...Assignment 2: Trials and Verdicts Student: Melissa Harmon Professor: Phylanice Nashe Introduction to Criminal Justice February 18, 2014 TRIALS AND VERDICTS PAGE 1 Our criminal justice system is an intricate one. When crime is committed, law enforcement detains the offender and in most cases holds them until they are seen by a judge. The period between arrest and arraignment is also known as the pretrial procedures; this is a very important aspect of the justice process. At this time, the biggest majority of cases are either resolved and never make it to court. However, some crimes are so serious that they must go the next steps and this could be plea bargaining or trial by jury, both resulting in a sentence ordered by the judge. Here we will take a look at a particular case involving five men who viciously beat another man resulting in his death. What started as a barroom brawl, ended outside of the victim's mother's home in La Jolla, California May of 2007 [L.A. Times 2008]. Emery Kauanui was a 24 year old professional surfer that tragically lost his life three days after being treated for bleeding of the brain, facial fractures, and multiple contusions caused by five individuals. Eric House, 21; Orlando Osuna, 23; Matthew Yanke, 21; Henri Hendricks, 22; and Seth Cravens, 22 who dealt the fatal blow; these are the offenders that each in turn punched and kicked Kauanui until the last punch knocked him to the pavement where he hit his head knocking him out. This...
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...Trials and Verdicts Alexis N. Ford Strayer University CRJ 100 Week 8 Assignment Professor Currie Guavreau November 29, 2015 Introduction In a criminal trial, a jury examines the evidence to decide whether, "beyond a reasonable doubt," the defendant committed the crime in question. Once the case is taken to trial the jury then must come up with a verdict of either "Guilty" or "Not Guilty" based off the evidence and points of the attorneys. Some cases turn out to be pretty accurate yet others may have a little twist to them. Understanding the court processes and its jurisdiction, plea bargaining, and of course wrongly accused and/ or convicted felons are all a part of criminal cases and trials that almost everyone should understand. Court Processes Marcus Burrage was arrested for distribution of heroin and distribution of heroin resulting in the death of Joshua Banka. A jury found him guilty, and Burrage was sentenced to nearly 40 years in prison. The Supreme Court held that a defendant who distributes drugs cannot receive an enhanced penalty when a victim suffers death or serious bodily injury as a result of using the drugs unless the victim’s use of the drugs is a but-for cause of the death or injury, at least where the use of the drug was not independently sufficient to cause the death or injury. The victim in the case died following an extended drug binge involving a mixture of several drugs, only one of which he had purchased from the defendant. Expert testimony...
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...Trials and Verdicts Jennifer Johnson Professor Roreita Walker Introduction to Criminal Justice Sunday August 24, 2014 The First case that I found is about a 75 year old woman getting a life term sentence for killing her former husband 40 years ago. According to the facts of the case the defendant shot her former husband with a rifle in the mid 1970’s and then threw his body down the shaft of an abandoned gold mine. According to her testimony the defendant claimed she acted on self -defense trying to protect her daughter who was two years of age at the time. However the judge and jury did not believe her side of the story on what happened. The defendant’s case was taken care of in the Laramie county district court. I feel that it was the correct court to take care of the case. Simply because district courts have jurisdiction to any cases originating within their jurisdiction that deal with violations of the federal civil and criminal statuses. The second case that I found is about a Co-defendant in 1998 murder case takes plea deal. The defendant charged with being party to the first-degree murder of Chad McLean in 1998 is only going to spend a year or less in prison for his role in the Green Bay teen’s death. He accepted a plea deal and was convicted of being party to first-degree reckless endangerment and one count of perjury. When he made the plea deal he had been scheduled for trial that week for two counts of perjury and one count of first-degree intentional homicide...
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...Assignment 2: Trials and Verdicts Robert Cochran CRJ 100 – Intro to Criminal Justice Professor Karina Arzumanova Strayer University June 1, 2014 Discuss one real-life criminal case, taken from current events, and identify the court that took jurisdiction. Explain why the court that took the case was the appropriate one for the particular circumstances. One of the most fundamental questions of law is whether a given court has jurisdiction to preside over a given case. A jurisdictional question may be broken down into three components: whether there is jurisdiction over the person, whether there is jurisdiction over the subject matter, and whether there is jurisdiction to render the particular judgment sought. Also there are different courts that have jurisdiction depending on the case. State courts have general jurisdiction, meaning that they can hear any controversy except those prohibited by their specific state laws. Federal courts have limited jurisdiction in that they can only hear cases that fall both within the scope defined by the United States Constitution. The criminal case I choose for this is the Boston Marathon bombing case against which Dzhokhar Tsarnaev killed three people and injured more than 260 during the Boston marathon on April 15, 2013 when he detonated a bomb close to the finish line (Valencia, 2014). In regards to jurisdiction and due to the seriousness and nature of the crimes, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged in the federal court system...
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...Trial and Verdict Arquisa Ross Dorothy Sliben Into to Criminal Justice 02/28/2015 Contentious Teacher Related Policies Moving From Legislatures to the Courts National teacher unions won a landmark victory in a California lawsuit last year that challenged tenure protections, a case that became the beginning of a national effort to roll back teacher tenure laws in state courts. Teaching professions are shifting from legislative arenas to the courts giving judges the chance to make decisions that could shape the way teachers are hired, fired, and paid. Lawsuits show that two of the nation’s most contentious battles over the teaching professions. Now some of the largest unions in the country are using similar tactics to end test based evaluations, teachers say that they are arbitrary and unfair. Teachers are turning to the courts to fight for one of their most pressing interests. A lot of the teachers have come together stating that there’s nothing wrong with teacher evaluations when done right. President of the National Education Association the nation’s largest teachers union which has helped argue the case in Florida and Tennessee. Many of the lawsuits says that were widespread errors in the new evaluations because of a rushed rollout and faulty data including incomplete or wrong test scores and some teachers were docked due to absences which should’ve been protected under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. Many of the teachers has stepped up and said “ It’s...
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...asked to decide whether the defendant was guilty or not and to rate their certainty of belief in the defendant's guilt. Jurors were more certain of the guilt of the defendant when the plaintiff was attractive than when he was unattractive. Plaintiff attractiveness significantly affected female jurors’ verdicts when the defendant was unattractive, but not when she was attractive. With male jurors, plaintiff attractiveness significantly affected their verdicts when the defendant was attractive, but not when she was unattractive. Female jurors were more likely than male jurors to conclude that sexual harassment did take place, but only when the litigants were different in attractiveness. Effects of Physical Attractiveness When Evaluating a Male Employee’s Allegation of Sexual Harassment by his Female Employer Physically attractive people are perceived in a more positive fashion than are the physically unattractive (Dion, Berscheid, & Walster, 1972). This stereotype has been shown to lead to more lenient sentencing of attractive defendants than of unattractive defendants, in both simulated and actual trials (Mazella & Feingold, 1994; Stewart, 1980). In simulated rape trials, attractive defendants are sentenced more leniently than unattractive defendants, and defendants accused of raping an unattractive victim are less...
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...The Art of Persuasion By Eric Pratt English 1010 Eric Pratt English 1010 Tues, Thurs 09/28/2010 The Art of Persuasion The film “Twelve Angry Men” is a good resource when analyzing methods of persuasion. In this film a jury meets together to give the verdict of a murder trial. With the evidence presented in court there was no reasonable doubt among the jurors, except one, that the young man on trial killed his father. It was juror number 8, also known as Davis, who was hesitant at putting someone to death without talking about it. In a room where everyone is on the defense of proving the other wrong Davis was able to gather his own army out of those that were not even on his side in defense of the boy whose life was on the line. This film displays perfect examples of persuasion like admitting that one can be wrong and displaying information in a timely and organized manner. On the other hand it also displays bad examples of persuasion like losing one’s temper and not listening to everything one has to say. Despite the good and bad methods of persuasion used by Davis and his fellow jurors, it still turned out to be the best strategy of convincing everyone on the jury in this film to his way of thinking. Throughout the movie Davis demonstrated that he wasn’t sure if he was guilty or not. He had a reasonable doubt that he was guilty, but was still unsure of his innocence. In the beginning of the movie he was asked, “So you think he’s innocent?” He responded, “I...
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...In 12 Angry Men the movie it can be observed the different methods of influence that a person uses to impact the behaviors of others. This is a case in which a decision was apparent to be reached easily, all the jurors would presume the defendant guilty of murdering his father, but only one takes an exception and votes as not guilty. It is necessary that all jurors vote unanimously for a verdict to be reached, and when juror #8 votes non-guilty, he forces all jurors to discuss the case. All jurors are against reviewing the case, but in the end sit down to discuss. Each juror is to explain why they believe the person is guilty, trying to convince juror#8 to vote “guilty.” In the end all that juror #8 wishes is that the decision is not reached hastily, as it is a man’s life that they hold in their hands The first influence methods that can be found in the movie is Consultation - asking and otherwise involving others. This method can be observed when juror #1 states: “you fellas can handle this thing any way you want to, I am not making any rules, well we can discuss it first and then vote on it or well vote right now.” Juror #1 takes the initiative of taking leadership of the group, and asks, and involves others in the best way to reach a decision for this case in a fair and organized manner. A second method found in the movie is Ingratiating - Praising before requesting - it can be seen when Juror #4 discusses the facts of why the kid is a murderer using the evidence shown...
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...possibility of many different verdicts including one from a criminal court stand point. In July 1997, Geneva Hager, an Allstate policyholder was involved in a rear end auto accident resulting in neck and back injuries. The claimant’s auto insurance paid out to Allstate and Ms Hager, his policy limit of 25,000 for body injury. Therefore in December 1999, her claim was closed with Allstate and her injuries had been compensated as from Allstate’s point of view. However, Ms Hager disagreed, she retain an attorney and filed a lawsuit against Allstate stating that they did not handle her claim in bad faith per the insurance contract. She proclaimed the claim process was prolonged in order to make her accept a low settlement for her body injuries. Ms Hager and her attorney demanded 475 million dollars for mental anguish and 950 million in punitive damages to be paid out (Orbitz, 2007). Ms Hager’s attorney gathered information about Allstate policy contract also with some replicas of their claims handling manuals to build their case. Allstate did the same by reviewing Ms Hager‘s claim and several similar ones to ensure the claim handling process was followed, along with a copy of Ms Hager current policy with them. The case was taken to civil court based on the nature of the dispute to be heard by a jury of Ms. Hager’s Peers. Each party present their cases with supporting documents included. Ms. Hager medical records were also presented in the trial in which served as a major determining...
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...INTRO: Twelve Angry Men, Reginald Rose’s remarkable 1954 play, portrays the trial of the accused, a 16 year old boy from the slums of New York, who will face death as a result of a guilty verdict. Consequently, twelve jurors attempt coming to a unanimous decision. Although justice is ultimately secured, prejudice is an evident theme in the play. Twelve Angry Men explores personal prejudice in the justice system by revealing how preconception overwhelms the juror’s ability to see reason, by the jurors presenting opinions rather than evidence and by demonstrating stereotypical qualities which threatens to derail the process. PARA 1: Preconception overwhelms the juror’s ability to see reason. The defendant was at a serious disadvantage and was a victim of prejudice even before the court case. The majority of the jurors were ready to convict the accused, not purely due to the arguments presented by the prosecution but due to the 16 year old being a member of a low societal ranking. Many of the men enter the jury room with preconceived opinions and irrational ideas. For example, the 3rd Juror is against the accused due to an unhealthy relationship with his own son. This is demonstrated when he exclaims ‘I know him. What they’re like. What they do to you. How they kill you every day.’ Therefore the 3rd juror fails provide his arguments to the rest of the jury because his decision is based on emotions. Rose demonstrated the importance of keeping an open-mind rather than of holding...
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...Twelve Angry Men This play is about twelve jurors who are to decide the verdict of a 19 year old boy who is accused of killing his father. The jurors go into a room with the foreman to talk about the case and decide on a verdict. The vote has to be unanimous either guilty or not guilty for the case to end. To start the deciding, the jurors decide to take a preliminary vote to see where they stand. After counting the ballots the vote is 11 to 1, guilty. Juror number eight is the one who votes not guilty. The reason that juror eight voted not guilty was because he was not sure that the boy was guilty and he wanted to talk about it. One of the jurors decided to take a minute for each juror to tell their side of the story and what they personally think about the case. After a lot of main points were made such as there being two of the identical knives, the woman in her apartment saying she saw the murder take place through the window of the El train, and how the old man said that he heard the boy say that he was going to kill his father and then went to his door to see the boy run down the stairs. After all of this has taken place they decide to take another vote. The verdict is still 11 to 1 in the favor of guilty. Juror eight is now going over the time periods of when the woman said she saw the murder. Juror eight is also trying to explain how the man could not have seen the boy run down the stairs because the old man would not have had enough time to get out of bed. After juror...
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...process where the common goal is to try to reach a unanimousconclusion. The paper will cover the range of bargaining and negotiation styles used among thegroup of men whose personalities add to the intensity of the conflict. This paper will skillfullyfollow the influence weapons and negotiation fouls of each Juror one by one as the negotiationflows from nearly a unanimous guilty verdict to an absolutely unanimous non-guilty verdict. Juror #1Either through volunteering or chronological delegation, juror #1 was the foreman of the groupand tasked with leading the discussion, which quickly turns into a quite interesting negotiation.He was not very assertive, especially when it came to his role of authority, offering to give it upto anyone that would want it. He was however, highly cooperative, making sure the trial wasfair and all the other jurors were heard. Overall he was non-resistant and had anaccommodating negotiation style. His target point was running the trial based on how everyoneelse wanted to run it, which included an initial vote of guilty, and his reservation point wasreaching a verdict through a fair negotiation.When he firsts begins the negotiation he recommends voting...
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...man guilty or not-guilty of murdering his own father. In order for the men to fulfill their duty as jurors, they had to come to a consensus of whether the young man was guilty or not by working together, as a group, in order to analyze the trials evidence and testimonies, to then come to an agreement on the defendant’s guilt or innocence. As a group that was formed solely for the purpose of achieving a goal of determining someone’s guilt or innocence, the men face many of the challenges that come with having to deal with group communication, such as working with strangers, successfully interacting with them, and having uncooperative members, among other challenges involving the elements of group communication. First of all, the 12 individual members of the group of jurors had to move past the awkwardness that comes with primary tension. In accordance to Tuckman’s Group Development Stages, during the jurors forming stage many of the jurors seemed to feel uncomfortable working with the other members of the jury. Some of the members were evidently uninterested in even working with the group to achieve the group’s goal. For example, Juror 7 and Juror 12 were the most expressive of their lack of interest as Juror 7 just wanted to get a verdict in so that he would be able to go to his much anticipated baseball game, while Juror 12 would started with talking about topics that were off task, clearly showing that he was not taking the case very seriously. Furthermore, it didn’t help...
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...Summary The play is set in a New York City Court of Law jury room in 1957. The play opens to the empty jury room, and the Judge’s voice is heard, giving a set of final instructions to the jurors. We learn that this is a murder case and that, if found guilty, the mandatory sentence for the accused is the death penalty. After these instructions, the jurors enter. The men file in and decide to take a short break before deliberating. They complain that the room is hot and without air-conditioning; even the fan doesn’t work. All the jurors presume the obvious guilt of the defendant, whom we learn has been accused of killing his father. Eventually, the twelve sit down and a vote is taken. All of the jurors vote “guilty,” except for the 8th Juror, who votes “not guilty,” which, due to the requirement of a unanimous jury, forces them to discuss the case. The jurors react violently against this dissenting vote. Ultimately, they decide to go around the table, explaining why they believe the boy to be guilty, in hopes of convincing 8th Juror. Through this discussion we learn the following facts about the case: an old man living beneath the boy and his father testified that he heard upstairs a fight, the boy shouting, “I’m gonna kill you,” a body hitting the ground, and then he saw the boy running down the stairs. The boy claimed he had been at the movies while his father was murdered, but couldn’t remember the name of the movies or who was in them. A woman living across the street...
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...12 Angry Men PROC 5840, Negotiations, Midterm Case Analysis Table of Contents Table of Contents……………………………………………………….……………………………….…2 Character Listing…………………………………………………………………………………………...3 Major Case Issues…………………………………………………………………………………………..5 Analysis of Juror Number Eight……………………………………………………………………………7 Analysis of Juror Number Four…………………………………………………………………………...13 Analysis of Juror Number Nine…………………………………………………………………………...17 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………………….19 12 Angry Men Character Listing Juror Number One (Martin Balsam): The jury foreman, he got off to a shaky start. However, he took his role seriously and facilitates voting. He was generally passive. Outside of the jury room he was an assistant high school football coach. Juror Number Two (John Fielder): This shy bank clerk was initially reluctant to participate and seemed intimidated by other jurors. Although he exhibited a tendency toward avoidance, eventually he contributed to the discussion. His opinion was easily swayed and he appeared to parrot other jurors. Juror Number Three (Lee J. Cobb): This small business owner shared the story of his turbulent relationship with his own son. He was aggressive and confrontational, using hard bargaining tactics such as intimidation, threats, and insults to influence others. He was the last juror to change his mind. Juror Number Four (E.G. Marshall): A calm, rational, and self-assured stockbroker, he concentrated...
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