Lawrence Kinney Case

The motion to dismiss the case of second-degree murder due to the destruction of a blood sample of Payan blood that Melnik and his defense attorney wanted to have tested by their own toxicologist after two years went by was denied after Assistant State Attorney Antonya Johnson told Bogenschutz that he should have known he wanted to test the blood sample before it was even destroyed. After serving more than six and a half years in jail awaiting trial Ronald Melnik is acquitted in the killing of his longtime friend Reza Payan.

There is another man that has been wrongly accused for what he knew he didn’t do but was still considered guilty. Marvin Anderson was a person with good heart and lived with his girlfriend and had a good life till he was mistaken for a criminal. First, Anderson was considered guilty for accusing a woman of another race and attacked her. Anderson was considered an assaulter and put into a testimony of a white-victim (Anonymous). Here his is being considered a criminal of a woman of another race to the trail and being a testimony of the victim that had said that he was he one that had assaulted her. However, when Anderson was in prisoned, his lawyer has been trying to see if they would do a DNA test to prove if it was him or

The first witness shown on the stand in the documentary was James Stephens. He was the husband of the victim, Mary Ann Stephens. Mr. Stephens was the crucial witness in this case, because he was the only witness. He claimed in his testimony that Brenton Butler murdered Mary Ann Stephens three feet away from his face. Approximately three hours after the incident, he was able to identify Butler as the culprit from fifty feet away. However, the defense attorney was able to pick highlight multiple problems during the cross-examination. The entire incident took place within a five second window. The defendant was wearing a t-shirt with a prominent logo when he was arrested. Mr. Stephens did not mention the logo to police, and incorrectly stated that the shirt had a collar. It was later learned when a second suspect was arrested for the crime, that Mary Ann Stephens was shot after she spilled her coffee on the shooter. James Stephens never mentioned once mentioned this.

According to the above petition filed on January 5, 2017, by Officer K. A. Tennyson, the following occurred at Deep Creek High School (2900 Margaret Booker Drive) in the city of Chesapeake, Virginia.

I had a hard time picking my Mercy Moment, but after reading this article on Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson, I knew this would be a good topic. Ronald was charged of an act he never committed. He served eleven years behind bars for no reason at all. One thing that made Cotton seem more suspicious was his previous relations with a white woman. He was in a relationship with a white woman for a couple of months so, to the police he seemed even more guilty. Ronald was then convicted to serve life in prison with fifty-five plus years. He then was convicted of another rape that also happened that night and was punished with two life sentences along with one-hundred and eighty plus years. It was not until eleven years served, 1995, that Cotton was founded not guilty after taking a DNA test that was just newly founded. Thompson grieved for picking Cotton, she felt horrible. She was happy to see him behind bars, the man she believed hurt her. But, after cops showed up to her door to tell her Cotton was not the one who raped her it was Poole, she immediately felt terrible. She then approached Cotton and told her how sorry she was and how terrible she felt. Cotton, with the heart he has, forgave her. They then went out to write a book together titled, Picking Cotton. In this book it talks about the trial, how Thompson felt after

Clarity. While most things are black and white once they are looked into the case of Chris McCandless is not so. While not all persons will agree with me for there are always different opinions, i believe Chris McCandless while bright was also ignorant among others. Chris had several things going for him for his journey starts off with Chris graduating from Emory university And passing with high scores that could have guaranteed his place in the broad horizon of opportunity. Chris while known as Alex was showed to others as a person who strived to achieve perfection as seen on page fifteen.

Her sentenced was reduced by President Barack Obama himself along with other 45 drug offenders. The President believed that these cases were not extreme and believe that these men and women deserved a "second chance."

The innocence project found that DNA from 1996 and 2007 from Barnes' case was actually showing that Barnes was telling the truth (LaDuca).  On November 25, 2008, something almost unimaginable happened, that was the truth that Steven Barnes is free (National Registry). In Court after the trial, Oneida County District Attorney Scott McNamara said, "Our system, which I still believe is the best in the world, failed Mr. Barnes" (LaDuca).  Steven Barnes forgave the flaw that occurred and he said, "Apology accepted, Mr. McNamara" (LaDuca). You can tell Barnes was very thankful and happy when he said, "I want to thank the community and all the support I had from family and friends" (LaDuca). The state of New York, where all the trial went on is one of 25 states that has a low granting compensation (LaDuca). Steven Barnes got $3.5 million for payback from the state since he lost a lot of time in his life to make money (King). He was in his 20's when he was sentenced to jail and he was in his 40's when he got out (National

Brock Turner was an above average 19 year-old athlete and student at Oakwood High School in Dayton, Ohio. While in high school, Turner was a three-time All American and was enrolled at Stanford University on a swimming scholarship. He was offered a scholarship to Stanford and he took it without any thought. One thing he never thought about was getting indicted of rape of an intoxicated person, rape of an unconscious person, assault with intent to rape an intoxicated woman, sexually penetrating an intoxicated person with a foreign object, and sexually penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object. Everything that was just listed, is what he was charged with the night of his felony.

"Christopher Abernathy Case - Illinois Innocence Project - UIS." Christopher Abernathy Case – Illinois Innocence Project - University of Illinois Springfield - UIS. University of Illinois, n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2017.

That he was exonerated raises questions as to whether there are other countless people serving time for crimes they never committed. There is need to examine the role of DNA in criminal prosecutions since this plays a fundamental part in convicting a suspect.

During his time in prison, McKinney found God and a wife, Dorothy McKinney, who he wrote with during his time being locked up. Finding God while incarcerated knocked the anger out of him and, in some ways, that places him a step ahead of those delaying making it possible for him to be compensated for being wrongly incarcerated. In August 2008 after retesting the DNA it was confirmed that Lawrence McKinney was innocent and was released in 2009, tests of biological stains from the victim’s bed linen revealed a mixture of stains from three people, but none of these were McKinney’s, they belonged to the victim’s boyfriend Michael

Jeffrey Heffernan, who worked as a cop in Paterson, New Jersey, was demoted, or given a lower rank, from detective to a foot post in 2005 by the police chief. When an election for mayor was held, Joey Torres ran against Lawrence Spagnola. Because Heffernan’s mother was bedridden and her first campaign yard sign got stolen, Heffernan helped his mother pick up another one. Another police officer, serving as Torres’s bodyguard, saw Heffernan with a Spagnola yard sign. Immediately, the news spread to Paterson Police Department, where Torres had the support of the head police chief. As a result, Heffernan was degraded from detective to foot patrol. Later, he sued the department for demoting him. He claims that he just helped his mother pick up a yard sign. In 2009 Heffernan won a reward of $105,000. However, the judge later changed his decision. This U.S. Court of Appeals established a decision, which was in favor of Paterson, in January 2015. The dispute has been carried to the Supreme Court, and Heffernan’s lawyers are asking the Supreme Court to invalidate the U.S. Court of Appeals’s decision. By the end of June, the Supreme Court may have their decision. This happened mainly because of a misinterpretation between the head chief and Heffernan.

Years later, DNA evidence exonerated him and he was set free (Rankin, 2011). What about the execution of Troy Anthony Davis? The State of Georgia executed him in 2011 for killing a cop although they had no physical evidence that linked him to the crime, but they had eyewitness testimony. When addressing the slain officer’s family, he said he was sorry for their loss, but it was not him that took their family member’s life, implored them to seek the truth, and asked for God to have mercy on his executioners’ souls. Since his execution, 7 out of the 9 eyewitness have recanted or changed their testimony. This is an outrage in and of itself and a black eye to our justice system (Troy Anthony Davis executed in Georgia after appeals exhausted, 2011).

In today’s society crime occurs everyday across all aspects of life. One particular crime is that of white collar and corporate level crime. It is important that we as a society study this type of crime in depth because many individuals believe that white collar and corporate level crimes are victimless crimes when in reality they have the potential to destroy major corporations and economies all with one single case. The news or media rarely talk about this type of crime because it is often difficult to understand and individuals typically lack interest in these types of cases. One particular case is that of Jordan Belfort. Dubbed the infamous “Wolf of Wall Street” Jordan Belfort is a former stockbroker who robbed investors of over $200 million dollars to create his wealth through “pump and dump” schemes, insider trading, money laundering securities fraud, and stock-market manipulation. As an attempt to further understand these complex cases I will break down Belfort’s case as far as the methods and means as to how he got started, his use of “pump and dump” schemes and other means as to how he acquired his wealth. In addition to this I will discuss the sanctions and disciplinary action that Jordan Belfort was given, how the case affected society and what new regulations were