When I discovered that my English class had to do a Research Paper, I became horrified. I thought students only did this when they were finishing graduate school not when they were starting their first year in college. All I knew about research papers was that there is an overwhelming amount of research to do. In my efforts to complete this obstacle and not bore myself to sleep with researching, I wanted to do an interesting topic, but I had no idea where to begin. I spent hours going through a great number of subjects and people, but once I found topic remotely interesting, I could not find much information on the Library of Congress website. Therefore, I decided to choose one word that would hopefully lead me to an interesting topic. I set my search limits to manuscripts and searched the word murder. There, the first name at the top of the page was Sirica, John .
John J. Sirica spent his younger years at Georgetown University studying law. He worked in a small law firm as an attorney, but became active in Republican Party politics. In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower nominated him, as the chief judge for the U.S. District Court for D.C. Being chief judge; Sirica did not use traditional methods in the courts, but instead used his own technique of getting to the bottom of the truth. He played a famous role in the Watergate Scandal and in the murder trial of Robert Louis Ammidown. Finally, I found an interesting topic that was worth sticking with.
The court case United States v. Ammidown was fascinating to me, so I immersed myself into finding sources to support my research topic. I was able to find secondary sources on the Montgomery College Catalog and through Google News. The Free Lance-Star pertaining to the case ...
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...tp://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19711022&id=GfRNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=14oDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3630,6511498 (accessed April 19, 2012).
The police were on a search for Tony Lee who was accused of murder in the death of Linda Ammidown.
The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg), "Tony Lee Convicted of Murder." May 25, 1972. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4NpNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=2YoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2403,4982008&dq=tony+lee+convicted&hl=en (accessed April 4, 2012).
This contains an article on the conviction of Tony Lee by the chief Judge John Sirica.
The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg), "Two Brothers Charged in Ammidown Murder." March 16, 1972. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19720316&id=iqlWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=0ucDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7421,2169052 (accessed April 11, 2012).
Richard Lee and Ralph Lee were arrested and charged for the murder of Linda Ammidown.
Newt Lee was the first African-American that the National Pencil Company as a night watchman. At the time of Mary Phagan’s murder, he had only been working there for three weeks. April 25, 1913 (the day before) Frank told him to report at four the next day but when Lee arrived at the factory Frank let him off until six. He came back and began his rounds. Nothing was out of the ordinary until Frank called him later that day at seven to ask everything is “all right”? He had never done that before. Newt Lee discovered Mary Phagan’s bruised and bloody body and called the police around 3:30 in the morning,
MacEwing, J. M. (October 25, 2005). Making Sense of the Recent Case Law. Jenkins Marzban Logan
Hennis awaited on death row for two years before he was released due to the conviction being dismissed. The Supreme Court finally receive...
Raab, Selwyn. "Rubin (Hurricane) Carter, Boxer Found Wrongly Convicted, Dies at 76." The New York Times. The New York Times, 20 Apr. 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
On February 18 the SCLC leader James Orange was arrested in Perry County. That evening hundreds of blacks gathered and marched on the jail. On the way they were attacked. Among the victims of the attacks were Jimmey Lee and his mother. Lee was beaten and then shot in the stomach, later dying in the hospital. At a large memorial service for Lee, a march from Selma to Montgomery was announced that would take place on March 7th. The marchers set off for Montgomery, but as they crossed the Pettus Bridge, they were attacked by troopers. As the New York Times reported the next day: "The first 10 or 20 Negroes were swept to the ground, screaming, arms and legs flying, and packs and bags went skittering across the grassy divider strip and onto the pavement on both sides.
Bardsley, M., & Bell, R. (n.d.). The Atlanta Child Murders. Famous Atlanta Child Murders and
Parker, Suzi. “West Memphis Three: Three men convicted, DNA evidence reopens case”. 26 November 2010. The Christian Science Monitor. 12 July 2011. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2010/1116/West-Memphis-Three-Three-men-convicted-DNA-evidence-reopens-case.
Debated as one of the most misrepresented cases in American legal history, Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald still fights for innocence. Contrary to infallible evidence, prosecution intentionally withheld crucial information aiding MacDonald’s alibi. Such ratification included proof of an outside attack that would have played a major role in Jeffrey’s case.
Winter, L. (2013, June 19). Aledo teen accused of killing his mom and sister is in
Columbia Law Review, 104, 1-20. doi:10.2307/4099343. Reynolds, S. (2009). The 'Standard'. An interview with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
O'Driscoll, P. (2005, Jun 28). 'BTK' calmly gives horrific details ; serial killer who stalked wichita enters guilty plea. USA TODAY. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/408976968?accountid=10244
Johnson, Jason B. “ Slain Teen’s family: Cops eyeing 7-10 suspects.” Boston Herald. 7 ,April 1995
Judicial officers are afforded tremendous amounts of discretion in the execution of their duties. With this discretion comes an insurmountable amount of responsibility to exercise it with care, as a judicial officer’s decisions have life impacting results on those who they exercise their discretion upon. It is also very important that judges make ethical decisions and recuse themselves from cases in which their discretion may be compromised by personal bias in favor of any particular party they are presiding over. Knowing when, and having the fortitude to recuse themselves is often the key decision to make to prevent the crossing of any ethical boundaries. Judges, being the highest level with the most authority within the criminal justice system, are especially entrusted with the use of their discretion. Historically, there is little consequence to judges who exercise their discretion poorly or unethically in the carrying out of their duties.
Regardless of the evidence, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were found guilty of first degree murder on July 14, 1921 (Frankfurter). The execution took place at Charlestown State Prison (“Sacco and Vanzetti Case”). On August 23, 1927, Sacco and Vanzetti were electrocuted (Pernicone).