Medicine and Law - Harold Fredrick Shipman - Assignment Example

Medicine and Law al Affiliation) Dr. Harold Shipman a.k.a Dr. Death Discussion of the key facts and critical issues during the presentation of the case Harold Fredrick Shipman was a convicted English serial killer. He was a doctor by profession but criminal records were showing that he was one of the most dangerous serial killers in history. Two hundred and eighteen murders were positively attached to him but there were suspicions that the number could be relatively higher. On January 31, 2000, jury for the crime of fifteen murders found Shipman guilty. Shipman was sentenced to life imprisonment and the judge was affirmative that he should never be released. After his trial, the Shipman inquiry, that was led by Janet Smith investigate all deaths that were apprehended by doctor Shipman. The greatest percentages of his murders were women and his youngest victim was a forty-one year old man by the name Peter Lewis. Most of Britain’s lawful structure that relates to health care and medicine was revised especially after the findings of doctor Shipman’s crime. It was unfortunate that Shipman is the sole doctor found guilty of murdering his innocent and helpless patients. In March 1998, Doctor Linda of the Brooke surgery in Hyde expressed concerns to Pollard, one of the administrates in south Manchester district concerning the rising death rates among patients that were under the care and supervision of Doctor Shipman. To be more specific, Doctor Linda was very suspicious about the great number of cremation practices for elderly women that doctor Shipman wanted countersigned. The doctor (Linda) therefore suspected that Shipman was either killing his patients through negligence or intent actions. The allegations were forwarded to the police for further investigations. The police were unable to prove that Shipman was indeed guilty by claiming that there was no sufficient evidence. The organization ‘The Shipman Inquiry’ claimed that the officers that were assigned that duty were not competent enough for the task. Eventually doctor Shipman was arrested due to the death of three more patients after the allegations were made public. The last patient under his ‘death treatment’ was Kathleen Grundy, a former ceremonial mayor of Hyde. She was found dead at her home and doctor Shipman was the last person that saw her alive. Suspicion rose when it was found that Shipman signed her death certificate with claims that the woman passed on due to old age. The matter became extremely serious when Grundy’s daughter, Angela Woodruff who is a lawyer by profession was informed that the will made by her ‘mother’ was likely not valid. It was abnormal that there was allocation of three hundred and eighty six thousand euros to Shipman but Grundy’s daughter and her children were excluded from the will. Woodruff was advised by Burgess to report the matter to the police department for further investigations. Grundy’s body was exhumed and laboratory experiments showed that her body was containing traces of lethal overdose of diamorphine that is always used in cancer patients to control pain. Shipman convinced the relatives of the dead ones claiming that no further investigations for their deaths were necessary.it was strange that most of the families affected never knew the cause of death of the patients. In situations where many questions would rise, Shipman forged medical documents illustrating the ‘cause of death’. 2. Shipman’s murder weapon of choice and how did this weapon allow him to go undetected for the many years Doctor Shipman was a very cautious serial killer. He was smart enough and his arrest came later after he had caused death to many patients that were under his care and supervision. His murder weapon was a needle that was loaded with an overdose of morphine, a lethal drug that is used to control pain in fatal cancer patients. This would slowly kill the patient without any form of physical damage to the anatomy of the body. Shipman did this for many years without being noticed because he was smart enough to forge the cause of death of the patient. In addition, he would convince the relatives of the victims to cremate the bodies to avoid further investigations. 3. Determination for Shipman’s motive for the murder According to my research, the killings that Shipman did were strongly in relation to the death of his mother. Shipman’s mother died when he was seventeen years old. He watched her mother struggling with pain until her death at their home after the doctor injected her with morphine. Shipman’s mother was a cancer patient. I think the pain that caused her mother to die even after the prescription for morphine was really haunting him. In his medical career, he took the advantage of using the morphine drug as a killer urgent instead of treatment and care purposes. 4. Evidence that the police overlooked that could have ended the case sooner The police were not cautious when Doctor Linda of south Manchester raised Shipman’s case. It was clear that the patients were increasingly passing on in Shipman’s hands. The police would have done appropriate investigations to detect the causes of deaths to these patients. This would be done through issuing an order to stop the act of cremating the victims’ bodies. These facts would be enough to convict Shipman because it was strange that relatives of some patients never knew the cause of death of the victims. Proper investigations would easily retrieve that Shipman was actually forging the cause of death to patients and the law would take appropriate steps that early. Research on the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King 5. Discussion of the key facts and the critical issues presented in the case The main issue in this case is investigations on the death of Dr. Martin Luther King. There are endless speculations that are common around the world claiming James Earl Ray caused a connection of his death. Ray was a career criminal was serving sentence term in the Missouri state prison where he later escaped. Ray arrived in Memphis, Tennessee an area that Dr. Martin Luther King was renting a motel (Hanes & Randall, 1975). When Dr. King Luther came out of his motel room to have a cool breeze at the balcony he was taken down by the sniper. The assailant escaped from the room he was renting next to Luther’s motel leaving some evidence behind that were later used against him by the jury. The package that the assailant left was a found covered under a blanket in a building next to the crime scene. The contents of the package were a powerful riffle fitted with a scope, some clothes, a radio, a a pair of beer cans and a pair of binoculars with the receipt of purchase. Ray was very skill full in handling rifles and he was smart enough not to harm anybody else apart from his target in his undertakings. This was strongly related to his ability to take down Martin Luther King down with a single accurate and perfect shot. Ray was always a petty criminal and he would do the murder out of hatred from racism the act that Martin Luther was fighting against heavily. Rays’ brother also made a shocking revelation that Ray was always after good sums of money and he would easily commit such crimes in order to get the huge amounts. Three days into the trial, Ray was pleading for innocence as he was claiming that he never knew that Martin Luther King was the person inside the motel room. Ray was a frequent visitor to the crime scene before the assassination and he was using names different people who resembled him, his main aim was making a strategy for the assassination. Ray was also using aliases, evidence of framing included a second white mustang at the assassination scene, and this showed that Ray was receiving some instructions from somewhere to do the killing. Ray bought a Winchester rifle and he fitted it with a scope to boost focus to the target. However, he changed his mind and went the following day to exchange for a Remington claiming to the salesperson that his ‘brother’ said that the Winchester was not suitable. After thorough investigations, it was clear that the rifle that Ray bought was the one used to assassinate Dr. Martin Luther King. The assailant used a white Mustang that was later found abandoned in Atlanta, Georgia. Fingerprints of James Earl Ray were found on the white mustang, beer cans, and the binoculars. This was used as evidence against James Earl ray in the court of law where he was charged with the offence of murder (Hanes & Randall, 1975). The sentence was for ninety-nine years that is in short life sentence. Ray denied not being guilty as he was pleading not to be guilty. Even though there are various theories behind the death of Martin Luther King, the fingerprints put the murder to be in the hands of James Earl Ray. 6. What the prosecution build their case and what evidence support their evidence against James Earl The prosecution built their case upon the issue of fingerprints. There were also other evident actors such as the assailant (James Earl) being a criminal, he booked a room next to Luther’s motel and the time Martin was killed Earl was around. The belongings of James had his fingerprints therefore; he could not deny the allegations whatever the case. The fingerprints are always a vital method of tracing criminals since they are always unique and different from one individual to another. James Earl was the only individual related to the murder due to that evident and he was also a having crime history. 7. Advances in fingerprint evidence since the death of Martin Luther King in 1968 There have been various improvements in the identification of fingerprints and the latest and most liable concept is the automated fingerprint identification system. This has greatly facilitated in the law enforcement community (Hanes & Randall, 1975). Its technical in that a computer scans and numerically encrypt fingerprints so that they can be a focus to fast computer processing. The speed and accuracy of the processing of the AFIS has made it easy and possible to search a single latent in the crime scene. The workload is minimized in that a single expert can handle the millions of fingerprint cases without difficulties. 8. Prosecution of James Earl and a trail If I was the prosecutor, the presentation of the fingerprint evidence would be strong enough to win the trial. Fingerprints are always unique and cannot bring any element of mistaken identity. I would remind the jury of previous similar cases where fingerprint evidence was used to support trial. Placing James at the crime scene would further support the prosecutor in linking him to the murder of Martin Luther King. I would also use clear evidence of James fingerprints on the exact riffle that was used to assassinate Martin Luther King (Hanes & Randall, 1975). The evidence that was recovered was strong enough that no other claims would make the trial to be dropped. Such decisions are always made after appropriate analysis of the evidence. References Hanes, A., & Randall, R. (1975). Defense of James Earl Ray in connection with the assination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Read More