The part that shocked many people was there was no physical evidence connecting either McCollum or Brown to the crime scene. Only thing was a witness said they had suspicion, and that was it. When the two brothers were taken into custody they were interrogated hard. Brown’s brother didn’t have a lawyer present, and the police just kept interrogating him. Finally he decided he wanted to go home, and told a story on killing the girl. The police told Brown that his brother admitted to the murder, and so after five hours of hard interrogating he finally just signed a statement also.
When their case was heard in the courtroom, they changed their story and said they were innocent. They tried to say that they were forced into confessing, because of how the investigators performed the interrogation, and how long it was. Even though there was no evidence of any kind they were convicted of murder and sent to prison. Then this organization got their hands on the case and requested a cigarette butt that was found at the scene to have DNA testing. From the results the two brothers were set free from prison, and the real murder Roscoe Artis was identified from the DNA testing.
This guy lived only a block away from the crime scene and was convicted before for sexual assault. In my research I found that, “those who are guilty in the relatively small percentage of cases where DNA evidence is available will be convicted with much greater confidence, and those who can be exonerated by DNA will be exonerated before or at trial” (Risinger, 2007).
So with Jodi Arias’s case they later decided not to give her the death penalty, but to spend the rest of her life in prison with no parole. The next step for her is the appeal process if she decides to go that route. An individual who has been convicted of a crime may “appeal” his or her case, asking a higher court to review certain aspects of the case for legal error, as to either the conviction itself or the sentence imposed” (Find Law, n. d. ). There are two options to appeal with, which is the state and federal court levels. Either one of these courts could help Jodi Arias in getting a sentence reduced, or a re-trail.
However this doesn’t happen that often, and there needs to really be evidence that something was done by mistake in the original case. Generally, the final judgment of a lower court can be appealed to the next higher court one time only. Thus, the total number of appeals depends on how many courts are “superior” to the court that made the contested decision, and sometimes what the next higher court decides the appeal’s basis” (Find Law, n. d. ). Larger populated states, might only have three or even four levels of courts. Less populated states, might only have two levels of courts. “There are important differences in the rules, time limits, costs, and procedures depending on whether the case is in Federal court or state court.
Also, each state has different rules. Finally, even within a single state one may find that different rules for appeals depend on the court in which the case originated. ” (Find Law, n. d. ). Since Jodi Arias was convicted in Arizona she will go by there appeal process. “Arizona has two appellate courts: the court of appeals is the intermediate appellate court and the Supreme Court is the court of last resort” (Arizona Judicial Branch, n. d. ). This means that Jodi Arias can try to appeal her conviction only twice in the state of Arizona.
In the latest news about her she is in the process of appealing her conviction. We will see in the future whether they find enough evidence to re-trail or set free. Some suggestions that I believe would make these cases go by a lot better and organized is the following. In cases where the defendant admits to committing murder, I believe in my own opinion is sentenced them to life in prison. I don’t believe there should be second chances for appeals, and I probably say this because a family member got murdered in my family. The guy that murdered are family member has been fighting to get out for at least 15 years.
My family is scared that he might actually get out sometime in his life. The thing that bugs me about the court system, is it seems to either be a very slow process, or giving to many chances to let the individual get out of prison. As we learned earlier in the chapters of our books about many options out there. Split sentencing was the one I believed worked the best, and shock probation the least. Split sentencing is defined in our books as, “the use of both incarceration and probation to rehabilitate and punish offenders” (Schmalleger, 2014).
Shock therapy will make the individual believe that there crime wasn’t as bad as they thought. It just doesn’t sound like a good way of doing it for me. It also ties up the justice system, having to have another hearing and so forth. If you do the crime, you are going to do the time. That is what I believe should happen to these individuals. For the next 5 years Jodi Arias will be housed in maximum security in prison, and then she might actually get a roommate and some more room to walk around.
As of right now she is living in her cell that is very small, and is on lock down for 23 hours of the day. Once she does this for a while, she might get to be outside in a caged fence that fits four individuals for six hours a week or so. The thing that will mess with Jodi Arias is her mind. Whether she can stay stable, or lose it and commit suicide. In my research I found, “prisoners housed in segregation were found to have significantly higher levels of depression and suicide ideation than prisoners in general population” (Bonner, 2006).
In my research I found that, “a large percentage of these inmates are transferred to mental health facilities” (Edwards, 1988). This I can believe, being that Jodi Arias will be in a cell not even a compact car could fit in. It could get to her mind just like it does to other inmates. In conclusion, Jodi Arias committed a murder on her ex-boyfriend. It took seven years for the guilty verdict to finally happen. This has taken a lot of time from our justice system, and the taxpayers’ money. I believe that it shouldn’t take this long on a case like this one.
When there is evidence it should go a lot faster. In cases where it is hard to prove with evidence I can see that going for a longer time. Jodi will sit in a small confinement for the rest of her life, unless somehow her appeal she is doing goes in her favor. The appeal process takes a very long time, and cost the taxpayers a lot of money. I believe that in certain cases where there wasn’t evidence against them they should be able to appeal. However in this case the evidence was against her, and she admitted to the crime she shouldn’t have a second chance.
Lock her up and through the key away is my opinion. Now I do believe that her race, gender, class, and level of education did have an impact on her verdict. Let’s say that an African American male committed the same crime, they would have been more likely given the death penalty. According to my research it states, “All-white juries have famously exonerated culpable white defendants, convicted innocent blacks, and sided with police officers in high-profile cases alleging police misconduct toward African Americans” (Rose, 2008).
As long as we have human beings determining sentences, there will always be some form of prejudice. Until the day robots are in control, which see no color, or gender there will always be some sort of internal beliefs that will affect how a certain group is viewed and sentenced. The case of Jodi Arias was in fact legally correct according to the text book. Which is first initial appearance, arraignment, trail, sentencing, and appeals. As of right now Jodi Arias is appealing her conviction case. Nobody knows if she will be successful or not. However, the turnover rate is not in her favor; time will tell.
