Recently in International Category

On November 1st, 2007 Meredith Kercher was found dead on the bedroom floor partly naked with stab wounds on her neck, many bruises, and signs of being sexually assaulted.  At the time, Meredith was a foreign exchange student in Perugia, Italy along with Amanda Knox, an American foreign exchange student.  Five days after interrogation, Amanda Knox and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were arrested and later convicted with murder, sexual violence, as well as other charges (Knox was sentenced to 26 years while Sollecito was sentenced for 25 years).  DNA and fingerprint evidence at the scene both inside and around Meredith's body pointed to another man, Rudy Hermann Guede.  Guede was later arrested, tried, and was also convicted of murder an sexual assault.  Guede was initially sentenced to 30 years in prison but appealed his sentence which was then reduced to 16 years. 

I had never heard of this case before but I happened to turn on Oprah today and caught the tail end of the story. I got the sense that it was a pretty well known case and I found this to be true when I was searching online and I did end up finding a lot of information about it.  Here is the link to the Wikipedia article which I think does a great job summarizing the case and is a good place to start if you haven't heard of the case before: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MurderofMeredith_Kercher

There seems to be quite a bit of controversy going on about the differences in the criminal justice system and culture of Italy compared to that of the United States when dealing with this case.  I haven't looked into this issue very extensively, but what I have gathered is that many people feel that if Amanda was tried in the United States rather than Italy, she would have never been convicted.

Regardless of this controversy, it became apparent to me while watching the rest of the Oprah show and reading and watching the videos online (http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Amanda-Knoxs-Family-Speak-Out/7), being wrongfully convicted has substantial consequences not only for the person wrongfully convicted, but for their family as well. 

First of all, being wrongfully convicted puts a huge financial burden on the person who is desperately fighting for their freedom.  The book I am reading for this class (Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter) also touches on the tremendous debts one can be in when fighting their conviction.  Thousands upon thousands of dollars were spent, not only by Carter himself, but by his supporters.  Amanda's case seems to be no different.  When searching through sites online, I came across her official site where you could donate money to contribute to her defense fund which will hopefully someday free her.

Being wrongfully convicted also takes a emotional toll on the person who has been wrongfully convicted as well as their family.  On Oprah's website, you can watch a short video of an interview of Amanda's three sisters.  The oldest of the three talks about her new responsibility of being the older sister since Amanda is away and how she struggles at being a good example for her younger sisters.  Amanda's youngest sister talk about how she feels like she doesn't have a family because she describes a family as everyone being there, which is not the case.  Her younger sister struggles with her emotions and her need to stay strong for Amanda and her parents.  My book focuses a lot on Carter's emotional struggles to keep his identity while in prison and the shame he feels, which inevitable causes him to distance himself from his former wife and children.  Carter's family was torn apart by his wrongful conviction, but Amanda's has come together.  Her parents divorced when she was three, but since her conviction, they have combined forces in attempt to free their daughter.  Every Saturday her family gets together for the weekly phone call from Amanda. 

Being wrongfully convicted has tremendous repercussions for the individuals and their families.  Stories like these really make me understand the importance that psychology plays in the law.  I'm not sure how heavily eyewitnesses played in Amanda's conviction, but eyewitness evidence was the only thing used to convict Carter of his sentence of triple-murder.  In order to keep the innocent out of prison, it is evident that a better understanding and acceptance of faulty eyewitness testimonies is necessary, but I'm afraid that no matter how hard we try, there will always be people who are wrongfully convicted.  Even if our criminal justice system improves on keeping the innocent out of jail from now on, there are currently many innocent people in prison, most of which are more than likely desperately trying to free themselves.
 

Sam is a mentally challenged man that seems to have an obsessive compulsive disorder who had barely became a father of a young baby girl and he is also a mentally challenged man.  The mom is normal but ditches the father along with the daughter.  So Sam is left alone to raise his daughter and with help from his neighbor he learns that babies need to be fed every two hours.  I am guessing that mentally challenged people have to have a set schedule and if it is changed it has to be changed gradually or else panic or a sense of anxiety will hit them.  His little girl is unbelievably smart; she and her father have a close relationship.  There comes a point where his daughter makes him realize that he is different from the other daddies and where she becomes the adult at a young age.  Sam's friends help them both a lot, "it takes a village to raise a child."  Lucy teaches him to read and finds it difficult at times to make her classmates understand the way he is.  Unfortunately he did not know that he was talking to a prostitute one night, so he got arrested and then they found out that he had a child.  A child can only learn or expand their mind so much depending on the environment that they are exposed to.  At times it will be easy for the child to rebel but discipline can still be added.  As all children they grow embarrassed of their parents so it gets harder for Lucy to deal with her father's special needs.  Because he is special, he could not control his emotions, since the social worker was there, a bit of it was exaggerated, that he poses as a danger to his daughter and other children.  The lawyer that he is trying to talk to is a bit of a snob but he tries, he can't afford her but he tries to impress his boss so he can get a promotion to pay for the lawyer.  His lawyer is a very selfish woman that will only do his case for free because of peer pressure; she is very miserable and treats the people around her like crap.  Lucy convinces her father to runaway with her so they can be together.  Finally Annie shows up even though she has something against the outside world to help testify in court for Sam's sake.  In the end Lucy's adopted family set up a schedule for Sam to spend time with Lucy, so at the same time Lucy may grow up normally.  So are there certain tests that by law a person who is considered to be mentally challege should take just to see if they are a fit parent or not, there are tons of unfit parents that abuse there children and still have them all because they are able to comprehend things the way society wants them to, or makes it seem like they do.  Another thing in real life if the father, even if he is mentally challenged, were to be tricked by his daughter to run away, I am pretty sure he would have been charged with kidnapping.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/02/14/israel.polygamy.charges/index.html

"Jerusalem (CNN) -- An Israeli man accused of having 23 wives and fathering 59 children was charged Sunday in a Tel Aviv court with multiple counts of sexual assault, rape, sodomy and enslavement..."

Goel Ratzon was arrested last month on the above mentioned charges against some of his numerous daughters. He convinced these women that he was "omnipotent" and that he could perform miraculous acts.

"...He persuaded the women that he had the power to heal and curse, through which he gained "complete control of their lives, desires, thoughts, emotions and actions," the court papers say...."

 They served him, and used their own finances to pay for everything he wanted and needed. The wives and children all lived in a compound together, obeying him in every way.

The Israeli government had known about his cult for about a decade, but it wasn't until about 6 months ago that they convinced one of the women to press charges.

Many of you have probably heard about this story at least once on the news or online. After Haiti was faced with a tragic earthquake, 10 American missionaries were arrested and detained after allegedly kidnapping 33 Haitian children. The Americans supposedly tried to take these children out of the country into the Dominican Republic without proper documentation, and were turned back. According to CNN.com, the judge of this case has up to 3 months to decide whether or not he wants to prosecute these individuals. Many people have completely differing views on this case and their are arguments for both sides. Here are a couple links that are following this case as it is just starting to get underway.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/04/haiti.arrests/index.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/world/americas/10prisoners.html

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2010/0211/Haiti-kidnapping-case-Americans-could-be-released-today

While reading another blog it reminded me of this case. It was an international fight between where Elian Gonzalez should go, back to his father in Cuba or stay in the states with his uncle. The case captured American hearts and I even remember watching it on the news. In the article it explains how the little boy's mother and about 12 other left for florida in a boat. Things went bad out to sea and his mother died. He was found and brought to the states where his uncle kept him because of his mother's sacrifice to get his there. The father of the boy didn't know he left Cuba and wanted him back where he belonged. This was a case of international law and where the boy should go. The article doens't go into great detail about all that happened but it does highlight the main parts.

http://www.examiner.com/x-10909-Charleston-History-Examiner~y2009m6d27-Elian-Gonzalez-was-returned-to-Cuba-with-his-family-in-2000

Can you imagine having one of your children taken away from you by your spouse, and have them take the child abroad to where you couldn't get to them?  Well it actually happened to David Goldman.  David's son Sean was taken by his mother.  David's wife told David and his family that she wanted to take Sean to her home country of Brazil so that her family could see Sean.  They agreed to the trip.  After David's wife and son landed in Brazil, David's wife called him to tell him that their marriage was over and Sean would never return to the US.  This website is David's website to try and bring back Sean.  (Sean is now back in the US.)

http://bringseanhome.org/index.html

 In this article, you will read about what happened and why this custody battle raged on for 6 years.  On December 24, 2009, the father and son were finally reunited and told they could both go back to the US together. 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091224/ts_nm/us_brazil_usa_boy