West Memphis 3: Wrongfully Accused? Essay

This trial did not just impact the life of the boys it impacted the life of others, after this trial they looked at how they did all these cases. As the time went on there became more and more fair trails, less biased jury and judges. But it does still exist, racism in court many years later. But the trial from Scottsboro, Alabama with Olen Montgomery, Clarence Norris, Haywood Patterson, Ozie Powell, Willie Roberson, Charles Weems, Eugene Williams, Andy Wright, and Roy Wright all falsely accused of raping Ruby Bates and Victoria Price was a prodigious part of the way they treated trails against African

The Emmett Till murder shined a light on the horrors of segregation and racism on the United States. Emmett Till, a young Chicago teenager, was visiting family in Mississippi during the month of August in 1955, but he was entering a state that was far more different than his hometown. Dominated by segregation, Mississippi enforced a strict leash on its African American population. After apparently flirting with a white woman, which was deeply frowned upon at this time in history, young Till was brutally murdered. Emmett Till’s murder became an icon for the Civil Rights Movement, and it helped start the demand of equal rights for all nationalities and races in the United States.

April 6, 1931, the trials for the Scottsboro boys begin(Uschan 16). The boys were represented by Milo C. Moody and Stephen Roddy who were only given twelve days to prepare for the trials. Stephen was and unpaid, unprepared real estate attorney, and Milo was a forgetful seventy year old local attorney who hadn’t tried a case in a long time (“San Marcos” line 13). The trails were completely unorganized and false information was stated throughout the whole thing. The cross examination of Victoria Price lasted minutes and the defense offered very little information to the judge. Six out of the nine boys ended up denying the rape while 3 admitted to it. Even though the three men didn’t rape the women, because of beatings and threats, they admitted to the gang rape. By the time the trail had ended 8 out of the 9 boys were convicted and sentenced to death. Since one of the Scottsboro boys was only thirteen, he was considered too young to be tried as an adult (“UMKC” par. 6-7).

The boys of the Scottsboro trials were never treated fairly from the beginning. The whole journey was filled with misconception. The journey began on the freight train, there was nine African Americans on a train car and with them, was a group of Caucasian men. It all started with one of the white males stepping on the hand of one of the blacks. Not too long after, the white males threatened the nine boys to leave the train car (Doc). After the nine black males refused their threat, a fight broke out between all of them. All of the members of the white group were thrown off the train, all, but one. The one that was left on the train went and reported the fight to the train conductor.

Thus the investigation of the murder will start right from him. The information of Jason being upset was shared by one of his mother’s co-worker. The other sources disagree to this as they stated that Jason is a sorted lad and he is always been a motivational example to the kids in the church and they love spending time with him. On the incident, the family paid a visit to the Forward Community Church and everything seemed just fine. All the folks who knew the family are shocked and upset about the incident and have been pleading the cops to investigate further as they couldn’t believe that Jason could do something like

The people of West Memphis were convinced this was an act of satanic evil. From the jump police said that they believed that these brutal killings were a sacrifice to satan from the way that the bodies were tied up. According to The Truth Behind Echols v. State: How an Alford Guilty Plea saved the West Memphis Three; Detectives found all three bodies naked and hog-tied, mutilated with wounds that had been allegedly caused by a serrated knife, and bruised from what investigators deemed to be the result of sexual abuse. The police conclution of this being part of a satanic ritual lead them to believe that Echols was responsible because he is a self proclaimed

On Monday, March 2nd the year was 1998 and at 9:18 a.m. there was a 911 call. Mr. Kennedy said that at his household, outside by the garage, his step daughter, L.H. (the only name the girl is referred to as in the case) was raped. The stepfather of this girl stated to the 911 operator that two teenagers had committed the crime (Cornell).

It is almost impossible for justice to be served when the trail was a mess. There was a 12 hour police interrogation of Jessie Misskelley. He is intellectually disabled, causing him to give a false confession. The police should have known the psychology of false confession and shouldn't have interrogated Mr. Misskelley for 12 hours. The sentences were based on hearsay testimony of witnesses who heard the boys talk about the murders: “...the defendant had been motivated as members of a satanic cult” (Robertson 4). Hearsay doesn't prove anything in the court of law. The jury is supposed to know nothing about the case; but of course one juror already had his mind set on his conviction. This juror

There was no evidence collected and tested at the crime scene which could have proved who committed the murders. A lieutenant who contacted a juvenile officer in Memphis both agreed that the murders had to have been done by someone in a cult. The juvenile officer quickly knew of someone who was involved in a cult and said this juvenile could be capable of a crime like this. The accused, Damien Echols, was immediately interviewed and asked questions that the police believed no one but the killer would know the answers to. The answers that were given by Damien Echols were known answers throughout the community and this made Damien look guilty. Damien’s appearance was very strange and different and he was not considered “normal” in the communities beliefs. He was considered guilty by his Wiccan beliefs and his gothic appearance. Not only was Damien deemed guilty of this crime, but two other boys were also accused of these murders. There are many inconsistencies with the case. The police did not collect all evidence in the woods that could have been collected to possibly link the murders to someone. According to TruTV Crime Library, there was a boy who claimed he saw who committed the murders. He claimed he even saw men who spoke Spanish commit the murders. He later changed his story and said he saw one of the victim’s fathers killing the three boys. This same boy could not even identify two of the boys

The crime of rape allegedly committed by nine black teenagers in the early spring of 1931 tested the American legal system for both justice and racism. All nine—later known as the Scottsboro Boys—were falsely accused of raping two white women—Ruby Bates and Victoria Price. The nine young teenagers—Andy Wright, Willie Roberson, Charles Weems, Ozie Powell, Olen Montgomery, Eugene Williams, Haywood Patterson, Clarence Norris and Leroy Wright—were given guilty verdicts and tried for their lives. All of the men endured long stays in prison until that case made its way through the legal system (Salter; Linder).

Emmett Till is a 14 year old African American boy who was brutally murdered. Emmett was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi and went into a small store. No one knows what happened in it. His friends dared Emmett to ask out Carolyn Bryant, who was insulted and told her husband. Carolyn said he wolf whistled, but he was taught to whistle before saying hard words. Roy Bryant was furious when he figured this out. Later Emmett was taken by J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant. Emmett was beat, tortured, and tied to a cotton gin before he was thrown into a river. His body was so disfigured that his own uncle couldn't recognize his body. A jury of all white men found J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant not guilty. Emmett, a young black child was savagely killed for

The community began to search for the boys with no help from local police until the following morning. The boy’s bodies were discovered the next day, tied, naked, and mutilated, in a muddy ravine. Steve Jones, a former juvenile officer with Crittenden county, located a shoe belonging to one of the boys. He called for detective Mike Allen, who found the bodies of the young boys submerged under water (Berg, director, 2012). The murders shocked the small town of West Memphis, and put major pressure on the police department to find the killers and bring them to justice. Arrests were made less than a month after the murders and no other suspects were sought. Three teenage boys, Michael Dwayne (Damien) Echols, age 18, Charles Jason Baldwin, age 16, and Jessie Loyd Misskelley Jr., age 17, were arrested and charged with three counts of murder. All three boys initially claimed their innocence until Misskelley was interrogated for 12 hours with no legal representation or either parent present, confessed to participating in the crime along with Echols and

Do you think there was enough evidence in both crimes? In a lesson before dying A boy named Jefferson who lives in louisiana is accused of murdering a white man and two black men. The names of the three men were Bear,Brother, and Mr. Grope. Making a Murder was about a man who got accused of sexual assault and did 18 years for it. Then he got out and went back to prison after being accused of murder. So in both stories two men got accused of murder. In conclusion, the two stories are about two men being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The Rodney King incident was presented as a case study of how failure to institutionalize some of the contextual themes concepts can result in malfeasance. Research incidents of other criminal justice malfeasance and, by using the five contextual themes as a guide, identify administrative concepts that could have prevented these situations.

The Arkansas trial raised discussions about the demarcation of science from nonscience. Towards the end of the trial Judge Overton justified his decision by providing five criteria, which stated the definition of science. Discussions arose which argued for and against these criterias. One of the philosophers that claimed that creation science was indeed science was Larry Laudan. Laudan expressed his disappointment towards the decision of the trial, and stated that the trial failed to recognise the falsifiable theories that creationists made. Gilkey and Ruse were a couple of the philosophers however, that agreed with the decision arguing that creation science failed to comply with the standards of science especially through its conclusion of an unexplainable divine creator. In this essay, I will discuss the arguments that aid the demarcation of science from nonscience, and ultimately conclude with an