One of the most important events in American journalism history occurred in New York in 1735. This, of course, was the libel trail of John Peter Zenger, printer of the New York Weekly Journal. John Peter Zenger arrived in New York from Germany in 1710 and served an apprenticeship to William Bradford, printer of the New York Gazette. In 1733 New York Colonial Governor William Cosby stirred up a great controversy by prosecuting the interim Governor, Rip Van Dam, and removing Chief Justice Lewis Morris from the courts. After Governor Cosby adopted arbitrary measures against these men, and opposition group arose to fight him politically. These wealthy and powerful men established an opposition newspaper, the New York Weekly Journal, and hired John Peter Zenger as the printer and editor. The Weekly Journal printed numerous articles critical of Governor Cosby until Cosby could take it no longer. In November, 1734, Cosby had Zenger arrested and put in jail incommunicado for ten months. On August 4, 1735, Zenger was brought to trial and charged with seditious libel. He was defended by Philadelphia lawyer, Andrew Hamilton. The prosecution argued that the sole fact of publication was sufficient to convict and excluded the truth from the evidence. Hamilton admitted that Zenger published the offending stories, but denied that it was libel unless it was false. Hamilton made an eloquent appeal to the jury to judge both the law and the facts; as a result was acquitted. This finding of not guilty established truth as a defense against libel and was a landmark victory for freedom of the press. It also set a precedent against judicial tyranny in libel suits. It has long been held that the first report of Zenger's victory in court came in his own newspaper, the New York Weekly Journal of August 18, 1735. The front page of that date contains the abbreviated story of his trial and in column two states "The jury returned in Ten Minutes, and found me Not Guilty" However, a review of the Journal file from 1735 reveals that the issue
...his seemingly routine case of fornication and premarital pregnancy proved to be significant for early American legal history. The unfolding of this story and the legal changes that it brought about makes evident that by the end of the seventeenth century, The Eastern Shore had shaped a distinct legal culture. The characters involved in each case also revealed the extent the powerful players were able to shape the law to their own self-interests. The goal of the powers to be was to protect property interests, protect personal reputation and liberty, and to maintain social order.
Given the facts of the case were not of contention, the events of that night the court heard were what appeared to be instantaneous and had the respondent not taken his eyes off the road for those mere 4 seconds the same outcome is likely to have
A) McGeary, Johanna. McCarthy's First Slander. Time, 3/31/2003, Vol. 161 Issue 13, pA28,1/4p 1bw; (AN 9349282)
Trial transcripts showed Thelma mentioned certain incidents happened in her court statement vs. The statement she mentioned. Thelma first stated she didn’t know the license
The novel Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer has a very in-depth conflict that is showcased all throughout the novel. In Theo's community, there is a high-profile murder trial about to begin. Mr. Pete Duffy, a wealthy business man, is accused of murdering his wife Myra Duffy. The prosecutors have the idea that Mr. Duffy did it for the one million dollar insurance policy he took out on his wife earlier, however they have no proof to support this accusation (Grisham 53). The defendants do however have the proof that no one saw the murder, for all everyone knew, Mr. Duffy was playing his daily round of golf at the golf course right by his house. As the trial moved on, the jury was starting to lean towards letting Mr. Duffy walk a free man. To this point, there has been no proof to support the prosecutors statements that Mr. Duffy killed h...
James Callender was a supporter of Jeffersonian Republican politics, and he began writing political columns for the Philadelphia Gazette in the 1790s. His views were more extreme than those of the political party that he supported, however, and his writing was untactful. He attacked politicians who belonged to other parties, and exposed scandals where scandals could be found (or created?). He was eventually fire...
Syme, D. (1997). Martin Bryant's Sentence- What the judge said, Retrieved 5 July, 2003, from http://www.geniac.net/portarthur/sentence.htm. 7. The Australian Encyclopaedia.
Sam Sheppard was attacked by the media's unethical practices so much during his trial that journalism had set new boundaries to limit the power of the press following the final verdict. Because of the way that the media went about getting stories for their papers and the way stories were written, Sheppard was released from prison. Journalism then set up new boundaries to assure that every person accused of a crime got a fair and just trial. Even though he set precedent for new practices that the media still follows, it is a shame that it took something as horrific as his wife's murder to allow the media to see just how much power they had over justice.
A crime being committed is the first event to initiate our criminal justice system. On June 12th 1994 a double murder was reported at the residence of Nicole Brown Simpson the ex-wife of the then beloved Orenthal James (OJ) Simpson. It was discovered that Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman had been brutally murdered and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) began their investigation, this being the second step in our criminal justice system.
One case that dominated the pages of The Revolution, the paper owned by Susan B. Anthony and edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Parker Pillsbury, was the sentencing of a young girl to hang for the death of her child. While not a case of abortion, the death was termed an infanticide and drew strong opinions from the public as well as both the editors. The unfortunate Hester Vaughan, an English girl living in Philadelphia, was discovered in a tiny tenement room devoid of furniture February 8, 1868, forty-eight hours after giving birth. Alone during labor, without food or heat, she was found frail and feverish with her baby dead beside her. She was immediately brought to the police and imprisoned, under the assumption that she had killed her child. For thirty dollars, she acquired the services of a lawyer by the name of Goforth and underwent a brief trial. Having never actually confessed to committing the crime, she was nonetheless sentenced to death by County Judge Ludlow, and placed in Moyamensing Prison until her execution.
...ing him, and the expectation was that there would be a well-publicized trial rather than a brief in which Ray admitted his guilt and was sentenced.” (Clark 240)
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.
... to a miscommunication between the Captain and his soldiers. If the crowd had not been in such an uproar the Boston Massacre never would have happened. With all the testimony and the deposition from the Captain, the jury made the correct decision by determining Preston innocent.
evidence and the right of a condemned man to ask for testing.("A.B. Butler").He was exonerated by
Journalism has a particularly interesting influence on crime and the justice system, which first began in the early to mid 1800’s (Feldstein). Urbanization had a big impact on the development of journalism, as it allowed for the wide distribution of newspapers. However, the penny press essentially created the ethical issues concerning serial killers and media contact (Feldstein). The penny press first started in 1833 with Day’s launch of The New York Sun. Because the newspaper cost one cent instead of six, it targeted an entirely different au...