Criminal Procedures - Essay Example

Criminal Procedures Assignment The Innocent Man: Murder an Injustice in a Small Town”, written by John Grisham, was published in the year of 2006. The book presents a detailed story of a former minor league baseball aspirant named Ronald ‘Ron’ Keith Williamson of Ada situated at Pontotoc County in Oklahoma. The story starts with the detailed description of an abduction, rape and murder of a barwoman named Debra Sue Carter who was only 21 year old and was serving as a cock-tail waitress in the Coachlight Club situated in Ada.

Grisham’s book describes the aggressive and misguided conduct and apprehensions of Ada Police and Pontotoc County District Attorney, Bill Peterson who was bestowed the duty to solve the case. Just five days before the placement of Williamson in the first row for death, the sentence was stopped for depression and mild mental illness noticed in the convict. The case was reopened and it was proved that the convict Williamson, who received the death sentence and Fritz who was also given the death sentence were actually innocent.

It was only alcoholism and acquaintance with the notorious circle of the town that were responsible for such actions. The retrial of the case was ordered by the U.S. District Court Judge, Frank H. Seay after a great and torturing suffering of eleven years of conviction. Williamson and Fritz were at last vindicated by DNA test and evidence which went in favor of them and subsequently they were released on April 15th, 1999. This book also encapsulates another trial for murder with similar incident as the sub-plot of the book.

The false conviction and sentence of Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot was rendered for abduction, rape and murder of Denice Haraway. All these men were also incarcerated in the same death row and were prey of the misguided and aggressive intentions of the police and attorneys and over ambitious pursuits of the prosecutors (Dwyer, “Ronald Williamson, Freed From Death Row, Dies at 51”). Assignment 2 Glen Gore is a criminal from Ada who was convicted of his real crime on 24th June in the year of 2003.

He was sentenced to death in the first place but eventually his death sentence as punishment was overturned in the year 2005. He was again convicted in his second trial on 21st June, 2006 and was sentenced by Justice Landrith to life imprisonment without any parole which was essential requirement by law as a result of the jury deadlock on sentencing (Oklahoma Department of Corrections, “Offender Lookup”). The position of prosecutor, attorney and police in both the Haraway and Williamson and Fritz’s case would have been more on the right side of the law evidently.

There should not be any place for inhibition or preoccupation with the legal system of any nation. It is the duty of the authority to look after the fact that no criminal is able to escape the punishment if the person is really a convict, at the same time it becomes more important for a legal system of any nation to look after the fact that no innocent man is punished for the crime which the person has not committed at all. The place for the false witness and stories just for the sake of solving the case should be completely discerned and there should be always scope for proper trial and justice.

If I would have been the in charge of the Carter murder case then definitely I would have not gone by the impulse, instinct and false inhibition regarding the association of the convicts. Rather it becomes an evident duty of an intelligent and patient police officer to start the investigation on a scientific plane. In this case, the use of DNA testing would have played a great and a poignant role from the initiation of the case. As an Investigating Officer of the case it is judicious to find out all the evidences with the passage of time and then it would have been wiser to arrest the convict, to be precise the real one, on the plane of the scientific and biological evidences.

References Dwyer, Jim. “Ronald Williamson, Freed From Death Row, Dies at 51”. January 22, 2011. The New York Times, 2004. Oklahoma Department of Corrections, “Offender Lookup”. January 22, 2011. Servlet, 2003.