Criminal Crimes In John Grisham's The Pelican Brief Review

Pelican Brief Research Essay In the year 2014, law enforcement in the United States estimated 1,165,383 violent crimes reported (“D2014VC”). Imagine the number of people needed to get to the bottom of all of those cases! There is an abundant amount of Americans solving mysteries every day to keep others safe. Crimes are committed all around the United States at every second of the day! In John Grisham’s The Pelican Brief, he displays a firm relation between investigators and lawyers through the Criminal Justice System of acquiring suspects and evidence, indicated in the book with an exploration of the scandals of Supreme Court Justices Rosenberg and Jensen (Grisham). Starting off as a criminal defense attorney himself, John Grisham had

In the Pelican Brief, Darby Shaw has a theory of whom may be the culprit of the justice murders (Grisham). In some cases, there is very little evidence for the investigation process, leaving a very wide range of possibilities. In the novel, it states “The Klan, the Aryans, the Nazis, the Palestinians, the black separatists, the pro-lifers, the homophobic. Even the IRA. Everyone, it seemed, but the Rotarians and the Boy Scouts” were all suspects in the death of a federal trial judge in Texas (Grisham). This informs the reader that, at times, there is very little evidence to base their investigation on. In this particular case, there were at least at least eight different suspect groups. So, where does the investigating team go now? There are many possibilities as to what could have occurred. But what is the process of finding different types of evidence? Criminal investigations are a very serious matter that takes a large amount of time to solve. The Criminal Justice System plays a huge part on cracking down criminal cases. “The Criminal Justice System

Evidence essentially comes in two forms: verbal or physical. For instance, verbal evidence could be spoken evidence acquired from a wiretap. Physical evidence could include DNA, blood, or bodily samples. Another reliable origin evidence is digital documentation. “As technology has become more portable and powerful, greater amounts of information are created, stored, and accessed” (GEDJ). Over the past few decades, technology has advanced to extreme levels! The most common technology used to find digital evidence are cell phones, computers, tablets, external storage devices, GPS locators, and various other devices (GEDJ). Text messages, social media posts, pictures, etc. are becoming more common data in investigations of the modern era. “Digital evidence can come from both suspects and victims, as all involved parties may have their own personal devices that are relevant to the investigation” (GEDJ). If they are available, computers, phones, social media and much more are very useful sources of gathering data for a criminal case. For instance, both the suspect and the victim may have text messages on their cell phones that could add to the search. “In some criminal cases, digital evidence can be useful if the suspect had associated with it. In some cases it can lead in the wrong direction or to the wrong people. Or it could simply be useless if the suspect didn 't use anything digital”