...Plaintiff’s parents, relatives, and deprogrammers 3) Procedural History: Plaintiff accused defendants of false imprisonment and the violation of his civil rights during the attempt deprogramming. Plaintiff motioned for directed verdict. Motion for directed verdict granted. 4) Facts: Family claims in a letter dated 08/16/82 the plaintiff allegedly threatened to commit suicide. On 07/26/82 Joyce Peterson (psychiatric social worker) interviewed the plaintiff and reported to the parents of the plaintiff that the plaintiff was not a threat to himself or others. On Monday 08/16/82 Plaintiff and wife abducted from a clinic in Winona Minnesota by their parents to deprogram them from the religious group Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Plaintiff held against his will at Tau Center, restrained, and monitored by hired security. Instructions were given to not allow the plaintiff to leave the facility. After several days of resistance plaintiff appeared to consent. On Saturday 8/21/82 during transport to Iowa City, Iowa for further deprogramming the plaintiff escaped out the moving vehicle, and was subsequently helped by civilians who summoned police. 5) Issue: The claim of false imprisonment and violation of plaintiff’s civil rights during attempted deprogramming. Is the application of the defense of necessity applicable in this case? 6) Holding and rule derived from case: Yes, the directed verdict request from the plaintiff was granted as it was determined the defendants...
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...Rodney King Riots in L.A. My topic is over Rodney King and the riots that transpired because of the verdict that was handed down in his case. He was a 34 year old African American man and is very well known by millions of people in our American history. On March 3, 1991 he was on a high speed police chase going speeds estimated at 115 miles per hour and that is what started the whole sequence of events. He was essentially pulled from his car after being apprehended, beaten by four white police officers as another sixteen policemen on the scene watched. Rodney King was on a high speed chase with police and one of them was named Stacey Koon. When they finally got King pulled over he got out of his car aggressively. Police thought he could be...
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...To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about this, but I think if I were in his shoes, I would definitely want to be able to know what prompted the verdict. Although judges aren’t supposed to be biased and have clouded judgment, it happens so in that retrospect I can definitely see it as a potentially positive thing. Such an app can eliminate racial and socioeconomic bias. However, the app can be programmed to fit certain ideals and beliefs. It can be exploited and manipulated to allow a corruption and more issues in the justice system. In addition, nothing is ever completely black and white and I don’t think there should be a dependency upon a computational algorithm, especially since it is incapable of seeing the gray regions. Aside from that, no one other than the developers of Equivant knows what factors into an individual’s sentence. I definitely think there should be complete transparency...
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...as the primary suspect in the murders: he had a history of domestic violence against his ex-wife, his temper was known to be explosive, and there were no other obvious suspects for the brutal attack. Five days later Simpson and his friend, Al Cowlings, led police on a lowspeed, sixty-mile chase on the Los Angeles highways before surrendering. An estimated 23 of the of American homes ninety five million viewers were tuned in, Simpson who was jailed while he awaited trial for the murders, assembled an impressive "Dream Team" for his legal defense....
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...America’s Unspeakable Tragedy “Racism oppresses its victims, but also binds the oppressors, who sear their consciences with more and more lies until they become prisoners of those lies. They cannot face the truth of human equality because it reveals the horror of the injustices they commit.” (King) Throughout the injustices inflicted on the young men that were in the Scottsboro trial made a profound impact on American history, and marks a realization to many Americans during that time period. The Scottsboro Trials, are the greatest American tragedy, that still chokes up anyone who; hears, reads or watches how it unfolded in real life. These multiple unjust trials started on April 9, 1931, in Scottsboro, Alabama, when nine young African...
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...focuses a substantial portion of the book on the issue of racism. Through the perspective of Jean Louise, the young daughter of a conscientious lawyer, one witnesses the injustice of racial prejudice. Most evident through the way people refer to blacks, the mob that tried to kill Tom Robison, and the jury’s verdict after the trial, racism dictated the little town of Maycomb. For years people have called each other rude names. However, adults generally expect this behavior from juveniles, and yet these adults still referred to African Americans with disrespectful words. “Your father’s no better than the nig**** and trash he works for!” (135). Mrs. Dubose, one of many people who referred to Negroes in this way, clearly has no respect for any African American or any associated with them. The former...
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...Case Citation: Bouchat v. Baltimore Ravens, Inc., 228 F.3d 489 (4th Cir. 2000) Parties: Frederick Bouchat, Plaintiff / Appellant Baltimore Ravens, Incorporated; National Football League Properties, Incorporated, Defendants / Appellees Facts: Upon the release of information to the public about Baltimore getting an NFL team, Frederick Bouchat started drawing potential images that revolved around his favorite potential name- the Ravens. One drawing in particular that Mr. Bouchat drew was of Raven holding a shield. The drawing was given to a Eugene Conti, who later requested a meeting with Mr. Bouchat and a Mr. John Moag who was the Maryland Stadium Authority chairman. In this meeting, photos were taken, and artwork was discussed. Then after...
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...Constitution guarantees it. Without this right someone could go to jail or be convicted of a crime they did not commit for the simple fact that the judge has all the power in their hands. Race, gender and religious beliefs could cloud their judgement. An impartial jury gives you the right to a fair trial. When the king deprived us from our natural rights, the Declaration of Independence recognized the importance of the right. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy a trial by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law. Some words that may need to be defined are impartial; a jury that is not bias and will give a fair verdict based on fact and ascertained means to find out for certain. Criminal prosecution is the conduct of legal proceedings against a defendant for criminal behavior. The right to an impartial jury is important to our freedoms because it allows the trial to go on with unbiased opinions about the particular situation. An impartial jury should not be related to the victim nor the accused. They should have no background knowledge and put their personal opinions aside, that is what makes it fair....
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...In a time where social prejudice and racism is eminent, people's minds can be easily swayed depending on their influences. In the selections, A Lesson Before Dying and To Kill a Mockingbird, we witness the characters face challenges and reach new heights against the time period. While these works share similar attributes in their primary conflicts, how the characters approach and solve them differ. To begin with, in both Harper Lee and Earnest Gaines present similar conflicts and resolutions about racism and prejudice. First of all, Jefferson and Tom Robinson were convicted of a crime they didn't commit because of racial discrimination. For example, after the long awaited day, Judge Taylor came to a verdict, "Guilty... guilty... guilty......
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...of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and a friend of hers, Ron Goldman. The case was later described as the most publicized criminal trial in American history. The trial and its outcomes were such a major piece of history from the late 90s, with its impact is still being discussed today as there have been numerous accounts of retelling the events....
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...The book does an amazing job of capturing the agony of black parents and the fear of the black community holistically. Chapter 5 amazingly encompasses the disdain of the black community after the Trayvon Martin verdict, black parents combat with fear of not only with the verdict of Zimmerman, but to conceptualize the world their children have to live in. Parents struggle with the terror of not being able to protect their children in this society, and try to offer solace a sense of security (Lensmire and Harris, pp. 67- 82). The conversation isn’t why Martin was killed, not even why Zimmerman was acquitted, but what it means to be black in this society. The issue of race has always been a conversation in the black household, but after the Martin...
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...The case ultimately moved up to the United States Supreme Court. Plessy Vs. Ferguson hearing would “challenge the definition of race itself” and eventually the case was overturned in 1954. The United States Supreme Court’s ruling was an unjustified verdict based on relativism and deontological ethics. Homer Plessy boarded a train that was on it’s way to Covington, Louisiana. He bought a first-class train ticket and was well dressed, but he was not accepted into first class because he was an African American. The train conductor, John J. Dowling asked Plessy if he was in the proper coach not because of his train ticket but because of his race which wasn’t easily seen. Plessy was so...
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...The procedures that are followed in the criminal trials today have been carefully fine tuned throughout history. The consistent set of procedures is followed by both the federal and state governments and is designed to provide a fair trial for the defendant. Procedure begins with the opening statements and ends with a verdict. In this paper, those procedures and all the ones that fall in between will be discussed. Opening statements begins a trial and are given to the jury and judge by attorneys for both sides of the case. Starting with the prosecuting attorney, an explanation of the case as well as a summary of what the attorney is asking for the jury to decide is given. Once the prosecution has made their statement, the defense attorney is permitted to give their opening statement, however the defense attorney may request to hold their opening statement until the beginning of the defense case. Once the opening statement has been made, the prosecution begins to present their case. This is where the prosecution calls forth any witnesses they may have to provide testimony for the case. Anyone involved in the arrest, interrogation, or investigation of the crime as well as any witnesses to the crime, may be called to testify. Throughout the testimonies evidence is permitted to be admitted to the court to further help the case. The defense is the allowed to cross examine each witness so that they may try to discredit any statements given that may help to prove the prosecution’s...
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...these methods relied upon an appeal to the supernatural or to the fear of divine wrath and there was no real logical connection between satisfying the form and proving the truth or untruth. The jury was introduced as convenient method of legal procedure and its greater popularity rendered it popular with the increase of civilisation. Although the jury was for long the proud boast of Englishmen as one of their indigenous institution, it’s only half true. The origin of jury system dates back to Frankish Inquest introduced by the Charlemagne of France. It was brought to England by William I after the Norman conquests. William used the inquests for collecting information about the land and the revenue from each land. Only with the help of the verdict these inquests he was able to compile the Doomsday Book which was one of the earliest examples of excellent civil administration. The Jury System in England reached its height during the reign of Henry II who was the great grandson of William I. He considered to be the father of jury system in England and there was no formal title given to him. Although the jury system had its origin in France, it cannot be denied that the system reached its maturity and developed the form in which it adorns today in English common law tradition based on custom. In fact, in the chapter titled ‘Trial by Jury’ in his Commentaries, Blackstone traces the beginning of the jury thus- “……… a trial that hath been used time out of mind in this nation and seems to...
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...population. Deaths in prison can be given various rulings by the coroner such as suicide (the prisoner had the intention to kill themselves), death by misadventure (accidental death) which in some instances can be self-harm gone wrong, and open verdicts. Dooley et al wanted to examine the unnatural deaths that occurred in prisons in England and Wales from 1972 and 1987. This research was in the form of a content analysis of prison department personal papers of prisoners’ records. Dooley compared verdicts of suicide with verdicts of unnatural causes or death by misadventure rulings. The research found that 300 suicides occurred in the time frame, 52 of which were due to self-inflicted harm gone wrong. There was little difference between the suicide group and the group that had self-harmed. However there were some real differences. For example, it was found that the prisoners who committed suicide were more likely to do so at night (this is so there is a less likely chance of them being caught in the act) and that the self-harm gone wrong group were more likely to be found during the daytime (this is because their incidents of self-harm were more likely a call for attention). It was also found that the suicide group had no previous history of self-harming; this could be due to those prisoners having an actual intention of dying. Self-harming for a long time without committing suicide is more likely to be a replacement of emotional pain with physical pain which is a long term coping...
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