The Rant
Trial by fire
Submitted by Robert Cooper » Sat 28-Nov-2020, 02:23Subject Area: GeneralKeywords: fire, process, Trial | 1 member rating |
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Trial by fire
There is a lot that unveil in the case State versus Willingham. Willingham is sentenced to death after prosecution gathered evidence claiming that he set the fire with the intent to kill his children. According to the investigators, Willingham is guilty of the crime. This was later contradicted by the evidences of Gilbert who found fault in the investigation process and tried to prove the innocence of the accused.
In my opinion, Willingham is innocent of the murder case. This is because the investigators seem to be one-sided, and the witnesses seem to be negligent of some facts. Webb who claims that Willingham confessed to him about the setting of fire seems to have other personal intentions to have his sentence cut. He is later caught trading cocaine meaning he could do anything to go back to the street and continue with his drug trafficking activities.
Witness such as Diane and Father Monaghan express their personal opinions about the behaviour of the accused, and the court buys this and uses it in passing their judgement. This is quite unreliable; the accused could be innocent since there are no specific behaviours to prove one’s innocence.
The investigators, Vasquez and Fogg, ignored the opinion of Stacy, the wife of the accused. It should be noted that Stacy had lost her kids and still was sure that the accused who happened to be her husband was innocent of the crime. She pointed out that Willingham did a lot of things, but he was not killer. The same sentiment is echoed by the parents of the accused.
Opinions given by the people who were close to the accused were ignored while they are the people who knew him better than anyone else. The judge gave Willingham a chance to have his sentence reduced to life imprisonment after confessing, but he refused. This was quite a good offer, but he declined it showing he could not confess about a crime that he did not do.
The trail, in my opinion, was not exhaustive, and the evidence could have been gathered a little bit longer and in-depth. This could have made the judgement seem fair. Gilbert comes up with fault of all the witnesses and tries to prove the innocence of the accused tough in vain. All in all, according to her findings, there is high probability that Willingham could be innocent.
As far as capital punishment is concerned, I am for sure against it. I hold the opinion that jails should be used to transform people and help them trace the right way of life. When a person is sentenced to capital punishment, the chance to reform and get another opportunity in life is denied; this does not help at all.
When a person is sentenced to a capital punishment, for instance, due to murder like in this case, no matter how much the plaintiff is relived and satisfied, the victims do not come back. This should tell us that we should give these people an opportunity to transform instead of to take their lives.
What this says about the society is that we are quick to judge and prosecute. The society should be able to accommodate all its members and help those without morals and ethics learn how to relate with others.
A society comprises of individuals with different characteristics. It is, therefore, the responsibility of everyone to relate with each other and help those having difficulties to do so. There should also be close contact with each other, and the financially stable should help the poor so as to avoid such cases like murder resulting from frustrations in life.
About the author
Robert Cooper is an academic researcher at https://123helpme.org/articles/term-paper/. He holds a Master's Degree in Linguistics. He specializes on writing papers on different educational issues. He often conducts researches for students and helps them get a high grade. The author participates in all cognitive webinars and attends conferences.
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