Thomas Sophonow Trial

On October 3, 1974, at around 10:45 pm, Elton Hymon and Leslie Wright of the Memphis Police Department were responding to a “prowler on the inside” call. They made the scene and observed a woman in the house next to the intended home of the call. She was standing on her front porch pointing at the house. She advised that she had heard glass breaking and someone was breaking into the house next door. As Wright showed both officers on the scene on his radio to dispatch, Hymon went to the rear of the house. Hymon heard what sounded like a door slamming shut. He then saw someone run across the backyard. The person running was later identified as Edward Garner. Garner was moving towards a 6-foot high chain at the end of the yard. Hymon shined his flashlight in Garner’s direction so that he could see his face and hands. Hymon was “reasonably sure” that he did not see a weapon in Garner’s hands. To Hymon Garner appeared to be 17 or 18 years old and about 5’5 to 5’7 feet tall. Hymon began to give verbal commands of “Police,” “halt” as he walked towards Garner because it appeared that he about climbed the fence. Garner disregarded the command and started to rise to elude police. With the belief that Garner would get away if he made it to the other side of the fence, Hymon shot him. Hymon shot Garner in the back of the head. He was taken in the ambulance to the hospital where he later died on the operating table.

In The Farm: Angola, documentary filmmakers Jonathan Stack and Liz Garbus follow the lives of six prisoners in a maximum-security state penitentiary in Louisiana. Known as 'The Farm ' because it has fertile soil for crops and was once a former plantation where slaves worked its 18,000 acres-slaves from Angola, Africa. Of the six prisoners mentioned in the film, I felt the most compassion for Eugene ‘Bishop’ Tannehill, an elderly inmate who preaches eternal salvation as he awaits a parole that never comes. I also felt the least compassion for Vincent Simmons, accused of raping two women, but he says he didn 't commit the crimes. Later down the road, Wilbert Rideau lectured as the advocate for the reform of the criminal justice system and against the death penalty.

Right from the start of the investigation there were faults and incorrect procedures perpetrated by the police. The events that took place leading up to the conviction of Mr. Milgaard demonstrate just how sloppy the investigation took a turn when the police became lax in their investigational procedures. The police at the time interviewed a total of 160 possible suspects without finding

This had a great impact on Tom Robinson's trial because he was seen as inferior to the jury, Bob Ewell, and his daughter, Mayella Ewell. The jury decided to take the words of the superior even though Tom was not guilty.

On Sunday, November 13, 1842 a double murder occurred at Smith Farm in Old Fields, Long Island. The victims, Alexander Smith and and Rebecca Smith, were a wealthy, well- respected married couple who ran Smith farm. George Weeks, the Smiths farmhand, was reporting for work the monday after the murder and heard the dog barking from the work-shed by the Smiths house. George Weeks then became suspicious since the dog was usually inside with Mr. Smith. George then looked in the house and saw that the east room window was broken and Mr. and Mrs. Smith were lying on the floor covered in blood. The authorities showed up not long after. The Bodies were discovered on the floor in the front room with head wounds from a blunt force and appear to have been burned in the fireplace. Alexander Smith had three wounds on his head all coming from a weapon that would cause blunt force trauma. The Suffolk County Coroner concluded that two wounds were to the right Auditory Meatus. One wound was along the lambdoidal suture and the hair was driven into the head, and the other was on the Parietal bone, an inch and a half in length. The blunt

The tragic abduction and death of Pamela Foddrill beginning on August 18th, 1995, relied on investigators from the Indiana State Police, FBI, multiple Greene County police agencies, and Greene County Prosecutors to arrest and convict the five individuals who committed this heinous act. Those who were arrested and eventually convicted for different criminal offenses are Roger Long, Jerry Russell Sr., John Redman, Wanda Hubbell, and Plynia Fowler. One could look at the investigations these agencies completed and evaluate them in two phases, forensic evidence and investigative processes. The former being defined as the evidence collected in order to convict or rule out suspects, and the latter being defined as the way the investigators developed the investigation and how it evolved throughout the ensuing years. In order to evaluate these two different subjects, one needs to examine the similarities and differences between this investigation and theories about how investigation of this type develop, the nuances of this investigation not able to be explained by theory, investigatory elements that

Imagine that you are taking a brief walk at night with your dog or by yourself and suddenly feel suffocated. The next thing you know, you have become the next victim of a gruesome sexual attack. However, you could never tell your tale because, at the lowest point of this heinous ordeal, you realize that your rapist will now turn into your murderer. This is the case of the Hillside Strangler, a story of two cousins, Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi, and the brutal crimes they were charged with. There were witnesses who dare to testified against those brutal murders. The murders used the insanity plea as route to escape their destination in jail.

Over the past few decades, hundreds of people have been falsely imprisoned. Many of their cases were founded on the account of one or more eyewitnesses. The criminal justice system often relies on eyewitness accounts to piece together a crime and identify the perpetrator. But studies showing the faultiness of our memories, particularly in stressful events, suggest that witnesses may not be as reliable of a source as we think.

In 1892, a young woman named Lizzie Borden was accused of murdering her father and stepmother (“Lizzie Borden on Trial” 2). This accusation was influenced by the lack of evidence at the scene of the crime. There appeared to be no murder weapon, very few witnesses, and the house did not show any signs of an intruder (“Lizzie Borden on Trial” 5). Once the scene was investigated, it was determined that the cause of death for both victims was multiple blows to the head by an axe. Two axes were found in the home, and neither had a speck of blood (“Lizzie Borden on Trial” 14). As it were, there was not enough evidence to convict a killer, nor was there enough evidence to convict Lizzie Borden. She was declared not guilty (“Lizzie Borden on Trial”

Murder. The unlawful premeditated killing of one human by another. Jack the Ripper is a serial killer phenomenon that has stunned everyone since his first attack. With a target of prostitutes and an obsession of eating organs, he has amazed everyone with the reasoning for his job. It was hard for the police to catch him in his act. This well known serial killer has still not been discovered. He took the lives of 5 women in the Whitechapel area. Because of his horrific way of killing, Whitechapel was on edge during this time. Detectives are still trying to make discoveries to this day as to who the actual killer is. The mystery behind the gruesome, cannibalistic murders from Jack the Ripper can be summed up by two suspects: Aaron Kosminski and Severin Klosowski.

This past week has been rough for the Robinson family. After a racist jury choose to make an innocent man guilty things went from bad to worse. Atticus Finch was chosen to defend Tom Robinson. This particular case was against Mayella Ewell, a white woman. As a black man Tom was already at a disadvantage. Tom Robinson was shot at and killed after the trial.

Ronald Cotton was sentenced to jail in 1995, after serving ten years for a crime he didn’t even commit. Eye witnesses are considered to be the best form of evidence in an unsolved case. Mr. Cotton was convicted primarily by an eyewitness named Jennifer Thomson-Cannino, who was sure she identified the right male. Years go by and the case was re-ruled and the jury ruled Jennifer 's description as a misidentification. The way the human brain works is marvelous, but often people alter the reality of a situation making false accusations and statements.

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.

Thompson-Cannino, Jennifer, Ronald Cotton, and Erin Torneo. Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2010.

From 1896 up until 1995 the Holmesburg Prison in Pennsylvania was in constant use. Much of the history at Holmesburg’s contains instances of rioting, murder, rape and even medical experimentation. Most prisons claim some violence in their past but Holmesburg’s borders on barbaric. Maybe this strong negative energy is what keeps the ghosts of Holmesburg Prison so active.