When it come to the case of Cameron Todd Willingham I think the community and his own attorney were biased against him they believed that he was guilty of killing his children and that no evidence would sway either way because he came out relatively unharmed did not go back and get them and his children died violently painfully. The evidence that the prosecutor was the arson story that the fire department had told based on their investigations of burn patterns.…
The importance of making critical evaluations of news stories come to play in the recent story about the Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman case. This is a story about a young black teenager and a neighborhood watchman that shot and killed young Trayvon. Many news stations reported the story showing pictures of both of them that had been taken years prior to the actual event. Trayvon’s pictures showed him as an innocent boy and Zimmerman as upset and angry in a much earlier mug shot. The media also showed bias to both these individuals and seemed to be concerned with sensationalism, rather than finding out the true facts in the case. The concern they showed at the time the story broke, appeared to be geared towards selling the story and building the story into a racially motivated incident. The news was not completely clear or accurate and the investigative methods were not sufficient in either depth or breadth. The stories promoted the idea that Trayvon was an innocent young black kid who just happened to be out late at night and that Zimmerman was just looking to act as judge, jury and executioner. The pictures of George Zimmerman seemed to promote prejudice and negative emotions from the audience. They used bias in the news by deliberately ignoring more current pictures of both these individuals. Many of the news channels seemed to deliberately ignore the truth of the story regarding what type of people both Trayvon and George were. A mug shot of a younger angry looking Zimmerman and a more recent picture shows Zimmerman in a dress coat and tie with him clearly smiling shows a distinct disregreard for truthful reporting and bias in reporting. The news clearly chose to ignore any alternative perspectives in regards to this story. The stories focused on accusing Zimmerman of being an angry, trigger happy watchman who took it upon himself to deliver justice without waiting for the police to show…
If the media is primarily in favor of the prosecution, this could influence the jury and the public to convict these…
1) The media comes up with their own ideas on the case and sways everyone else's opinion and half of the information stated is false. The media should not play a role in the legal system and it should be left to the court. I don't think we should tell the media as much as we do because they tend to sway opinions.…
However the jury did find him not guilty meaning the defense lawyers had to have instilled enough doubt into their minds to make them unable to say without a reasonable doubt. As I mentioned one of the biggest moments of the trial is Simpson trying on the glove and it not fitting. This was huge for instilling doubt in the jurors’ minds. A big theme throughout this case was racism. This is mentioned in an article titled 20 years after the killings: How O.J. Simpson got off, according to local legal pros. He interviewed a veteran lawyer named Bob Beyer who believed the case basically turned into a racial case. The jury had nine African Americans on it and if they were on Simpson’s side, the glove not fitting would be a perfect point for them. The Rodney King case three years earlier is mentioned and how the LAPD was a racist police department. This is a big point because the defense claimed that Detective Mark Fuhrman planted the glove to frame Simpson and if the jury thinks that the police could be racist they are going to believe this. Another big piece of evidence pointing towards Simpson was the sock with Nicole’s blood on it found at his house. However, the defense argued that this too was planted. Stating that the blood was smeared on the socks in the lab. This is a big deal because blood had soaked through to the other side. This would not be possible if there was a foot in it. Later on Fuhrman was charged for perjury because of his testimony on how he collected evidence. This would really hurt the prosecution because now it shows they had a bad witness and could make them think other evidence was tampered with. Simpson was also a huge star and loved by the people of LA and this could have also had a big impact on their decision. The trial probably should not have been done in LA due to a possible bias of Simpson’s fame there. Another big thing is that the prosecutors…
Impartial juror was “one free from the dominant influence of knowledge acquired outside of the courtroom, free from strong and deep impressions that closes the mind” – Justice John Marshall…
Although more than most of the evidence could have put Mr. Simpson in prison for the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman if it had been found to be creditable, the fact that the investigation and collection were so splotchy and unorganized, with evidence being misplaced or lost and entered months later, notes that didn’t match up, and blood evidence that wasn’t properly packaged and secured by procedure. Just because Common sense tells us by looking at the abundance of evidence brought forward otherwise, for…
Famous football star and actor O.J Simpson was charged and arrested to stand trial after his ex-wife and her friend Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman were found murdered outside Nicole’s apartment. MAny would say it was a clean cut case. But with a systemic rasicism problem with the L.A.P.D. Many believed the beloved football star with over 3,000 many loved may or may not have been guilty.…
the defendants Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial. In doing so, the Court takes…
The 1995 criminal trial of O. J. Simpson for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman has been called "a great trash novel come to life,".No one can deny the pull it had on the American public and the fans of the great O.J. Simpson. During the early reports of the murder of the wife of the ex-football star, and the cunning , head turning sports announcer had not caught people's full attention, Simpson's surreal Bronco ride on the day of his arrest most definitly did. Police accumulated enough evidence against Simpson to indicate that he was guilt of the murders and they sought and obtained a warrant for his arrest. But there was an agreement worked out with Simpson's attorney, Robert Shapiro that Simpson was to turn himself in…
O.J. was sentence to thirty-three years in prison. Everyone has to be accountable for their actions no matter how rich and famous you are. O.J. Simpson committed the most cold-hearted crime a person can commit. Law enforcers must take control how they handle evidence without showing biased, hopefully, it educated law…
Simpson's appearance before the board accumulated cable news shows for an end to the end coverage that reviewed the "trial of the century," over 20 years back when it transfixed a country.…
The media has a right to report cases of criminal activities though different opinions have been expressed against this tendency by the media. The opinions argue that media is fond of creating moral panic and this ethical fear has a great impact on the public behavior. However, the opinions differ because some opinions are for this tendency while others are against this tendency. Most of the reactions of the public towards cases reported by the media have been known to create panic and the panic created always tends to exaggerate statistics while at the same creating bogeyman. In this paper two criminal cases have been tackled to see extend to which media impacts on the criminal justice system. The two cases under comparison in this paper are Oklahoma City Bombing and Jena Six case. The first case that is Oklahoma City Bombing had a…
It isn’t arduous to see why some may question the efficiency of trial by jury and whether it should, and is able to, continue to discover innocence or guilt. Regarding the trial of Vicky Pryce, the failure of the jury within the hearing conjured ridicule and disdain from the judge and the media. The case deeply unsettled the trust of many in the system. The eight women and four men were dismissed after illustrating “fundamental deficits of understanding” (Jacobson, Hunter & Kirby, 2015, p. 55). Their profuse questions for the judge were deemed as unintelligent and unnecessary and so a costly re-trial was required. Consequently, this ordeal provoked a stronger desire for the abolition of trial by jury, to be replaced by a single judge as a more…
“The media 's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that 's power, because they control the minds of the masses.” – Graham Greene, English Writer.…