Richard Havens Case Study

Interview Assessment XIII
This interview was about Richard Havens; this case added to my understanding about wrongful convictions because it demonstrated how some might not lead to an exoneration. Richard Havens did not have a criminal record, and his background did not suggest being threatening to anyone but rather protecting his community. Mr. Havens had a career working with a variety of corporations; he even worked on the Apollo space shuttle reentry vehicles. Congress cut funding six months later, and Mr. Havens lost his job. Living in an Indian Village, he became a reserve officer for Detroit; then he went to the police academy. The police academy is where he learned about how to conceal and use a weapon because he had training about the proper components; any citizen was allowed transport of a weapon as long as it is unloaded, stored from one abode to another. More than 30 years as a hard working …show more content…
Havens wanted to demonstrate what had happened and the response from the lawyer was that of a bias response because the attorney stated that he could not see a reason why she would do something like this. The same attorney who had abandoned him and Mr. Havens tried to get ahold of him by calling him 30 times and because he was not getting a response this lead to his decision to fire his lawyer. Mr. Havens was only able to give necessary information about the case to his second lawyer, and he also gave him a retainer check and this other attorney believed that he was guilty even though he refused a plea bargaining. Mr. Havens had experienced multiple problems involving lawyers, the entire case and it all seemed like he could not catch a break. Two weeks before the trial he had slipped and fallen down the stairs after he carpeted the stairs and was disoriented. His attorney took a weekend vacation and did not return until the day before the trial; Mr. Havens was so disoriented that he forgot to inform his lawyer about his