Arias Trial Research Paper

Improved Essays
Love and lust was what was desired, but a stabbing incident would make any man wish he ran the other way. Travis Alexander was living a secret life with his ex-girlfriend, Jodi Arias. After a night with Arias, Alexander was found lying on his bathroom floor stabbed 27 times, his throat slit open, and with a bullet through his head. Arias trial started a saga of love, betrayal, and murder that people from around the country wanted to follow. To intrigue the jury and public, the lawyers used multiple forms of evidence to win over their hearts. “Trial Lawyers to Jurors’ Demands for Visual Evidence” states “Carney, a former prosecutor, noticed over a decade ago that juries weren’t grasping evidence in criminal cases and his office wasn’t

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    In Illusory Causation in the Courtroom, published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, G. Daniel Lassiter explores illusory causation in terms of the role it plays in courtrooms. This is the possibility of the effect that camera perspective has on jurors’ judgements on the suspect’s guilt, whether it was a voluntary confession and sentence recommendations. The Death Penalty Information Center had documented cases in which death row inmates were released due to new evidence and in many cases, the cause of wrongful convictions can be traced back to the interrogation phase in which false confessions are extracted. Many experts believe that the solution to suspects being coerced into wrongful confessions are videotaping confessions.…

    • 1283 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The question of whether or not Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti received a fair trial is still in dispute today. Many people during the time of the case believed that the men were “executed on murder based on doubtful ballistic evidence” because of the hostility towards immigrants due to the Red Scare and World War 1 (“Perfect Suspects, Unfair Trials”). The evidence provided during the trial showed that the men were found guilty due to the fact that they were in anarchist groups and were active members of multiple militant groups. Sacco and Vanzetti were victims of intense xenophobia because of being Italian immigrants. This gave the courts the ability to declare a verdict on their ethnicity; therefore, we now have laws to protect the defendant from an unfair trial.…

    • 1038 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Peter Donelly: How Stats Fool Juries In the lecture video, “Peter Donelly: How Stats Fool Juries,” Donelly explains how statistics are misrepresented and how they have fooled juries in past court cases. In the beginning of his lecture, Donelly compares and contrasts coin toss outcomes to genetic sequence combinations. What separates genetic combinations from that of a coin toss is that there are far more factors in genetics than there are in a simple head-tail coin toss.…

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On Trial By Jury

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The idea of trial by jury, like many American philosophies, developed during the Enlightenment era. It was incorporated into the constitution by the seventh amendment, outlining court and legal procedures, along with the fifth, sixth, and eighth. It states that the right to a trial by jury shall be preserved, and any trial without a jury will be examined by the supreme court, than the rules of the common law. It is a fundamental part of the United States legal system, because it means that the court system cannot send innocent people to jail, without first giving them a chance to defend themselves. This specific amendment has helped build much of our legal system, including lawyers and attorneys, who help defend people in court.…

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Much of Arias and Alexander’s relationship was disliked by a lot of Alexander’s friends. Her “fatal attraction”, claims his friends, was what signaled to them that her love would lead to a destruction. On May 28, 2008, a burglary occurred at the residence of Arias' grandparents, with whom she was living. The missing object was a .25-caliber ACP. This became significant in the trial because a shell casing from a .25 caliber was found near Alexander's body at the murder scene.…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    After a saloon brawl between Joseph Hurtado (petitioner) and Jose Estudaro, that resulted in Joseph Hurtado being arrested and then released. The trial was postponed due to the fact that Hurtado`s attorney failed to attend the trial. After release, Hurtado met Estudaro at a local bar and shot Estudaro three times. This resulted in arrest, subsequent trial, conviction, and sentence to death of Hurtado. The 5th Amendment requires a trial by a grand jury when someone is accused of a crime Hurtado was.…

    • 157 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jurors are easily distracted and tend to stray from listening to a large amount of auditory information. Lawyers are increasing their use of visual evidence in trials. They can hire a professional to create an example of what happened at the scene or they can show actual footage of the crime. Either way, they are catering to jurors’ need to be entertained. Although this is a more interesting way to display evidence, it can be over presented by turning every bit of evidence into visuals.…

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Cinnamon Brown Case

    • 621 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Due to modern technology’s advances in the past decade, and the false reality that is assumed by citizens from crime TV shows, graphic designers and lawyers are teaming up to sway the jury in their favor. According to, “Trial Lawyers Cater to Jurors’ Demands…

    • 621 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    While others may seem to not be bothered by the word privilege, there are others in society who believe that this term has divided many. The word privilege has been defined as the advantage that an individual may have over others, and it emerged solely from social inequality. Areas such as race, gender, age, social status, and religion continue to be a major debate in today’s society. One of the main issues that has awakened when it has come to privilege, is that people often abuse or try to use their power in order to avoid a punishment or gain some type of reward. Such cases have been clearly seen in our criminal justice system.…

    • 1133 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Good morning, my name is Autumn Carter and it is my pleasure to represent Nathaniel Brazil on this very important case. On May 26, 2000, thirteen year old Nathaniel Brazill shot and killed his English teacher because he would not let him say goodbye to two girls on the final day of class. The defendant stands…

    • 57 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Jurors Visual Evidence

    • 286 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “Trail Lawyers Cater to Jurors’ Demands for Visual Evidence” is an article written by Sylvia Hsieh about how visual evidence is presented in a courtroom for jurors and the challenges lawyers face using them. The author begins by listing some of the technology and entertainment readily available and attributes that to the expectation jurors have of being entertained. The lower cost of acquiring produced visual evidence has also sparked competition among creators of the medium and has made it almost a requirement for most cases. The article continues this train of thought by citing visual storytelling can be used in almost any case. Even cases such as a patent on cement molecules can be represented with today’s technology to help jurors understand…

    • 286 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    CSI Effect

    • 1398 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The "CSI Effect" and Its Potential Impact on Juror Decisions the “CSI Effect” first described in the media as a phenomenon resulting from viewing forensic and crime based television shows. Jurors can be influenced by this effect which can or may cause them to have unrealistic expectations of forensic science during a criminal trial. It will affect jurors’ decisions during a conviction or acquittal process. Research has shown the “CSI Effect” has a pro-defense bias, in that jurors are less likely to convict without the presence of some sort of forensic evidence. Studies have shown actors in the criminal justice system changing their tactics, as if this effect has a significant influence.…

    • 1398 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    However, the acquittal of OJ Simpson is still one of the most debated and contested cases in US History. Forensic collection had a significant role in this investigation and several individual believe that the lack of evidence is what created a lot of doubt for the jurors (Forensics at the OJ Simpson Trial,…

    • 1488 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Photographs, supported with noted and crime scene diagrams, help investigators and ultimately a jury to understand…

    • 1170 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    CSI Effect On Crime

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Crime dramas have topped the charts of most watched television shows for a long time. Crime dramas ranging everywhere from NCIS, Law & Order, to JAG, and CSI have resulted in a boom of misconception about the legal system. One major effect has often been referred to as the “CSI effect” in which jurors often come into the courtroom with a preconceived notion of the capabilities of forensic scientists resulting in a higher expectation of proof. When fingerprints, dna, and all other sorts of futuristic tools are not demonstrated in a case such as theft or burglary jurors have been shown to hesitate on a guilty verdict. The correlation between the standard of proof associated with the CSI effect and the general opinions of the public at large can be stated that there is a rising interest in criminal forensics and even the belief that crime is prevalent.…

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays