...Small Town (2006) is a nonfiction book written by John Grisham, and his first outside the legal fiction genre. The book tells the story of Ronald 'Ron' Keith Williamson of Ada, Oklahoma, a former minor league baseball player who was wrongly convicted in 1988 for the rape and murder of Debra Sue Carter in Ada and was sentenced to death. After serving 11 years on death row, he was exonerated by DNA evidence and other material introduced by the Innocence Project and was released in 1999. Contents * 1 Synopsis * 2 Book edition * 3 References * 4 External links | Synopsis Ron Williamson has returned to his hometown of Ada, Oklahoma after multiple failed attempts to play for various minor league baseball teams, including the Fort Lauderdale Yankees and two farm teams owned by the Oakland A's. An elbow injury inhibited his chances to progress. His big dreams were not enough to overcome the odds (less than 10 percent) of making it to a big league game. His failures lead to, or aggravate, his depression and problem drinking.[1] Early in the morning of December 8, 1982, the body of Debra Sue Carter, a 21-year-old cocktail waitress, was found in the bedroom of her garage apartment in Ada. She had been beaten, raped and suffocated. After five years of false starts and shoddy police work by the Ada police department, Williamson—along with his "drinking buddy", Dennis Fritz—were...
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...Skinner v. State of Oklahoma, In relation of Williamson, 316 U.S. 535 (1942), was the United States Supreme Court ruling that held that laws permitting the compulsory sterilization of criminals are unconstitutional if the sterilization law treats similar crimes differently. The relevant Oklahoma law applied to "habitual criminals," but the law excluded white-collar crimes from carrying sterilization penalties. The Court held that treating similar crimes differently violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause took effect in 1868, it simply states that no state can deny to any person within its jurisdiction “the equal protection of the laws”, which guaranteed that all people would have rights equal to those of all citizens. Basically that all citizens would be treated equally in all aspects, that it was their right as an American....
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...Case Study 1: Prioritizing Projects at D.D. Williamson HRM 517 – Managing Human Resource projects Strayer University June 21, 2013 What was the Prioritization Issue at D.D. Williamson? In the case study of D.D. Williamson, it appeared the organization was successful in many ventures, but lacked the ability to manage certain projects. In fact, critical projects that required attention were left to the waste side, and as a result lead to missed opportunities, or resulted in going over the allocated budget. Within the organization of D.D. Williamson, there appeared to have been a breakdown in communication, which blinded the organization in determining projects that needed the most attention. Through the process of the organization’s investigation, which took approximately three years, leaders realized the they had no accurate system in place for marking the level of importance in each of their projects. In researching the writings of Kloppenborg, Nkomo, Fottler, and McAffee (2012), D.D. Williamson would have benefited from utilizing a project management team, whom would have identified the scope of the project, cost, and taken ownership of the schedule from start to finish. D.D. Williamson would have benefited from having developed a well-rounded project team, or several teams could have managed each project independently. Furthermore, each team could have managed the project based on the urgency of each project, the cost, and the practical details concerning...
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...estate to pay a claim against the estate from personal funds to be written in a contract. Moore’s widow may have promised to pay the debt that her deceased husband owed Lawrence but without a written contract stating that she would pay her husband’s debt the promise cannot be enforced. The promise cannot be enforced unless it is evidenced by a writing. Lawrence does not have a defense because Moore’s promise to pay the debt was not written down in a contract and her promise was nothing more than a moral obligation. 5. Boeing and the contractor assured Freitag that he would get paid. Moreover, this isn’t a contract that the statute of frauds requires to be evidenced in writing. Therefore, the oral contract can be enforced. Additionally, this case is about the performance of work and there was an explicit promise that Freitag would be paid for his work. Moreover, in every contract, there is an implied obligation that neither party shall do anything that will have the effect of destroying or injuring the right of the other party to receive the fruits of the contract. In addition, there was an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. This is an ethical issue because Boeing and the contractor were trying to get out of paying Freitag for his work. They’re unethical because they promised to pay Freitag and now they’re raising the defense that they actually don’t have to pay him because it wasn’t in writing. They’re also not practicing good faith and fair dealing. I would rule in...
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...related to the economic theory existing at that time. The differences between the perception of a firm or company and its correspondence in the real world have been assessed, making an empirical analysis of possible attributes that can influence their development in close relation to its internal factors and, and the market interactions as well. Following Coase’s study “The Nature of The Firm”, many other economic papers and theories have emerged in the next decades, leading to the development of different concepts like TCE, vertical boundaries of a company, interactions between company and market and optimal decision for the “make or buy” dilemma as it is mentioned also by (Lafontaine and Slade 2007). Contributions of Coase and Williamson The basics for TCE development have been defined by Coase (1937), making an argumentation in favor of lower possible cost of assessing some activities within a company rather than acquiring them from the market by a set of more costly transaction. Also, he has argued that preferential treatments a firm can get from external environments (like governments), combined with the possibility of reducing the market exchange transaction costs (by directing some resources through a defined organization) can be seen as the main reason for a firm to exist and grow. The dilemma of efficiency versus variable size of a company was also mentioned in his studies with respect to the monopoly avoidance. Clarifying also the differences between initiative...
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...Question: How would you justify spending time and money on a business analysis of your company? Can such an exercise really pay off in ways that make it worth the effort? Analysis, as summed up from my readings, can be regarded as a clinical and structured decomposition of a subject into its constituent parts with the aim of acquiring salient information and deeper understanding of the said subject and to offer robust solutions for improvements. It is thus a process that is inherently iterative and involves, as proffered by Williamson et al., (2004), lots of research to gain deeper insight into the business which encompasses all aspects of the business and its environment. In short, it is a holistic process that unearths the secrets of the business and identifies areas needing attention. It thus seeks to find answers to questions like where is the business now, what does it do and how does it do it, where does it want to go and how can this be achieved (Williamson et al., 2004). Yes, it consumes time and money but insights so garnered from the analytical process leading to formation of strategies will give the business a favourable competitive position and superior profitability. To reduce time and money spent, analytical tools are used to aid in the process, besides bringing structure to it. Note here that only the right necessary tools are used, as a few too many tools might derail and probably bring the process to nought. One cannot overemphasize the value of undertaking...
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...Case Study 1: Prioritizing Projects at D.D. Williamson Crystal D. Dr. Donny Bagwell Managing Human Resources Projects: HRM 517 October 27, 2013 Introduction D.D. Williamson implemented a new process for project prioritization that included focusing on the vision and impact of projects and narrowing down projects by selecting the ones of high importance and assigning them to senior management teams. I will attempt to critique that process, recommend an improvement for the process, provide a scenario of why the process could possibly not be successful, and project if the process will still be successful in five years. Critiquing D.D. Williamson Project Prioritization The prioritization process at D. D. Williamson is a great improvement opposed to the previous prioritization process that was implemented. I believe that D.D. Williamson was able to finally overcome challenges after years of not having a successful process in place. Cutting down the amount of projects from 60 to 16 was a smart plan that in return helped D.D. Williamson not to go over budget, increase the success rate to over 60 percent of projects finishing close to the expected completion date, and earn better results. This process also helped to move forward the most critical projects of high importance. Simplifying the criteria ratings also helped to narrow down projects and prioritize them. By selecting a new criteria rating and focusing on the Vision Impact Projects (VIPs), it made...
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...Sloman et al, (2010: 35) defines firms as ‘An economic organization that coordinates the process of production and distribution’. In addition, ‘Firms are arranged frameworks relating people, things, knowledge, and technologies, in a design intended to achieve specific goals’ (Clegg et al, 2011). The main concept behind firms is to transform the input into outputs (Sloman et al, 2013). To give out a few examples of firms in different production lines for instance as clothes, cars, phones and others such as Apple and Samsung, H&M and Gucci, BMW and General Motors. According to Coase (as cited in Formaini, R and Siems, T, 2003) the firms are responsible for production and distribution of goods and services and firms are of upmost importance because they reduce the transaction costs which would usually cost a lot more if carried out by an individual compared to the firm. We will discuss transaction costs in greater details; however, it’s also important to know how firms are organized and how they operate. Firms are organized and they operate in different manners and ways for instance, goods and services they produce, the industries they are located in, the size of the operating firm, and the legal structure of the firm. The legal framework of the firm is very important and will have an impact on its performance, production and operations and thus we will be concentrating on it in order to exemplify the classification of firms in different ways. In the UK, there are several...
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...Analysis of the Case R&R Date: September 28th, 2011 Bob Reiss was an entrepreneur. He saw an opportunity in the market to make a profit and he succeeded. The following describes his market transactions and whether they were right or wrong using transaction cost economics theories. I will use Oliver Williamson’s theories and rules to decide whether the transactions were correct. At the end I will have enough information to decide if every opportunity needs a firm and if there is room for entrepreneurs who depend on the price mechanism. Reiss’s first major market transaction was designing the game. He took this to the market and found a professional inventor, whom he knew. This was the right decision. This game only needed to be designed once. The frequency was low. Therefore there was no point in wasting time and incurring the costs of creating it. Also this product was unique. He would not have been able to create it as simply as the market, which had more experience. Since Reiss knew the designer the uncertainty of him defaulting on the contract was very low. He also knew that the designer would be motivated to complete the project because he aligned their interests together through a sales motivated contract. Next was Reiss’s responsibility to set up operations to take the game to market. He didn’t have the cash flow to do this. Instead of raising the money himself he established a partnership to create the firm Trivia Inc and went to the market...
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...Analysis of the Case R&R Bob Reiss was an entrepreneur. He saw an opportunity in the market to make a profit and he succeeded. The following describes his market transactions and whether they were right or wrong using transaction cost economics theories. I will use Oliver Williamson’s theories and rules to decide whether the transactions were correct. At the end I will have enough information to decide if every opportunity needs a firm and if there is room for entrepreneurs who depend on the price mechanism. Reiss’s first major market transaction was designing the game. He took this to the market and found a professional inventor, whom he knew. This was the right decision. This game only needed to be designed once. The frequency was low. Therefore there was no point in wasting time and incurring the costs of creating it. Also this product was unique. He would not have been able to create it as simply as the market, which had more experience. Since Reiss knew the designer the uncertainty of him defaulting on the contract was very low. He also knew that the designer would be motivated to complete the project because he aligned their interests together through a sales motivated contract. Next was Reiss’s responsibility to set up operations to take the game to market. He didn’t have the cash flow to do this. Instead of raising the money himself he established a partnership to create the firm Trivia Inc and went to the market to gain the funding. His new partner...
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...With these developments, it is obvious that conflicts between parties of different nationalities occur and liability to tax on income of foreigners especially among those engaging in trading venture. Whilst the laws affecting domicile and residence may be sufficiently settled, it is paramount for courts to pursue a detailed analysis to ascertain specific preliminary issues so as to avoid controversial rulings. Courts often handle numerous financial cases that involve what can be best described as foreign or international elements. In such cases, court must decide whether it has the jurisdiction under the Family Law Act 1975 to make a decision on such cases. In the event that it is determined that the court is invested with the jurisdiction to determine the case, the court has to consider whether there is a system of law in foreign country that also has the jurisdiction to handle the case. As it was addressed in the case Attorney General of New Zealand v Ortiz [1984] AC 1, these benefits and costs to either party if the case resolution is made in foreign country as compared with the apparent country should also be a subject of concern. [1] Legal systems in most countries around the world adopt community property regime, which takes effect at the inception of marriage or at the time of divorce. For instance, California and Massachusetts in the United States have adopted community property regimes that support equal division of assets upon divorce. However, this provision...
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...Adapted from Bernhardt & Kinnear (1988). Cases in marketing management, pp. 6-16. Plano, TX: Business Publications, Inc. Pay careful attention to the following points. They are often used by instructors to evaluate either a written or oral analysis. 1. Be complete. Each area of the situation analysis must be discussed, problems and opportunities identified, alternative presented and evaluated using the situation analysis and relevant financial analysis, and a decision must be made. An analysis that omits part of the situation analysis or only recognizes one alternative is not a good analysis. Second, each area must be covered in-depth and within insight. 2. Avoid rehashing case facts. Every case has a lot of factual information. A good analysis uses facts that are relevant to the situation at hand to make summary points of analysis. A poor analysis just restates or rehashes theses facts without making relevant summary comments. 3. Make reasonable assumptions. Every case is incomplete in terms of some piece of information that you would like to have. A good case analysis must make realistic assumptions to fill in the gaps of information in the case. For example, the case may not describe the purchase decision process for the product of interest. A poor analysis would either omit mentioning this or just state that no information is available. A good analysis would attempt to present this purchase decision process by classifying the product and drawing upon real life...
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...are given. It is understandable then that we should seek out more opportunities to apply our skills and make more positive impacts within our jurisdictions. It is this general attitude that led us to get involved in investigating cold cases. How We Got Started Mark had, for several years, been consulting with our Coroner’s Division as a forensic anthropologist. During this time he came to learn that there were numerous coroners’ cases in which the identity of the decedent was unknown. These cases were kept in three-ring binders on a shelf in the Sergeant’s office. Over the years, in the course of this forensic work, we would discuss these cases and the progress that was being made on them. The conversation usually ran along the lines of us asking “any luck with that 1980 homicide victim?” and the sergeant answering “well, we’ve gotten so many new cases that I haven’t been able to even look at it yet.” This went on for a few years and through two different sergeants. One day we, as a crime analysis unit, were brainstorming about how we could broaden our “client base”, as it were. We had been successful in integrating ourselves into our Investigations Bureau and had been involved in numerous major cases. And, of course, we had always been active in producing tactical and strategic analyses for our patrol personnel. But we knew that we could be doing more, particularly given the size and responsibilities of our agency. It was during...
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...BUSINESS CASE Presented to the Accountancy Department De La Salle University In partial fulfillment Of the course requirements In ACCTBA2 (C33) March 2, 2015 A stakeholder is typically concerned with an organization delivering intended results and meeting its financial objectives. In general, a stakeholder can be one of two types: internal (from within an organization) or external (outside of an organization). The stakeholders in this situation are Lanie Marquez and Tim Rodriguez who are also partners in the retail distribution business and their capital contributions are as follows P500,000 and P300,000 respectively they are an internal stakeholder since they are also the owners. The total Capital of both stakeholders is P800,000 and with a monthly salary for both partners at P15,000 on the assumption that both of them will contribute to manage the business equally. Assuming that both managed the business equally the total salary for the year for Lanie and Tim are P180,000 each. They share profit and loss equally and no interest will be given on capital contributed. The problem for this situation is that Lanie is starting to get concerned with the behavior of her other partner Tim. He only manages the business 50% of the time, which will mean that his salary of P15,000 will need to decrease by also 50% since he does not manage the business equally with his partner. The business has seen a downturn in the profit outcome and for the current financial...
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...Ralph’s Grocery and United Food and Commercial Workers Union The case that I chose for the week 6 critical thinking assignment concerns Ralph’s Grocery Company, located in California. It applies to this week’s material due to the fact that the case involves unlawful suspension and discharge of an employee, as reviewed by the National Labor Relations Board. Background In May 2011, Vittorio Razi was an employee at Ralph’s Grocery and was suspended and terminated after he refused to take a drug test without first consulting with his UFCW Local 324 representative. The company (Respondent) says that on the day in question, Razi’s behavior was in question, acting nervous, anxious, agitated, and slurred speech. After a couple managers discussed the...
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