Clarence: A Homicide Case Study

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Bryan James B. Apostol PS1013 Clyde Shelton witnesses the murder and rape of his wife and daughter at the hands of Clarence Darby and his accomplice Rupert Ames. During their trial, prosecutor Nick Rice informs Clyde that DNA evidence incriminating Clarence has been deemed inadmissible due to botched forensics because, according to Nick, the actions of the police at the crime scene affected its solidity in court, and that Clyde's testimony alone is insufficient to prove either suspect's guilt. Nick, interested in maintaining his high conviction rate, strikes a deal: Clarence gives testimony that will send Rupert to death row, and in exchange Nick allows Clarence to plead guilty to third-degree murder, for which he will only serve three…show more content…
Clarence is suspected, but Clyde helps him to escape the police only to then paralyze him with a neurotoxin and slowly torture him to death. Finding Clarence's dismembered corpse, Detectives Dunnigan and Garza arrest Clyde as the chief suspect. Clyde offers Nick a full confession in exchange for a mattress in his cell, and Nick reluctantly agrees. Clyde represents himself at his hearing before Judge Laura Burch and is about to be granted bail, but launches into a tirade against the flaws of the legal system and is held in contempt of court. Granted his mattress, Clyde confesses both to murdering Clarence and to switching the drugs used in Rupert's execution. He next demands an expensive meal by 1pm the next day in exchange for revealing the location of Clarence's missing attorney. The warden deliberately delays the meal past Clyde's deadline, and as a result the detectives arrive too late to save the attorney, who was buried alive with a limited air supply. Meanwhile, Clyde murders his cellmate and is sent to solitary…show more content…
He offers Nick one last deal, but having finally begun to understand what Clyde has been trying to teach him, he refuses to make a deal with a murderer. Clyde exults at having finally changed Nick's ways. Nick cautions him against activating the bomb, but Clyde does so anyway. Nick seals the cell door and flees the building while Dunnigan seals the hatch to the tunnel. Clyde realizes too late that they have handcuffed the bomb to a rail beneath his cot. Clyde sits, staring at the bracelet given to him by his daughter. He seems at peace as the bomb detonates, consuming him in fire and killing him before presumably back drafting and destroying a chunk of the

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