Murder on a Sunday Morning Murder on a Sunday morning is a documentary of an unfortunate mishap with the legal justice system that happens one of many times. In Jacksonville, Florida the year of 2001, May 8th there was a horrific scenery at Ramada hotel. A women named Mary Ann Stevens and her husband were tourists, while leaving their room early Sunday morning around 9AM a gunshot fatally killed Mary Ann and ended the couple’s vacation. When cops arrived at the scene and investigated they took notes on what the suspect looked like from the husband, “ The suspect is skinny black male dark shorts unknown shirt on foot running south bound…. Fishlike hat on.”- cop at the scene. When the cops were driving around they’ve spotted an African American …show more content…
This is when I had known that the criminal justice system had mad various errors with this case. For instance the only evidence that the police had, had at the time was a description of the suspect, from the victim’s husband whose adrenaline level was very high. In my opinion when a traumatic thing just occurred I think it would of been best to of asked the eye witness what the suspect had looked like multiple times and giving a good length time period between when I asked. As well as when they arrested Brenton, the first mistake I noticed was how they claimed they found/captured the murderer of Mary Ann Stevens right away. The second mistake I noticed was how they asked the victim’s husband if Brenton Butler was the one who had pulled the trigger killing his wife. Now usually from what I’ve seen when police want someone to be identified the police do a couple things: 1. Capture Multiple people and 2. Have them stand in a police station while the witness picks out who he/she suspects was the suspect. Now the police did not do that, they captured one suspect and had him sit in the back of a cop car while the eye witness, which in this case was Mary Ann’s husband, judge from a distance to see if that was the boy who killed his wife. Additionally when they made that arrest my immediate question was why did the forensic team in which ever unit test Brenton Butler hands and clothes for gun
On May 7th 2000, fifteen year old Brenton Butler was accused of the murder of Mary Ann Stephens, who had been fatally shot in the head while walking down a breezeway of a hotel with her husband. Two and a half hours later, Butler is seen walking a mile away from where the incident occurred, and is picked up by the police because he fit the description of the individual who shot Mary Ann Stephens. However, the only characteristic of the description that Butler featured was the color of his skin. Police then brought Butler to the scene of the crime in order for Mary Ann Stephens’s husband, James Stephens, to confirm whether or not Butler was the individual who had shot his wife. Almost immediately, Stephens identifies Butler as his wife’s killer.
The book Murder in the Bayou: Who Killed the Women Known as the Jeff Davis 8?, written by independent journalist and private investigator Ethan Brown, tells the horrific true story of the bayou town of Jennings, Louisiana located in the heart of the Jefferson Davis parish. During the four year duration between 2005 and 2009, the town of Jennings was on edge after the discovery of the bodies of eight murdered women were found in the filthy canals and swamps. The victims became known as the “Jeff Davis 8.” For years, local law enforcement suspected a serial killer, and solely investigated the murders based on that theory alone. The victims were murdered in varying manors, but when alive they all shared many commonalities and were connected to
Alexandros Papadiamantis’ tale, The Murderess, is a riveting probe unto the juxtaposition of gender roles and a woman’s place as the matriarch of the family. Set in the Greek island of Skiathos during the 1900s, the community has manipulated typical societal standards in order to create a very androcentric ideal. Frankojannou, the decrepit soul that heads her family, is a woman bound by religion and her own suffering as a woman of society. Papadiamantis exposes the rigidity of gender roles through Frankojannou, or Hadoula, by allowing the reader the insight into her thoughts. Though Hadoula is bound by the same gender roles as any other woman in her society, her actions contradiction that of which are set by the community she resides in.
The Murderers Are Among Us, directed by Wolfe Gang Staudte, is the first postwar film. The film takes place in Berlin right after the war. Susan Wallner, a young women who has returned from a concentration camp, goes to her old apartment to find Hans Mertens living there. Hans took up there after returning home from war and finding out his house was destroyed. Hans would not leave, even after Susan returned home. Later on in the film we find out Hans was a former surgeon but can no longer deal with human suffering because of his traumatic experience in war. We find out about this traumatic experience when Ferdinand Bruckner comes into the film. Bruckner, Hans’ former captain, was responsible for killing hundreds
Murder at the Margin is a murder mystery involving various economic concepts. The story takes place in Cinnamon Bay Plantation on the Virgin Island of St. John. It is about Professor Henry Spearman, an economist from Harvard. Spearman organizes an investigation of his own using economic laws to solve the case.
The issue here I believe is with the justice system itself and not the direct actions of the prosecution or the police involved. The blame isn’t really so easy to point out honestly. If anyone is to blame at all it would be the people who tampered with the crime scene and the potential failure/inability of the police in preserving the scene if it was possible.
The sentencing of underage criminals has remained a logistical and moral issue in the world for a very long time. The issue is brought to our perspective in the documentary Making a Murderer and the audio podcast Serial. When trying to overcome this issue, we ask ourselves, “When should juveniles receive life sentences?” or “Should young inmates be housed with adults?” or “Was the Supreme Court right to make it illegal to sentence a minor to death?”. There are multiple answers to these questions, and it’s necessary to either take a moral or logical approach to the problem.
“Murder on a Sunday morning” is a documentary based on the African American teenager named Brenton Butler, who was convicted of shooting an elderly white woman. As the police found Brenton 90 minutes later, he was brought straight to the victim’s husband who was the only witness during the shooting, and said yes that him, leading to the wrongful conviction of Brenton Butler. There are many factors that led to the wrongful conviction of Brenton Butler, faulty eyewitness identification, weapon focus, and own-bias during the police procedure.
The topic at hand for both of these stories is simple, but has many opinions. That being a black man was accused as a murder/murder accomplice and was put on trial for it. Both, Monster and Murder on a Sunday Morning, deal with racial issues and being judged for the color of their skin; their cases are very similar but also have some key differences.
Both cases have similar charges. Both of the men are young and black and are accused of murder while attempting to rob the victims. Both crimes were committed in a public place with a witness point to the jury they both should be pleaded guilty. An example from the novel, Monster the crime took place at a drugstore. In the documentary, “Murder on A Sunday Morning,” the crime took place at a motel on an early Sunday morning. They both consist of racism by either the jury or the police. From the novel Monster the jury was just looking at Steve Harmon and already assuming him guilty not even listening to the story that goes behind the crime. In the documentary “Murder on A Sunday Morning” the police men were taking Brenton Butler as a suspect for the crime because he was walking on the sidewalk when the crime happened. Both men were pleaded not guilty and then the actual killer came forward and confessed to the
Police also had fingerprints from the buick the was used in the South Braintree crime. But the fingerprints didn’t match and the police instead questioned them on their religion, political beliefs and associates, instead of the crime. The prosecutors used witnesses, but the witness accounts made no sense. Meaning it didn’t match the descriptions of the men and the stories weren’t the same and had loopholes. One witness said she saw the shooting from 60 feet away and said one of the men, which she said was Sacco, had big hands but he had small hands.
If you were in this situation how would you feel? If you're patiently waiting for your husband to come home and you give him a kiss as he returns. As he walks and talks little to you then he puts it out there like it’s nothing. Would you cry or would you be shocked? would you fight or would you fall ? tell how you would feel if you were like mary maloney were your husband's going to leave you like he left her. I think that mary maloney is innocent because her husband was a cruel and not very kind man. Not only was he having an affair with another woman he was disrespectful to her he yelled at her and how do we not know he wasn't abusive to her. His fellow officers called him a “lady's man”. I think that mary should not be convicted of murder.
One of the most interesting pieces of data that my research has turned up is a very compelling, meticulously researched, and extremely detailed forensic analysis by Brent Turvey, MS, of the crime, along with a psychological profile of the possible killers. It is attached to this essay in its entirety. The main conclusions of this analysis are in marked contrast to the conclusions reached by the Arkansas investigative authorities. Among the more significant are the following:
Recently, I started reading a series of books written by Agatha Christie. This particular book was called the ABC Murders. The book was set in England, the main character being a man by the name of Hercule Poirot. He is a world famous Belgian detective. The plot is centered around a series of murders that take place in different towns beginning with specific letters. For example, the first murder occurred in Andover and the name of the woman murdered was Alice Ascher, thus the next murder happened in Bexhill and Betty Barnard was the victim. I liked how this book had a surprising storyline, the story switched between first and third person and how the story used humor to make the book better.
Michael Sanders, a Professor at Harvard University, gave a lecture titled “Justice: What’s The Right Thing To Do? The Moral Side of Murder” to nearly a thousand student’s in attendance. The lecture touched on two contrasting philosophies of morality. The first philosophy of morality discussed in the lecture is called Consequentialism. This is the view that "the consequences of one 's conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness or wrongness of that conduct.” (Consequentialism) This type of moral thinking became known as utilitarianism and was formulated by Jeremy Bentham who basically argues that the most moral thing to do is to bring the greatest amount of happiness to the greatest number of people possible.