Recently in Case Law Category

This article is about the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback being accused of sexual assault for the second time. I think this ties into the class because the case has been dropped from the DA for the lack of any evidence, so it seems that it is all hearsay evidence. This could be a case where the girl was trying to take advantage of the superstar by accusing him of assualting her, or it could be a case in which the prosecution just didnt have enough evidence to satisfy the burden of proof to convict Ben. Either way he is not going to get in trouble by the law for whatever happened however he may be suspended by the league for violating the players code of conduct policy. Ben has been accused of assaulting a girl before and it makes people wonder if girls are just trying to take advantage of a celebrity or is he getting away with these assaults because of lack of evidence. The prosecution pretty much said in their press conference that they are confident that Ben assaulted the girl but cannot prove without a reasonable doubt to a jury that he is responsible, also it did not help that the girl, for some reason, did not want to press charges. The medicial examiner said they found male DNA but not enough to make a DNA profile. I think this would have come to a different outcome if they were in fact able to get a DNA profile from the sample.The case shows that there is in fact a burden of proof that needs to be satisfied for the DA to persue a case, and do not just go after people to punish them for supposably committing crimes.  

In my Psych and Gender class we watched a video about a set of twins. As the twins were being circumsized (mind you, they're both boys) one of the nurses accidently burned off one of the boys penis's. The doctor told the parents of the boys to raise the boy who got his penis burnt off as a girl. The doctor was doing an experiment of Nature v. Nuture. This relates to this class because the doctor reported that the experiment was a success, when it really wasn't. They tried to sue, but they couldn't prove anything. It ended up that both of the twins committed suicide later on in life. Here's the sight....
http://www.rightcelebrity.com/?p=4426

http://www.wcfcourier.com/news/politics/article_51982555-5faa-540a-9608-b61fee165caf.html

This is an article from the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier. In March of 2009 there was a law passed that allowed families to ask for protection not only themselves from their abusers but also for the family pets.  The threat of a family pet being harmed is seen as an issue in abuse case. I personally wouldn't want any of my animals harmed so i think its only human nature that we want to protect of animals from abuse.

This is a very interesting article about how the point of a finger gave a man a 50 year prison sentence on a rape charge.

Three days after the rape, Detective Gauldin called the rape victim Jennifer Thompson in to do a photo lineup. He lay six pictures down on the table, said the perpetrator may or may not be one of them, and told her to take her time.

Thompson did not immediately identify a photo, taking her time to study each picture.

"I can remember almost feeling like I was at an SAT test. You know, where you start narrowing down your choices. You can discount A and B," Thompson said.
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I find it so interesting that the flaws of eyewitness identification can be so obvious. When taking a multiple choice test you being narrowing down the answers. When you come down to the bottom two you seem to make an educated guess. When dealing with 50 years in prison, I would hope the question only has one obvious answer, and isn't multiple choice.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/06/60minutes/main4848039_page2.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

Throughout this class we have dealt with many aspect of witness identification. Through the construct a line up project I was amazed at how many people actually guessed the suspect right. So not only is this whole process biased in that a person basically picks as a multiple choice guess sometimes, but also that a line up can be very biased. Many line ups are made with an obvious answer to be picked. Many of think us probably think, so what! That person is probably guilty. However, in this above case we see that a man was wrongly picked from a line up and the consequence was major jail time. When picking out of a line up the person is basically choosing the course for the person. We also learned in class that eye witnesses are of HUGE impact to a jury. This can also lead to false testifying which can easily sway a jury. It starts to make you really reflect upon our justice system and the ways that eye witnesses, juries, and even line ups can be extremely biased.

 Waterloo Teacher Arrested

I came across this article when I was looking up the news the other day. According to this article 52-year-old teacher Larry Twigg has been arrested for committing illegal acts with a 17-year-old boy. Twigg was a high school teacher at Waterloo West HIgh School He was charged for persuading or coercing the boy to disrobe in order to arouse the teacher. Twigg is now in jail on bond for $25,000. This comes to a surprise to a lot of the students in this area. One of my friends who graduated from this High School thought he was a great teacher. I was mainly curious if anyone in this class had known the teacher? I am also curious if more kids will come out and admit to similar things happening with the teacher? There are a lot of repercussions from this case for Mr. Twigg. Besides losing his job he will also not be allowed to live near a school to say the least. This is certainly a tragic case for a lot of people in the Waterloo community and the repercussions will leave a devastating effect on the school. It just shows another way how psychology spreads in such a wide way.

 

 

http://www.wcfcourier.com/news/local/article_4792bd76-104c-11df-bddf-001cc4c03286.html

 

 

 

 

A Florida man was found under a concrete slab behind a woman's home.  The man won the lottery in 2006 and his family said that people were always asking for money which made him not want the money anymore.  He then disappeared.  The women that owned the house, where the body was found, had recently transferred 2 million dollars from the victims bank account in to her own bank account.

This story caught my eye because it shows what people will do for money.  I think that money can change how people think.  It will make people hurt or kill other people, even if they are perfectly normal, just so they can get more money.  Money can also change the people that own it and make them do things that they wouldn't usually do but think since they have money, they can get away with anything.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/us/03brfs-MILLIONAIRES_BRF.html

While choosing which role I was going to do for one of our class projects, I starting thinking about subpoenas and what happens when people don't comply.  So for this post I decided to focus on subpoenas: What are they exactly?; Compliance v. non-compliance; and what to do once you have received one.

What exactly is a subpoena?

A subpoena is a legal order commanding a person or organization to give sworn testimony at a specified time and place about a matter concerned in an investigation or a legal proceeding.  A subpoena usually requires a person's presence at a trial or requires the presentation of tangible items in a specific legal setting.  Subpoenas are often sent to witnesses, commanding them to appear before a court and testify for the party named in the subpoena.  This subpoena is specifically called a subpoena ad testificandum. 

Non-compliance

If you do not comply with the subpoena or respond in the proper, timely manner to it, you can become in "contempt of court," which simply means that you have not complied with certain court orders regarding a court trial or hearing, and that possible punishments/sanctions may be imposed for not complying with the court.  The judge involved with the case has discretion to decide what is contempt and how to punish it.  Jail or prison time is a possible and likely sanction for being in contempt of court, depending on the severity of the person's role in the case/trial. 

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Contempt+of+Court

If you have received a subpoena...

You should contact your lawyer immediately or get a lawyer if you don't already have one.  You can contest a subpoena if you don't think it is valid or reasonable, but you must inform the court about your decision to challenge it.  If you decide to accept it, and comply, most transportation costs should be covered.  Costs and fees set according to the rules of the court should be named in the subpoena.  You should receive cash or check before you appear in a civil case.  You should receive an attendance fee and travel reimbursement after you testify in a criminal case. 

 

This is only a brief overview of subpoenas and your options if you receive one.  These are a few websites that were helpful in creating this post. 

http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/responding-subpoenas

http://www.lectlaw.com/def2/s083.htm

 

 

Ok. Here's your chance to post anything and everything you can find out about this case. If you have come here and you have not yet responded to the Prelminary Crime Scene Investigation post, STOP. Do that one and then come back :)

Tip: googling north carolina v. michael peterson will get you started....from there you are on your own :) See what you can find out!

 

 

I was always very interested in this case, and thought how amazing it was that after 19 years of missing, they actually found her. I posted a link to the story below, for anyone else who is interested in it. On the last page, they also mention several other cases of kidnappings, that if you type their names into google, you can also read further into their stories as well.

Here's the link to the story:   http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=8426124&page=1

 

(Image from http://xpigs.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/jaycee-dugard.jpg)

Im a pretty big fan of Tru TV. I tend to watch a number of shows on that channel and when i made my way to the website i came across this crime library. This is a website that is devoted to all sorts of information on all different types of offenders including murderers. The website has a number of different types of cases on the main page such as celebrity siblings arrests, false convictions, "dumb" criminals etc. and you can also look at specific kinds of murders and cases that have happened in history. I thought this website was interesting and could be beneficial for someone that was looking for a certain case or someone that is interested in reading about all types of crimes in general

 

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/index.html 

The son of the late notorious John Gotti Sr. Junior gets racketeeting charges droped after the prosectuion fails to convince the jury that Junior is guilty.  Four failed trials and he is a free man.  The main question that comes to my mind is the idea from old mobseter movies, when the mob always manages to get to some of the jury members and threatens their families lives if they don't go their way.  Now the fact that they tried to prosecute him with four different juries and failed only goes further to support my assumption.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/01/13/new.york.feds.gotti/index.html?iref=allsearch 

 

An amicus brief is a document which is filed in a court by someone who is not directly related to the case under consideration. The American Psychological Association has submitted many briefs to courts when they believe education on psychological issues is important for the case at hand. The APA has submitted briefs on abortion, sexual orientation, disabilities rights and many other topics. Check out a list of the briefs by topic with links to the briefs themselves.

http://www.apa.org/about/offices/ogc/amicus/index-issues.aspx

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/mccleskey.html

This case presents the question whether a complex statistical study that indicates a risk that racial considerations enter into capital sentencing determinations proves that petitioner McCleskey's capital sentence is unconstitutional under the Eighth or Fourteenth Amendment.