...Jesse Dove CCJS 100 Research Paper Case Study 1 – Murder 13December2013 Case Study One, Murder It’s sad to think about but each and every day someone in this country gets murdered. Violence seems to flood our streets and pollute our society. It doesn’t matt why either, it could be over drugs, money, or disputes. This is something I find unacceptable but see no end in sight to. As we will see in the case study I will present on one particular murder I will explain my views of the case and what I believe to be the proper punishment. I chose the murder of a man and a women named Rodney Hill and Lucy Wolf. From what little details I have it seems that the incident occurred due to a jealous husband acting on his anger with the use of deadly force. It documented how a restraining order was already placed on Ms. Lane’s former husband due to previous problems with physical and mental abuse. In my opinion I believe this might have been what triggered James T. Lane, a bartender and her former husband to lash out in rage. Both Ms. Lane and her new intimate relationship partner Mr. Hill were found dead due to multiple stabbings after her neighbor called police when he heard loud commotion and yelling that ended in screaming. Once police arrived on scene they found both Ms. Lane and Mr. Hill dead at her residence, the death appeared to be caused due to multiple stab wounds on both individuals. Mr. Wolf also reported to police a description of a vehicle that matched Mr. Lanes automobile...
Words: 1691 - Pages: 7
...god. The thought of witches being within their ranks drove them to mass hysteria. Major witch hunts started and people were unfairly tried for their crimes, resulting in most cases death. The Salem Witch Trials had many crucial cases that were detailed in The Wonders of the Invisible World, which has affected today's government branches in a multitude of ways. In the work The Wonders of the Invisible World Cotton Mather, the court's record keeper, would write down the various trails that were presented, the evidence ,and outcomes of them. One of the most famous cases he recorded was the case of Martha Carrier, a suspected witch. Martha was accused of bewitching people, cows, and committing crimes with her spectre. She proceeded to plead not guilty to these charges. The court called numerous witnesses that each gave their case against Martha. The biggest being her children, who accused her of being a witch and turning them into witches. The others accused her using spectral evidence, which is the crime of the person using their spectre to commit deeds. After hearing...
Words: 656 - Pages: 3
...1. Introduction For this paper, I have chosen Case study 1 to be discussed. By applying the knowledge gained throughout the syllabus and proper research, I have met the requirements of the paper. Based on contemporary justice in crime, the paper has been prepared. First, the brief description of the crime is outlined by summarizing the whole issue centered in the case study. Secondly, I have focused on description of the processes in the adult American criminal justice system the offender would go through, starting with arrest. Further, I have highlighted the weakest and strongest links in the criminal justice process. 2. A brief description of the crime Based on reading of the Case study 1, it is revealed that there are two murders happened....
Words: 1842 - Pages: 8
...“Proponents of both models embrace constitutional values which are necessary to the kind of society in which American wish to live” (Zalman, 2008, p. 4). In addition answers will be given to questions about the effects on law enforcement, courts, and differences between federal, and state polices, and distinguishes these values. To utilize plea bargaining is controversial because of the fear that innocent defendants would take a plea and the judge would impose unduly sentences (Neubauer, 2008, p. 20). Also the criticism focuses on the deterrent effect of the punishment itself. The crime control model, court hearings have eroded the deterrent effect of punishment (Neubauer, 2009, p. 20). “Not only is the problem serious, but there is evidence that it is getting worse, suggesting that, whatever deterrent effect the criminal justice system does have, its effectiveness in deterring crime may be decreasing over time” (Barnett-Hagel, 1977). Some believe plea bargains allow the guilty to escape a lighter sentence therefore weakens the adversary system because a person is innocent until proven and every defendant has the right to trial....
Words: 2181 - Pages: 9
...social class, within that community, to receive a more fair trial. Also you can’t bring in any previous information into the trial or bring any emotional attachment into the case. Having a jury like in the “12 Angry Men” is not having a fair jury or trial what so ever, they are either going to all agree with each other, persuade one another or think like each other. One of the characters played by Henry Fonda goes against the grain, and votes not guilty. This really sends the other jurors up the wall, more particularly the head strong jurors. They want nothing to do with him and don’t want to listen to what he has to say. Henry Fonda speaks out and votes the opposite of all the other jurors. He does so because he wants to discuss the facts and the evidence, he isn’t convinced he is guilty or he is innocent. Fonda wants to do so because he does not want to but a boy to his death without discussing this matter into more depth. This is the boy’s life they have in the palm of their hands after all, and he couldn’t live with the guilt if he would have been peer pressured to vote the same as the other 11 men. Fonda wants the other jurors to realize that because all the jurors were just quick voting the boy as guilty without deeply discussing what was a hand. As the deliberations unfold, the story quickly becomes a study of the jurors’ complex personalities, which range from wise, bright and empathetic to arrogant, prejudiced and merciless. Along with...
Words: 1022 - Pages: 5
...(WM3). The boys had rumors around town saying that they participated in Wiccan circles and Satanic rituals. Many believed that the murder of the three eight year olds’ was for a Satanic ritual that Echols, Misskelley and Baldwin were participating in. Even with a complete lack of circumstantial evidence from police, Jessie MIsskelley, at the age of just 17, was found guilty on one count of first degree capital murder and two counts of second degree murder and was sentenced to life in imprisonment without parole. Jason Baldwin was found guilty on three counts of capital murder. The 16 year old was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 40 years. Damien Echols was found guilty on three counts of capital murder and was sentenced to death by lethal injection. (Steel, “The West Memphis Three”). The town was convinced they had found and put away the killers, but the rest of the world was not so sure. Many people protested against the boys containment, including famous musicians from around the world. In 2007, with new technology, DNA evidence was recovered that showed the boys had no link to the case whatsoever. (Weinstein, “Lawyers file DNA motion in Cub...
Words: 1998 - Pages: 8
...One thing that will always be constant in our world is change. Change will always happen. As we progress as a species, we find de novo technologies and discover the imperfections of our ways and laws. A prime example of this is seen in our legal system today. Recent research on our court system and the process of processing our evidence has shown flaws that have wrongfully convicted innocent people nation wide. Families of those who have been wrongfully convicted are not the only ones who claim that our legal system is in need of ‘fresh eyes’, even judges agree that there are unreliable ways within it. Some of these mistakes are so obvious that it makes one question the real intent of the system. For example, eyewitness reports have been...
Words: 361 - Pages: 2
...1. The success of an interview or interrogation depends on a number of personal characteristics and commitments of the investigator. Planning for and controlling the events surrounding both interviews and interrogations are important but are generally viewed as more critical to the success of an interrogation. The success of the interviewer or interrogator and of the interview or interrogation is often determined by the time and dedication committed to preparing for the conversation. The interviewer must become familiar with the facts of the case under investigation and with the victim. The interrogator must learn as much as possible about the offense, the victim(s) and the suspect through the process of collecting, assessing, and analyzing data and theorizing about the motivations and thought processes of the suspect. These are some reasons that planning for an interview or interrogation are important and in many ways similar. In planning for an interview or interrogation, one must determine what questions will be asked to ensure they are good questions that will lead the interviewer or interrogator to the conclusions they are trying to reach. There are some instances where only moderate planning or preparation is necessary for an interview while extensive planning and preparation is needed to conduct an interrogation. The most common type of interview is an on-the-scene interview where extensive planning is not always a possibility. An examples of this is on-the-scene...
Words: 1863 - Pages: 8
...Wrongful Convictions Stephanie Worthington CM107: Professor Kosse The Lessons of Wrongful Convictions When we think of someone going to prison for a crime, we do not think about whether or not they are actually guilty. That is the job of the court to decide that. When evidence is presented to the jury, we like to think that they research all pieces of evidence thoroughly before rendering a judgment. That is not always the case unfortunately. There are more times than most people are aware of, of people being wrongfully convicted. The issue of this, is that DNA evidence is not always present in these cases. With the implantation of DNA in these criminal cases, there would be more innocent people walking the streets instead of behind bars. There are many reasons that a person is wrongfully convicted. Some reasons are due to eyewitness identification errors, inadequate evidence or lack thereof. There are so many more factors that play into this issue. The number one reason that someone is wrongfully convicted, is due to Eyewitness misidentification. In fact, that was that factor played in 72 percent of the post-conviction DNA exonerations in the United States. At least forty percent of the eyewitness misidentifications involve cross racial identification. Studies show that people are less likely to be able to recognize the faces of a different race, rather than that of their own. (search.proquest.lib.kaplan.edu/docview) ( innocenceproject.com) The first DNA exoneration took...
Words: 796 - Pages: 4
...She also likes to shift her view point when Adnan looks guilty, or when he looks innocent. Depending on how the investigation is going, Koenig always seems to find questions and holes in the story that just don’t add up, leading to the conclusion that Adnan deserves a new trial. To start off, Koenig definitely argued many different factors which lead the audience to develop...
Words: 1185 - Pages: 5
...those individuals especially here within the United States? I believe that the wrongly accused deserve to not only be exonerated from their sentence but also compensated for all the time lost due to being wrongfully convicted in the first place. Anyone that has been exonerated should be well provided for due to the simple fact that those whom have been incarcerated may have the tendency to be unprepared meeting the challenges of the world today in some shape or form. Since most topics in criminal justice systems and contrast/comparisons have been spoken of numerous of times and the idea of exonerating individuals is current plus still a fairly new field of study and concern, I will share some accounts, data, and my standpoint on this area after the conviction. Introduction A person should be innocent before proven guilty and the criminal justice process involves a series of steps for finding someone convicted of a crime by following certain procedures. The U.S. Constitution is supposed to ensure the protection of those rights. This is why we go through great lengths of looking for evidence and testimony in our...
Words: 3838 - Pages: 16
...DEATH PENALTY ARGUMENTS: Deterrent or Revenge (Pros and Cons) INTRODUCTION What is Capital punishment? Capital punishment is the death penalty. It is used today and was used in ancient times to punish a variety of offenses. Even the bible advocates death for murder and other crimes like kidnapping and witchcraft. When the word death penalty is used, it makes yelling and screaming from both sides of extremist. One side may say deterrence, while the other side may say, but you may execute an innocent man. Today, one of the most debated issues in the Criminal Justice System is the issue of capital punishment or the death penalty. Capital punishment was legal until 1972, when the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in Furman v. Georgia stating that it violated the Eight and Fourteen Amendments citing cruel and unusual punishment. However, in 1976, the Supreme Court reversed itself with Gregg v. Georgia and reinstated the death penalty but not all states have the death penalty. Thirteen states do not have the death penalty: Alaska, District of Colombia, Hawaii, Iowa, Main, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY (CONS) Death Penalty Fails to Rehabilitate What would it accomplish to put someone on death row? The victim is already dead-you cannot bring him back. When the opponents...
Words: 4215 - Pages: 17
...society has the highest interest in preventing murder, it should use the strongest punishment available to deter murder, and that is the death penalty. If murderers are sentenced to death and executed, potential murderers will think twice before killing for fear of losing their own life. For years, criminologists analyzed murder rates to see if they fluctuated with the likelihood of convicted murderers being executed, but the results were inconclusive. Then in 1973 Isaac Ehrlich employed a new kind of analysis which produced results showing that for every inmate who was executed, 7 lives were spared because others were deterred from committing murder. Similar results have been produced by disciples of Ehrlich in follow-up studies. Moreover, even if some studies regarding deterrence are inconclusive, that is only because the death penalty is rarely used and takes years before an execution is actually carried out. Punishments which are swift and sure are the best deterrent. The fact that some states or countries which do not use the death penalty have lower murder rates than jurisdictions which do is not evidence of the failure of deterrence. States with high murder rates would have even higher rates if they did not use the death penalty. Ernest van den Haag, a Professor of Jurisprudence at Fordham University who has studied the question of deterrence closely, wrote: "Even though statistical demonstrations are not conclusive, and perhaps cannot be, capital punishment is likely to...
Words: 6130 - Pages: 25
...has the highest interest in preventing murder, it should use the strongest punishment available to deter murder, and that is the death penalty. If murderers are sentenced to death and executed, potential murderers will think twice before killing for fear of losing their own life. For years, criminologists analyzed murder rates to see if they fluctuated with the likelihood of convicted murderers being executed, but the results were inconclusive. Then in 1973 Isaac Ehrlich employed a new kind of analysis which produced results showing that for every inmate who was executed, 7 lives were spared because others were deterred from committing murder. Similar results have been produced by disciples of Ehrlich in follow-up studies. Moreover, even if some studies regarding deterrence are inconclusive, that is only because the death penalty is rarely used and takes years before an execution is actually carried out. Punishments which are swift and sure are the best deterrent. The fact that some states or countries which do not use the death penalty have lower murder rates than jurisdictions which do is not evidence of the failure of deterrence. States with high murder rates would have even higher rates if they did not use the death penalty. Ernest van den Haag, a Professor of Jurisprudence at Fordham University who has studied the question of deterrence closely, wrote: "Even though statistical demonstrations are not conclusive, and perhaps cannot be, capital punishment is likely...
Words: 6130 - Pages: 25
...penalty is one of the most debated issues in the Criminal Justice system. It is polled that approximately 62% of Americans support the death penalty. Behind that percentage is poorly based reasons like revenge or misrepresented facts, such as cost and a sense of justice. The United States had a 2012 murder rate of 4.8 victims per 100,000-meaning that nearly 15,000 people were victims of homicide that year. (Benoit) These criminals, it appears, are not fearing capital punishment as a consequence of their crimes as much as people hope they would. The death penalty should be abolished because criminals are not deterred from committing crimes, millions of dollars are wasted, and innocent people may be executed. Attorney General Janet Reno stated, “I have inquired for most of my adult life about studies that might show that the death penalty is a deterrent, and I have not seen any research that would substantiate that point.” (J Donahue and J Wolfers) While many would like to believe that the death penalty would be more of a deterrent than a long prison sentence, criminals rarely consider the consequences of their actions. A crime of passion is exactly that, where they would not think about what would happen if they went through with a crime. These criminals, who commit these heinous crimes that would lead to the death penalty, can have severe mental illness. This would definitely not assist in being deterred. They don't even contemplate the consequences of getting caught...
Words: 2134 - Pages: 9
