On August 23, 1980 in Conroe, Texas, is 40 miles north of Houston, a 16-year-old girl, Cheryl Fergeson, disappeared while searching for a women’s restroom at Conroe High School (Gores, 1991). Cheryl was the manager of the Bellville High girls’ volleyball team visiting Conroe High School for a preseason scrimmage. Later that day while searching for the girl two janitors, Clarence Brandley who is black, and Henry Peace who is white, found the girl’s body hidden under some scenery flats in the loft above the auditorium stage. Cheryl has been raped and strangled to death. Clarence and Henry were interrogated and made to sign statements. The two janitors were then taken to the hospital and made to give sperm, blood, and hair samples from their head …show more content…
He lied to Clarence’s defense attorney to get Clarence before the Grand Jury and then lied to the Grand Jury to get a murder indictment. He then lied to keep Clarence from getting bail. The last lie that the DA told was to prevent the defense from even getting access, as required by law, to any of the state’s evidence. The medical evidence that would have cleared Clarence was “lost." The original exhibits in Clarence’s two trials were "stolen." The medical examiner "forgot" the results of the dead girl 's autopsy, "mislaid" his notes and "threw out" the samples he had taken from her body (Gores, 1991). Texas Ranger John Styles terrorized witnesses whose testimony would have supported Clarence’s innocence, then coached the rest into telling outright lies. Styles also reversed the polygraph test supporting Clarence’s …show more content…
Faced with the sheriff’s stubbornness, Judge Lee Alworth promptly reversed himself and denied bail. The defense recused Judge Alworth and also the next two judges to sit in judgment on Clarence. One judge, John Martin, met DA Keeshan secretly in chambers each morning to fix what his rulings would be for that day in court. In early 1981, Clarence was transferred to death row in Huntsville State Prison (Gores, 1991). Only two stays won by the defense kept Clarence alive while on death row. In 1987, Judge Perry Pickett, the most senior district judge in Texas, finally allowed the defense, for the very first time, to present its evidence and to question those involved to convict Clarence of a murder he had not committed. In January 1989 the nine judges of the Texas Court of Appeals upheld Judge Pickett’s judgment. It took another year before Clarence walked out of prison a free
On June 19th of 1990, Robert Baltovich’s girlfriend Elizabeth Bain went missing. Elizabeth told her family that she was going to check the tennis schedules at her school, the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus. She never returned, but her car was eventually recovered. It was found with blood on the backseat, with forensic tests showing that it was Elizabeth’s. With no clear evidence, the “solving” of the case was completely based on eyewitness testimonies, which eventually had Robert arrested for the murder of his girlfriend.
It started as any ordinary day at Fowler Middle School, kids laughing and learning. But, at 8:51 AM, a classroom of students walked into a horrifying scene. Marilyn Tokzulott’s second-period class found their teacher dead on the floor behind her desk, murdered. Despite the many suspects, one stands out above all. Billy Plummer, the boyfriend of the victim's daughter, committed this murder. It is clear that the murderer was Mr.Plummer because of involvement in previous conflicts with Mrs. Tokzullot, presence at the crime scene and access to the murder weapon.
On the evening of Ms. Heggar¡¦s death she was alone in her house. Eddie Ray Branch, her grandson, testified that he visited his grandmother on the day that she was killed. He was there till at least 6:30 p.m. Lester Busby, her grandnephew, and David Hicks arrived while her grandson was still there and they saw him leave. They then went in to visit with Ms. Heggar. While they were there, Lester repaid Ms. Heggar 80 dollars, which he owed her. They left around 7:15 p.m. and went next door to a neighboring friend¡¦s house. David Hick¡¦s went home alone from there to get something but returned within ten minutes of leaving. Because he was only gone for 5-10 minutes, prosecution theorized TWO attacks on Ms. Heggar because he could not have killed his grandmother during this 5-10 minute period alone. At 7:30 p.m., 15 minutes after the two had left, an insurance salesman called to see Ms. Heggar. He knocked for about 2 or 3 minutes and got no reply. Her door was open but the screen door was closed. Her TV was on. He claimed to have left after about 5 minutes and then he returned the next morning. The circumstances were exactly the same. With concern, he went to the neighbor¡¦s house and called the police. His reasoning for being there was because the grandmother¡¦s family had taken out burial insurance three days before she had died.
Question 1: a) Donna Gamble is an Aboriginal woman who lives in her hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She is a former ward of the state and has spent a significant part of her youth inside juvenile correction centres. At a young age she started using drugs and alcohol as a form of escape and resorted to prostitution as a means of sustaining her habits. Donna has six children, all with the exception of the youngest two who were placed in the custody of child services. Donna has quit working as a prostitute and is currently on the road to recovery from years of addiction and abuse.
Michael Kirk and Peter J. Boyer. (2000, January 18). The killer at Thurston High. May 5, 2010, by FrontLine: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/kinkel/etc/script.html
The Atlanta missing and murdered children case is a series of murder cases which took place in Atlanta, Georgia between the periods of 1979-1981 during which 29 African- American children were murdered as well as young adults. The victims, mostly black Americans were found asphyxiated; some were believed to have been sexually abused. This terrifying string of murders left the city of Atlanta astonished and on high alert. Newspapers and TV reports about the case rattled the nation and reminded parents to keep a close eye over their children. Green ribbons, “symbolizing life” and green-lettered buttons reading, “SAVE THE CHILDREN,” appeared everywhere. Celebrities like Frank Sinatra, Muhammad Ali, James Baldwin, and Burt Reynolds came from all over the country to show support and donate money. President Ronald Reagan enabled a $1.5 million grants to help fund the investigation. Over the three years when victims started disappearing and later found murdered, the police questioned suspects without success. With leads in the case dwindling and no arrest in sight, Atlanta mayor Maynard Jackson enforced a 7pm curfew on the city of Atlanta’s children. The murderer at that time was referred to as “the child killer”. Most people believed the killings were conducted by racial hate groups such as the KKK. It was not until 21 June 1981 when a 23 year old, black man was charged for the first degree murder of two adults, 27 year old Nathaniel Cater and 22 year old Jimmy Ray Payne. Wayne B Williams was tried and sentenced to life imprisonment as he was also linked to the murder of the other victims (Nickell and Fischer 1999). The evidence against him was strong and it was used to link him to be the suspected perpetrator of the other At...
In the town, of West Memphis, Arkansas, three eight year old boys (Chris Byers, Michael Moore, and Stevie Branch) went missing May fourth, the following day they were found bruised, mutilated, hogtied, and stripped of their clothes with signs of rape present due to the dilation of the anus. The body of Byers was found submerged in the creek about 60 yards south of Interstate 55(Crime scene or dump site?). The other two bodies was located exactly five feet in both directions of Byers body. (It was determined that Moore and Branch both died from multiple traumatic injuries to the head, torso, and extremities with drowning; while, Byers died of the multiple traumatic i...
On the morning of July 4, 1954, Marilyn Sheppard was violently beaten in her home in Bay Village, Ohio, on the shore of Lake Erie. She was four months pregnant and had been felled by 35 vicious blows (Quade). Right away Sam Sheppard was accused of being the victim to do this. Sheppard had told investigators that he had been asleep downstairs and was awakened by his wife’s screams. Sheppard said when he went upstairs and entered the room he was knocked unconscious by the intruder. He denied any involvement and described his battle with the killer he described as “bushy-haired” (Linder). After a police investigation, Dr. Sam Sheppard was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. With the hectic media covering it, they were quick in decision that it was him that committed the murder. This was an unfair trial, ruined a man’s life, and gave him no time for a career.
Jennifer Stoker met face to face with Patricia Ferrer for the completion of her annual staffing. Also present at the meeting was Latonya Jennings the service provider. At the start of the meeting SC explained the purpose of the meeting. The planning team reviewed and discussed Patricia's Person Directed Plan. Patricia is her own Guardian. The planning team also reviewed and discussed Patricia's IPC. It was agreed that Patricia will receive Dental, Nursing, Day Habilitation, and Residential Support Services during her 2017-2018 plan year. In reviewing the plan, the team discussed all outcomes Patricia participated in the discussion of her PDP and agreed with all outcomes. Patricia attends Family Faith day habilitation center each week day.
There have been several cases in which eyewitness testimony led to the conviction of an innocent person. In one notable case, Raymond Towler was wrongly convicted in 1981 of the rape, kidnap, and assault of an 11-year old girl based on eyewitness testimony in which the victim and other witnesses identified him from a photo. Towler had been serving a life sentence and was released in 2010 after serving nearly 30 years until DNA evidence proved that he did not commit the rape (Sheeran, 2010). In another case, Kirk Bloodsworth was convicted and sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl near Baltimore in 1984. Five different eyewitnesses testified that they saw him at the scene of crime. After serving nine years in prison on death row, he was released and paid compensation after traces of semen found in the victim’s underwear excluded him as the person responsible for the crime. Although he was released, he was not formally exonerated for another decade until the real killer was found, Kimberly Shay Ruffner. Ruffner was already incarcerated for unrelated crimes and was identified after the DNA sample from the crime scene was added to state and federal databases and came back as a match for him. Despite the fact that Bloodsworth was a completely different height and weight than Ruffner, five eyewitnesses testified that they saw him at the murder scene (Marshall, 2009).
Sue Grafton once stated: “Except for cases that clearly involve a homicidal maniac, the police like to believe murders are committed by those we know and love, and most of the time they're right.” This is clearly the thought the Boulder Colorado police conceived in the case of little beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey. As many have observed from the onslaught of media coverage, the day after Christmas 1996, six year old Jon Benet Ramsey was found buried under a white blanket, bound, beaten, and strangled to death in the wine cellar of their Boulder home. With such a strikingly rare and glamorous story of a six year old beauty queen dead, who was a part of a “perfect American upper-middle class family”, combined with a lack of a lead and ever mounting suspicion piling up against the parents it was no surprise to find that it was fuel to the media and soon stories sold and became a matter of competition between the press. So, like wildfire, this heart-breaking story spread, stretching across the nation, shattering the souls of the world. News broadcasts, magazine and newspaper articles, and television specials all shaped and molded peoples perceptions of this beautiful child’s murder, especially her parents, John and Pasty Ramsey’s involvement or lack there of. The police and FBI’s merciless quest to connect Jon Benet’s murder to her parents, seemed to cause the them to overlook important evidence, or at the very least dismiss suspicious findings that would otherwise send red flags to investigators. There are many contributors as to why this case remains unsolved including lack of investigative expertise, failure to protect valuable evidence, and focusing too much on the parents as suspects but, ultimately, the over involvement of...
Rosa Lee Cunningham is a 52-year old African American female. She is 5-foot-1-inch, 145 pounds. Rosa Lee is married however, is living separately from her husband. She has eight adult children, Bobby, Richard, Ronnie, Donna (Patty), Alvin, Eric, Donald (Ducky) and one child who name she did not disclose. She bore her eldest child at age fourteen and six different men fathered her children. At Rosa Lee’s recent hospital admission to Howard University Hospital emergency room blood test revealed she is still using heroin. Though Rosa Lee recently enrolled in a drug-treatment program it does not appear that she has any intention on ending her drug usage. When asked why she no longer uses heroin she stated she doesn’t always have the resources to support her addiction. Rosa Lee is unemployed and receiving very little in government assistance. She appears to
The primary diagnosis for Amanda Anderson is separation anxiety disorder (SAD) with a co-morbidity of school phobia. Separation anxiety disorder is commonly the precursor to school phobia, which is “one of the two most common anxiety disorders to occur during childhood, and is found in about 4% to 10% of all children” (Mash & Wolfe, 2010, p. 198). Amanda is a seven-year-old girl and her anxiety significantly affects her social life. Based on the case study, Amanda’s father informs the therapist that Amanda is extremely dependent on her mother and she is unenthusiastic when separated from her mother. Amanda was sitting on her mother’s lap when the therapist walked in the room to take Amanda in her office for an interview (Morgan, 1999, p. 1).
“People are so unaware...well, Ignorance is bliss I guess… that would explain my depression.” (Klebold, Dylan). With that sentence, I divulged myself into the most horrendous, sad journal I have ever read, hoping to gain some insight into a disturbed young man’s mind. On April 20th, 1999, Dylan Klebold accompanied his friend, Eric Harris, in one of the most publicized and shocking school shootings of the modern day--The Columbine Massacre. With their sawed-off shotguns and godlike dispositions, the boys exacted their revenge not only on their peers, but on themselves. As the nightmare collapsed, and thirteen people lay dead, the questions began. How could two boys so young commit this crime? What forced them to be this way? For the Klebold family, one question remained: How had Dylan become involved in one of the crimes of the century?
The case study of Kathryn Carlson and Andy Randolph was about a third grade student who was having trouble academically and behaviourally. This case study follows the life of Andy, the third grade student, and Kathryn, a special needs educator, as they decide whether or not Andy should receive his IEP in the fourth grade.