One late night on November 19, 1986 there was an intense blizzard casting its cold winter snow over Newtown, Connecticut, but that wasn't the only thing cold brewing In Newtown that night. 'Twas the night that the famous “wood chipper murder” came to be. Richard Craft, an airplane pilot, was married to Helle Craft, a stewardess. They were married for many years, and had 3 children. Helle suspected Richard was being unfaithful so she hired someone to investigate her husband. Sure enough the private investigator was able to capture photographic evidence of richards infidelity. Helle demanded a divorce, divorces cost a pretty penny and Richard did not want to lose a cent, so that’s when he decided to kill his wife. He beat Helle with blunt object to her death, froze her, then cut her…
On June 20, 2001 while her husband was at work, Andrea Yates committed what some might perceive as the most repulsive crime in history. She systematically drowned her five children in the family bathtub, while feeling nowhere close to remorseful. After committing the crime she picked up the phone dialed 9-1-1 and calmly-too calmly- ask the operator to send the cops. What they found upon arrival was a woman sitting silently on the living room couch, while her five children laid dead on the bed.…
sister were drinking liquor at Robert Cobb's house. The defendant Wayne Fields was also at the party…
He next assaulted a 19-year-old Oregon State University student Karen Sprinkler and took her home, raped her, and killed her. He also removed her breasts when she died. Another victim, Linda Salee, was abducted and raped and murdered at the same workshop. He dumped her body in the river. The difference with Salee’s case is that her body was the first to be discovered by the police. A strange knot on the nylon rope was used to tie her body to a car part to weigh her down. The following days, Sprinkler’s body was found and with the same knot was used to her body.…
We have had a change in speakers, so now Judge Amanda Matzke of the County Court of Law will be visiting the society at our next Coffee Talk (March 3rd at 5:30PM, MSC 2405).…
We all have peculiar family stories that have been estranged from familiarity, often for a good reason, but the story of Cam Lyman is one that surpasses all in utter obscurity. Although the tale only brushes my family indirectly, it is so fascinating, so shocking, that it has never been forgotten. Lyman was an informal man of many traits: a millionaire, dog breeder, and unsanctioned transvestite. She was already very unusual on her own, but the most unusual thing is her gruesome murder that occurred on my family’s farm, which is still a mystery unresolved. Although it is quite remarkable, the case has been forgotten by society, like many enigmas, and I want to put Cam’s story back out: his/her background, the disappearance, and the murder.…
Read through the story below. Then re-read the story and use the highlighting tool in Word (or equivalent program) to find violations of rights protected by the U.S. Constitution and its Amendments (there will be 10). On the blanks below, write the number of the Amendment that has been violated and what right within that Amendment was violated. You will receive 1 point for correctly highlighting each amendment violation and 1 additional point for a correct explanation on the blanks below.…
On the dusk of March 4, 1974, an African American by the name of James Bain is convicted of raping a nine-year-old boy at a baseball field in Lake Wales, Florida. The victim reported that the offender was 17 or 18 years old and had bushy sideburns. After police revealed photographs of six potential suspects, only two of them had sideburns. On the grounds that James Bain has side burns, he was interrogated around midnight the next day. Upon interrogation, Bain declared that he was watching television on the night of the attack. Even with an alibi backed by his sister, the police still arrested him. On the day of the trail, the FBI presented the victim's underwear that contained the rapist’s semen. Although they had the semen of the rapist, DNA…
Lenient sentencing, religious accommodations, and major biases in the legal system all prevent the rule of law from being upheld when it comes to prosecuting parents who withhold access to medical care from their children. Lenient sentencing puts rights of the parents over the rights of the child, which takes away the rights of the child. For example, in the Criminal Code of Canada, homicide is defined as “A person commits homicide when, directly or indirectly, by any means, he causes the death of a human being”, it goes further and states “Where a person, by an act or omission, does anything that results in the death of a human being, he causes the death of that human being notwithstanding that death from that cause might have been prevented…
where General Bradly present against Zenger as "being a seditious person and a frequent printer and publisher of false news and seditious Libels" had "wickedly and maliciously" by the Governor Cosby. Andrew Hamilton who is the defender of Zenger. Successfully Argued That the truth is to defense against charges of libel. That the law ought not to be Interpreted to prohibit "the just complaints of a number of Men Who suffer under a bad administration." Also, "Hamilton Argued That the libel law of England ought not to be the libel law of New York."…
Slavery was at the root of the case of Dred Scott v. Sandford. Dred Scott sued his master to obtain freedom for himself and his family. His argument was that he had lived in a territory where slavery was illegal; therefore he should be considered a free man. Dred Scott was born a slave in Virginia around 1800. Scott and his family were slaves owned by Peter Blow and his family. He moved to St. Louis with them in 1830 and was sold to John Emerson, a military doctor. They went to Illinois and the Wisconsin territory where the Missouri Compromise of 1820 prohibited slavery. Dred Scott married and had two daughters. John Emerson married Irene Sanford. In 1842, they all returned to St. Louis, Missouri. John Emerson died the next year. In 1846, Scotts sued Irene Emerson for their freedom. The Scott’s stay in free territories gave them the ability to sue for their freedom. However, they did not do this while they were living there (Dred Scott’s Fight).…
If you're looking for a way to kill the basketball league, you should call a man named Perry Johnson of Chicago, Illinois. I think he’s found it.…
Since the first migration of settlers began, America has always boasted itself` as the land of the free, the home of the brave, and a haven for all; however, when one peers deeper into the eloquently written half promises of freedom laid out in the Declaration of Independence, the reality is far from what is portrayed. From manifest destiny to slavery, discrimination has been engraved in the American way of life from the beginning. Over the centuries, there have been many instances where America has provided onlookers a glimpse of its true beliefs on issues such as race, but none more assertive than that of the court case Dred Scott v. Sanford. Dred Scott was a slave who once belonged the family of Peter Blow, but was later sold to the army…
The trial of the former National Football League star and actor O.J. Simpson had a great pull on the American public and, given that it was broadcasted throughout the whole country, it also had a significant impact in American History. Simpson was tried of murder for the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and waiter Ronald Lyle Goldman, and the trial lasted , however on October 3, 1995, he walked out acquired. All said, it is clear that the prosecution and the police made careless mistakes in the case, and if the trial happened in 2016 there would probably be enough proof to make him guilty.…
Cesare Beccaria was an extremely opinionated man, yet extremely enlightened, especially for his time. This was evident in his most famous, and most influential, written work, “On Crimes and Punishments.” He believed that the criminal justice system during his era was barbaric and irrational, mainly due to the fact that the ideas were based solely on those of the monarch. Beccaria, instead, declared that the laws should be created through a representative of the common people, much like today’s government. Being the civil man he was, his thoughts on punishment were also quite different from the punishment utilized in his society. During this time, punishments were all equally brutal, no matter how minor or major the crime may have been. His opinions on this matter were monumental for his era. His belief was that the severity of each punishment should be based on the severity of the crime, clearly stated on page forty-three of his book with the line "for a punishment to attain its end, the evil which it inflicts has only to exceed the advantage derivable from the crime; in this excess of evil one should include the certainty of punishment and the loss of the good which the crime might have produced. All beyond this is superfluous and for that reason tyrannical." He also expressed the concept that laws should be exceedingly clear and easily comprehensible to all citizens. If laws were made explicit to the public, he believed, crime levels would decrease drastically. Another point Beccaria continually brought up was the idea of a suspect being “innocent until proven guilty,” which is used in every modern day trial under our justice system. His policies about his utopian justice system also included his belief that each criminal should be able to make a closing remark at the end of a trial, even though punishment would be inevitable, and that each suspect of a crime must be kept in prison before trial to ensure…