But what most of you probably don’t know, is that this cop got away with murder, the shooting of john Williams was declared unjustified, and a normal citizen with this charge would do anywhere from 25 years to life in prison. Ian berk was charged with being negligent and got no reasonable punishment from the law, besides a short term suspension from duty. Washington state law makes it extremely difficult to press charges against any police officers around the state, and around the country it is nearly impossible for a police officer to get charged with a crime of injustices. So how will we ever catch the cops doing wrong if we can’t even charge them? Police officers around the country know this is the case, they know they can abuse their power and get away with it.
When Tom was accused of rape, this was the most racist point in the book to me. The people of Maycomb automatically labeled him as guilty. If I were in his position I would have wanted to fight back. Atticus Finch, a local lawyer and one of the main characters, is appointed as Tom’s lawyer. He is almost completely shunned from the town because he is trying to help a black man accused of rape.
During the late 1970s a number of high profile miscarriages of justice – such as the Birmingham Six, Guildford Four etc – came to light. One of these cases, involving the murder of Maxwell Confait, led to the government setting up the Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure. Note – Maxwell Confait had been found murdered – strangled by the flex of an electric lamp and then partially burnt as the killer(s) had attempted to cover up the crime. Three boys were convicted of the murder but three years later it was proved that the police had fabricated their confessions. The Royal Commission reported back in 1981 and came to the conclusion that a better balance between bringing criminals to justice and protecting the innocent was needed.
In the year of 1921, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, were convicted of robbery and murder. Although the arguments brought against them were mostly disproven in court, the fact that the two men were known radicals, prejudiced the judge and jury against them. It didn’t help that their trial took place during the height of the Red Scare. On April 9, 1927, Sacco and Vanzetti's final appeal was declined, and the two were sentenced to death. The most prominent and respectable critic of the trial was known to be Felix Frankfurter, a professor at Harvard Law School.
If the incident in Tampa Bay does not show a person racism, this event might. In New York City, an average of seven Latin Americans were killed a year between 1986 to 1989, but in 1990, that number increased greatly. In that year,twenty-three Latin Americans were killed by police gunfire. When asked how he felt about racism being involved in police brutality,Yussuf Naimkly of the University of Regina commented: "Excessive police force against blacks has always been tolerated, because as a formally enslaved minority African Americans are trapped in a cultural context specifically designed to inhibit their development and thus minimize their threat to white hegemony" (C.C. 72) Executive Director of Police Misconduct Lawyers Referral Service Karol Heppe commented, “Brutality against minorities is a daily occurrence in Los Angeles,” she says.
However, the death penalty may kill innocent people who are wrongly sentenced to a crime they did not commit. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States in 1976, 138 innocent men and women have been released from death row, including some who were within minutes of being executed. In some states, such as Texas, Missouri, and Virginia, investigations have been opened to determine if they had killed innocent men and women. One of the most frequent causes of reversals in death penalty cases is that poor defense lawyers are provided. A study at Columbia University found that 68% of all death penalty cases were reversed on appeal, with an inadequate defense as one of the main reasons for reversal.
In New York City, an average of seven Latin Americans were killed a year between 1986 to 1989 but, in 1990, that number increased greatly. In that year, twenty three Latin Americans were killed by police gunfire. When asked how he felt about racism being involved in police brutality, Yussuf Naimkly of the University of Regina Commented: “Excessive police force against blacks has always been tolerated, because as a formally enslaved minority African Americans are trapped in a cultural context specifically designed to inhibit their development and thus minimize their threat to white hegemony”. Another shocking incident of police brutality occurred in Reynoldsberg Ohio. A group of offices named themselves “S.N.A.T” squad.
In New York City, an average of seven Latin Americans were killed a year from 1986 to 1989, but in 1990, that number increased greatly. In that year, twenty-three Innocent Latin Americans were killed by police gunfire. It is obvious that racism is still prevalent in today’s world and its no surprise that there would be racist people in the police force. This is a serious issue that needs to be addressed because this can cause many problems externally as in random arrests and internally as police conflicts. People should be interviewed and maybe even subjected to a lie detector test to prove that they have no outstanding hatred toward certain people.
I believe that Daniel Sickle did what many others have done and continue to do, manipulate and abuse a plea intended for people who cannot help themselves. He got away with murdering a man because of jealousy and anger, not because he was insane. Today I’m going to talk about the Insanity Defense, what its purpose is, how its purpose has been abused, and what some states are doing to prevent the abuse. Point 1 Insanity can be defined as mentally deranged, but I think that this definition is an understatement. Insanity is actually a mental disease causing a person to not fully understand their actions or in other instances not be able
Factual causation is established by applying the ‘but for’ test. The test ask the question ‘but for the actions of the defendant, would the victim have been harmed?’ This was seen in the case of R v Pagett 1983 where the defendant held his pregnant girlfriend captive. When confronted by police, the defendant used the victim as a shield and fired shots at the police who returned fire, killing the victim. He was acquitted of murder but was found guilty of manslaughter, amongst other offences. The defendant appealed the manslaughter conviction on the grounds that he could not be liable for the victim’s death as he did not physically kill her.