Bryan Reyes
Mrs. Bonesho
U.S History-8
18 May 2017
Sheppard v. Maxwell (1966) Supreme Court Case
Many today contend that the press is the fourth branch of government, impacting people’s views of various national issues. In recent months, the term “fake news” has been used to imply that the press does not always present an objective view of events. In 1966, Sam Sheppard was accused of killing his wife in Bay Village, Ohio, near Lake Erie. Sam Sheppard denied the murder but the press emerged as a major factor in the initial accusation of his guilt. Sam Sheppard spent ten years in prison before the case went through the Supreme Court. Before Sheppard v. Maxwell (1966) case, the media/press influenced the decision of the jury. The case exposed
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Lee Bailey, took the spot. Bailey argued that “Sheppard was deprived of a fair trial in his state conviction for the second-degree murder of his wife because of the trial judge's failure to protect Sheppard sufficiently from the massive, pervasive and prejudicial publicity that attended his prosecution” (FindLaw). In Sheppard v Maxwell (1966), Ohio State Attorney General William Saxbe defended his case protecting the first amendment of the U.S Constitution. Sam Sheppard’s lawyer, F. Lee Bailey based the case on the sixth amendment, the right to a fair trial, and the 14th amendment, the right to due process. The U.S Supreme Court voted eight to one in favor of Sam Sheppard. Bailey used blood evidence which proved that Sam Sheppard was not guilty. The murder itself suggested that the murderer was left-handed, unlike Sam Sheppard who was right-handed. To end the Supreme Court Case Sheppard v Maxwell (1966), the Supreme Court voted in favor of Sam Sheppard’s release from prison. Essentially, evidence proved his innocence. After the Supreme Court decision, Sam Sheppard’s lawyer “… went on to represent many high-profile clients, including the Boston Strangler, Patty Hearst and O.J. Simpson” (History Channel). The Supreme Court case remains as one of the most controversial decisions to this day. When Sam Sheppard left the prison, the possibility of a murderer on the loose began. To this day, nobody knows who killed Marylin Reese Sheppard. But the Supreme Court case changed many ideas in future legal trials and cases. A person cannot be tried in the press without evidence used to prove the suspect’s
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.
In 1954, Sam Sheppard was accused of allegedly killing his wife, Marilyn. During this time, the media went absolutely wild. The way they obtained their stories was completely unlike any way they had gone about getting stories before. They completely invaded Sheppard's privacy to obtain "good" stories for their papers and television newscasts. Also, more stories were written about the case than any other event that had been covered in the past. Even the way stories were written was different than the usual style of writing used for that time period. Ethics were completely disregarded during the case. Because of this, Sheppard was released from prison, with the reason that the media had influenced the case so that the jury found him guilty based on the news stories. This had never happened before. Due to the unethical practices displayed by the media, the field of journalism instituted practices, which limited the power of the press.
Nothing is clear cut whether it is a murder or a trial. There is emanating possibilities of who committed the crime, and what the reasoning was behind this horrific, world renowned murder. This life changing event occurred in the morning of July 4th 1954. The night before the murder nothing seemed out of place in the Sheppard family. Sam and Marilyn were cuddled up together, Marilyn sitting on Sam's lap my while having company over. The Sheppard family was very involved in their community and seemed to be the perfect family. After the company left Marilyn put her son to bed as she did every night, with the same rituals. That night Marilyn slept upstairs while Sam slept on the day bed downstairs. After everyone was asleep, that was the last of this perfect family. The murderer positioned Marilyn as if a position of sexual assault and after DNA testing it was confirmed. Marilyn Sheppard was raped and also bludgeoned to death. Two sets of semen were found inside this pregnant women. Her Skull was fractured, and suffered from several blows to the head. Looking at possible suspects, one individual sticks out from all the rest, Richard Eberling.
On January 13th, 1999, a high school girl from Baltimore, Maryland, Hae Min Lee disappeared after school. Hae was found just a few miles away in Leakin Park, a few weeks later, where it was determined that the cause of death was manual strangulation. Not long after, Hae’s ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed was arrested and tried for her murder and is now spending life in prison. After hearing Sarah Koneig’s Podcast, Serial where she went back to re-investigate the trial it became clear that the jury does not have enough evidence to convict Adnan Syed for the murder of Hae Min Lee for many reasons including, the lack of evidence, lack of motive, and the reliance of memory is not enough to convict Adnan Syed.
It has been one hundred and twenty-two years since "Lizzie Borden took an axe..", in accordance to the folk rhyme, and Andrew and Abby Borden were brutally murdered in their home; but still today it remains one of America's most famous, or infamous, unsolved crimes. Although Lizzie was acquitted and no one was ever proved guilty of committing the crime; it is still the popular opinion that Lizzie was, in fact, the murderer. Not many people have in doubts in their mind about Lizzie's guilt, although there is no one alive today who could witness to what happened. The eventful day in August was followed by a very short trial. There are many reasons she could have been proven guilty but also an abundance of rationalities for her acquittal; and it makes sense that it is discussed and talked about in the year 2014.
People of the court, we’re here today on behalf of our defendant, Mary Maloney. Our defendant is not guilty of first degree murder, which she has been charged with. After hearing Mary’s testimony it is obvious that Mary reacted under the influence of pregnancy hormones, past insanity, and extreme stressful anxiety.
On June 13, 1994, Nicole Brown, ex-wife of O.J. Simpson, was found murdered alongside Ronald Goldman (Dershowitz 19). Chapter one of Reasonable Doubts describes how many people jumped to the conclusion that O.J. carried out the murders. Incriminating evidence emerged that more than pointed to Simpson’s guilt (Dershowitz 21). Soon enough, media reports claimed that Simpson would be charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Simpson’s reluctance to be peacefully taken into custody was illustrated by his famous Los Angeles free-way chase that ended in his eventual surrender (Dershowitz 23). Dershowitz chose to join the defense team when offered the opportunity, claiming that the case could greatly educate people, especially his Harvard law students, on...
Walsh, James, and Dan Browning. "Presumed Guilty Until Proved Innocent." Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN). 23 Jul 2000: A1+. SIRS Issues Researcher.
"Know the Cases." Innocence Project. Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, n.d. Web. 1 Mar 2011. .
...s final once that person has gone through the execution, there is nothing that can be done to correct the wrong or bring that person back. That act will forever represent a failure in the criminal justice system, and a failure of the media if the way they reported the crime affected the outcome of the trial in a negative way. No one is trying to take away the media 's first amendment right of free speech. However, when the media 's right to freedom of expression imposes on other people 's rights, there lies a problem. There has to be an understanding that does not put one 's rights above another. The media 's rights are not above the law and not above other people 's rights. The Innocence Project is one entity working against this problem, but the media’s influence over the court is widespread and not only affects cases by influencing people to convict the innocent.
Malcolm X once said “The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” In 1990, fifty-nine year old Delbert Ward was accused of killing his brother Bill Ward. Delbert was one of four brothers who lived on the family’s land operating a small farm producing milk from cows. During and after Delbert’s trial, loads of media preyed upon the ill-educated man and the village like vultures. Given his impoverished surroundings and his appearance, the media depicted Delbert as a salvage who killed his brother on the same bed that they shared for years. The documentary “Brother’s Keeper” investigated the truth behind the death of Bill Ward. It presents the argument that media manipulates public opinion. Media does manipulate public opinion using many techniques to influence the minds of the mass. The media’s effectiveness, level of bias present, and types of the media source used to portray information to determine how media influence public opinion, as well as address the opposing view to the argument.
Fairchild, H. & Cowan, G (1997). Journal of Social Issues. The O.J. Simpson Trial: Challenges to Science and Society.
Policymaking is a political process which is affected by various social and economic factors (Hofferbert, 1974) and media systems play an integral role in shaping the social context in which policies are developed. Through the media, citizens learn how government policies will affect them, and governments gain feedback on their policies and programs. Media systems act as the primary channels between those who might want to influence policy and the policymakers '' controlling the scope of political discourse and regulating the flow of information. Textbook policymaking follows an orderly sequence where problems are identified, solutions devised, policies adopted, implemented, and lastly evaluated (Mazamanian & Sabatier, 1989). In reality, the policy process is more fluid, where policies are formed through the struggle of ideas of various advocacy coalitions (Sabatier, 1991) in what has been described as a policy primeval soup (Kingdon, 1995). The policies, on which the media focuses can, and often does, play an important part in determining the focal issues for policymakers.
On a Friday afternoon, I went to observe a criminal trial at the San Luis Obispo County Courts. This was the murder trial of State v. James Lypps, which had begun many days prior and was already midway through the trial process. The defendant, James Lypps, was charged with the alleged murder of his wife, Sherre Neal-Lypps. She was found dead in the bathtub at their home by paramedics after the defendant made a 911 call. The defense is arguing that the cause of her death was suicide and prove James Lypps innocence, while the prosecution is aiming to prove that she was strangled and drowned by her husband.
In our democratic society, mass media is the driving force of public opinion. Media sources such as Internet, newspaper, news-broadcasts, etc, play significant roles in shaping a person’s understanding and perception about the events occurred in our daily lives. As long as the newspapers, internet, network television, etc, continued to be easily accessible to the public, the media will continue to have an influence in shaping its opinions. Factors such as agenda-setting, framing and priming help shape the public opinions. Agenda-setting is when the media focuses their attention on selected issues on which the public will form opinion on, whereas framing allows the media to select certain aspects about the problem and then make them appear more salient. Similarly, priming works by repeatedly exposing certain issues to public. As the issues get more exposure, the individual will be more likely to recall or retain the information in their minds. This paper will discuss these three factors played out systemically by media and how our opinions are constantly being influence and shape by them.