve led them to a completely different outcome. Dubus keeps the readers on their toes because the opposite usually ends up happening.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Gideon Vs Wainwright

    1082 Words  | 5 Pages

    The landmark Supreme Court case Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) ruled that the 6th amendment obligated federal and state government to provide an attorney to anyone who could not afford one. Gideon v Wainwright ruled in favor of public defenders to create a mechanism which limited the government’s power by having them prove their convictions beyond a reasonable doubt. Currently, the Supreme Court ruling has created enormous caseloads that many busy courts struggle to handle. As a solution to the problems of high caseloads, plea bargaining has become the primary method of closing cases. Although achieving greater efficiency for the criminal justice is necessary, overly utilizing plea bargains weakens the criminal justice as it fails to reinforce the principles established in Gideon v Wainwright by foregoing trials.

    Read More

  • Casey Anthony Essay

    365 Words  | 2 Pages

    Unfortunately, in this case the prosecution did a poor job on linking all evidence to Casey Anthony that proved she murdered her daughter. The prosecution ignored a single plain legitimate notion “Corpus Delicti” requirement and due to that failure of addressing it the jury was forced to give a “not guilty” verdict from the beginning of the

    Read More

  • Ada And Inman Character Development Essay

    608 Words  | 3 Pages

    Development of Ada and Inman Ada and Inman clearly both go through important transitions throughout the novel. Inman’s development is more profound than Ada’s because he undergoes a spiritual change to find peace, whereas Ada’s development focuses on her newfound independence. At the beginning of the novel, Ada is struggling to learn how to take care of herself since Monroe died. “Monroe had employed a white man and his part Cherokee wife to run the place, leaving Ada with little to do other than devise a weekly menu.

    Read More

More about The Dreams Of Ada Essay

Open Document