The Prosecution’s Indictment of Mr. George Stevens
In the story The Garies and Their Friends by Frank Webb, one man is responsible for the race riot. The prosecution charges Mr. George Stevens with Inciting a Riot and Seditious Conspiracy. We intend to prove these charges beyond a reasonable doubt. We will do this by presenting overwhelming evidence of his guilt. He manipulated people and circumstances to his full advantage to implement his plan. His agenda was one of violence against innocent Black men and women. These already oppressed citizens, became tragically disenfranchised as a result of his actions. He has torn the fabric of their livelihood into pieces, leaving many homeless. His wanton destruction and
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Mr. Stevens promotes this mindset to anyone who will listen. Mr. Stevens had hoped to turn public opinion to his favor. Exactly as did Hitler and the Nazis of the past, “Hatred against Jews manifested itself in such measures as the Nuremburg Laws which banned "race-mixing" and in the Kristallnacht riots which targeted Jewish homes, businesses and places of worship” (en.wikipedia.org). Mr. Stevens is spreading propaganda and following in the footsteps of Hitler. He was the mastermind behind the racial riot in Philadelphia. Mr. Stevens’ motive for these crimes is a combination of greed, hate, and racism. He enlisted the help of his wealthy and influential friend Mr. Morton. This influence of Mr. Morton’s allows them complete control over the local police. His goal is to terrorize his neighborhood and chase away the hard-working Blacks. He made sure the Black residents would flee their homes in fear of their lives. Once they fled, he and his associate Mr. Morton, could buy up their property, cheap. They planned to put in office only politicians who would yield to their demands. While referring to the Black families of the neighborhood Mr. Stevens stated, “...and if we can create a mob and turn it against them, they will be glad to leave that quarter, and remove further up into the city for security and protection”(166). He explained that once these properties were devalued, they could buy them and make a profit later. His plan also required them to have
Facts: A fire was evolved on September 23, 1981 in a log cabin due to a hot plate. The hot plate was left on with an accelerant and kerosene near by. The owner of the cabin, Henry Xavier Kennedy was convicted of Arson as he obtained an insurance policy for $40K on the cabin five days prior to this fire and police found evidence that the construction business owned by Mr. Kennedy was losing money, and Mr. Kennedy's alibi was insufficient to eliminate him as a suspect.
Troy Gregg was charged with committing armed robbery and murder. The jury found him guilty of both and sentenced him to death. Gregg challenged his remaining death sentence for murder, appealing that his capital sentence was a cruel and unusual punishment that violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Court's earlier ruling in Furman v. Georgia (1972) which struck down state systems that afforded juries sweeping discretion in imposing the death penalty would spell the end of capital punishment in the United States. Many states, including Georgia, however, responded to the Furman ruling by passing new death penalty laws. The Georgia General Assembly, however,
In many ways, the opinion in this case represents a final step in the creation of
In 1630, Puritan leader John Winthrop led the great migration to the New World. On board the ship Arbella, John Winthrop delivered a sermon titled "A Model of Christian Charity." His speech outlined the objectives he hoped to achieve in the New World. His ideals slightly influenced the Puritans judgments and philosophy however not as much as he had initially hoped for. It seems the judgments of the Suffolk County Court were not influenced by the Arbella sermon. Similarly, it doesn't appear that Winthrop's sermon influenced the testimony against Bridget Bishop either. However, the Suffolk County Court cases do differ from the case against Bridget Bishop. The paradox between the two illustrates both Puritan successes and failures.
The book starts with an explanation of Miller’s involvement in a trial in Atlanta in 2004. The trial was in regard to a sticker found in a textbook that Miller had coauthored. The sticker said “This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered.” (page 2). The trial focused on if the sticker violated the First Amendment of the Constitution. This trial drew a lot of media attention, which surprised Miller at first. He later realized that the trial wasn’t just about a sticker in a textbook, it was really about something bigger. Miller tells us that the stickers were actually placed in the textbooks to create “a compromise between thousands of [the school board's] constituents and the science education standards” (page 3). He states that the residents of Georgia and Cobb County fought against these standards and ordered that either evolution should be removed from the curriculum or that another viewpoint be taught alongside evolution, one that worked better with their religious views. The school board had put the stickers in the textbook to try to meet the needs of the residents and the scientific community, but the sticker didn’t make either party happy. Miller was
A very significant case in Cook County Courts was the Bridgeport case, known as a “heater” case because of the publicity that surround it, and the racial overtones (Bogira 181). The Bridgeport case involved three white teenagers, Michael Kwidzinski, Jasas, and Caruso that were accused of brutally beating two young black boys who were riding their bikes in the predominantly white neighborhood. The entire summary of the case, in Courtroom 302, was based around the fact that one of the boys, Michael Kwidzinski, was most likely innocent. The question then turns to the boy himself, Michael Kwidzinski; if he was innocent, why did hid then accept a guilty plea bargain?
I am going to engage the jury in a series of questions that will lead to the verdict of Steve Harmon being declared innocent. Steve has been accused, as a lookout in the murder of a drugstore owner, Alguindado Nesbit. This evening I will prove to you that Steve is innocent of these charges. If we review the testimonies made through this trial,we come to Lorelle Henry. We heard that her granddaughter was sick with a cold and as a result, Mrs. Henry was in the same Harlem drugstore on December twenty second. She testified to seeing Mr.King arguing with store owner, Mr.Nesbit after King grabbed Mr.Nesbits’ collar of his shirt , she left. Mrs.Henry claims she never saw Steve, as the so called “lookout”. Richard Evans as some know him “Bobo” confesses to participating and being the mastermind behind this operation. Mr.Evans testified to being in the store with Mr.King, his friend for years. His testimony describes himself, “Bobo” as the one to grab the cash and some cartons of cigarettes, which leaves King to try and get the gun from Mr.Nesbit. Mr.Evans claims he never received a sign from Steven then
Sam Stevens lives in an apartment building owned by his landlord, Mr. Quinn, where he has been working on an invention that plays the sound of a barking dog to scare off potential intruders. A national chain store has contacted Mr. Stevens, and would like to sell his product exclusively. Despite the fact that Mr. Stevens and the store never signed a physical contract, he verbally told a store manager several months ago that he would ship 1,000 units. Now, the chain store has just contacted Mr. Stevens via letter, demanding that he deliver the promised 1,000 units immediately (Southern New Hampshire University, n.d.).
“I never saw racial violence in my school, I never saw the frustration or the anger between the races. We were a very cohesive group. You just feel like we all lived in peace and harmony for the most part and to see racial violence occur is completely a new phenomenon here.” Here, Knowles states that his personal experiences growing up in Ferguson show that tension between races hasn’t existed since before his childhood. His main argument is based on the idea that if he didn’t see any racial conflicts, there must not have been any. This “out of sight, out of mind” argument normalizes his experiences as a white man, taking them to be the experiences of the average person. Beyond that, it tells of a degree of mistrust that he holds towards his community. Mistrust enough to prevent him from reconsidering the representative nature of his own experiences when confronted by the testimony of the crowds of protestors claiming to have witnessed a divisive racial relations. Both this statement and the one above have the effect of undermining the protestors, showing that Mayor Knowles considers their actions to be misguided, unnecessary overreactions, and their claims to be unfounded
On the outside, The Scopes Trial was a battle between the glorious State of Tennessee and substitute teacher named John Scopes. Scopes was accused of violating the state's Butler Act, which was a law that prohibited the teaching of evolution in public schools, favoring religious creation stories. However, as one digs deeper into the politics of The Scopes Trial one will be able to see the anxiety that was the driving force behind the spectacle. The trial took place in the 1920s when morals were loose and girls were looser. While William Jennings Bryan sought to push his fundamentalist views and Clarence Darrow attempted to focus the country's attention on the flaws of the fundamentalists the American people used the hype of the trial to showcase
Robert would hold debates with well-known Civil Rights pacifists such as Martin Luther King, A.J. Muste and others. Williams would argue, “Nonviolence is a very potent weapon when the opponent is civilized, but nonviolence is no repellent for a sadist.” (26) In Dixie African Americans were faced with a choice: to either defend themselves or be killed. To describe why being armed was vital he recounts an instance when the KKK rode into town to terrorize the community, “White people started driving through our community, shouting and screaming… colored people started arming…” (47) Klansman were firing at African Americans who were trying to flee the town and once the community heard of this they sprang into action. When some white people eventually drove into town the community grew furious and dealt with the situation in a way that showed they meant business but without firing.
Death penalty, or also known as capital punishment, today is still used. Many oppose many support it. In the case Furman v. Georgia, the death penalty was abolished. But not fully, because it is still used today. In 1991 more than 2,600 people awaited execution but only fourteen were executed. Capital punishment should be legal, and should be used more often.
March 25, 1931, nine men hopped on to a freight train of no return (Uschan 10). Unjust, prejudice, and racist the Scottsboro Trials, were definitely not just another ordinary case. The Scottsboro Trials changed how America viewed segregation. The nine young men, who hopped onto that train that day, were innocent and harmless. The Scottsboro Trials revealed the unjust treatment that African Americans faced outside of the Harlem Renaissance and changed views on segregation.
Ferguson’s attorneys, Ronald Kuby and William Kunstler, put together a defense based on “black rage.” Ferguson's defense argued that he was driven temporarily insane with black rage as a result of living in a white-dominated society, and as such could not be held criminally liable for his actions (Koenig, 2009).
In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Tom Robinson, the black man falsely convicted of rape, had absolutely no chance of a fair trial. There is proof of this in the time period in which it occurred as well as evidence from the novel itself. Tom Robinson had an unfair trial because it was his word against the Ewell’s, a white, trashy family.