Miscarriage of Justice

Arguably three of the most sensational criminal trials in American history are the Commonwealth vs. Borden, California vs. Simpson and Los Angeles vs. Rodney King. All three of these cases received unprecedented amounts of media attention and verdicts from the jury that shocked the country. In my opinion justice, especially social and moral justice, was not achieved in these trials. Social class, race and gender all had a huge impact on the jury’s decisions in each of these cases. High priced defense attorneys were able to place reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors despite the substantial amount of evidence proving the seemingly obvious guilt of Borden, Simpson and the Los Angeles Police department. This paper will focus on these criminal trials and the fact that justice or moral rightness was not achieved by the outcome of the jury verdicts.

The trial of Lizzie Borden, in June of 1893, captivated the nation. It was covered extensively in newspapers throughout the country probably, in part, because it was extremely rare for a woman to commit a horrific act such as the one she was accused of. Being from a wealthy family that outwardly seemed happy and normal, made it very difficult for people to believe that a woman with her background could be responsible for the bludgeoning death of her father Andrew Borden, a predominate member of town, and her stepmother Abby Borden. The police, however, came to the conclusion that the Borden’s murderer must have been someone within the home since the house was otherwise untouched, nothing was missing and there was no sign of any commotion. The only person having both the motive and opportunity to commit these murders was Thirty three year old Lizzie Borden.

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...ing was awarded a 3.8 million dollar settlement. This case, however, will surely haunt the LAPD indefinitely and caused further contention between an already distrusting, leery minority population and law enforcement.

In conclusion, these extraordinary criminal trials hold their place in history as some of the most palpable miscarriages of justice. In all three cases, it is almost impossible to comprehend the enormity of the evidence convicting each of the defendants. These trials prove that people’s intrinsic preconceived notions regarding the way in which certain people are apt to behave can have more of an influence on an individual’s opinion than solid evidence. I believe the defendants discussed in this paper were guilty of the crimes brought against them. It is a shame that our court system allows procedure and regulation to take precedence over justice.