Character Assasination
In all the case studies we have learned about, character assassination has played a large role in the ruling of the cases. In fact, in some of the cases, it seems that the jury comes to the verdict mainly from negative personal aspects of the defendants that don't actually relate to the case. The jury is supposed to be a group of peers with little to no bias and this means that in some cases like Darlie Routier, they move the trial away from the original town because there is too much bias. In Darlie's case, it got moved to Kerrville which was rural, conservative and had a 95% prosecution rate when she came from a pretty modern town. These two towns were quite contrasting in value and the prosecution used this to their advantage and succeeded.
The prosecution focused most of their case on how Darlie was as a mother and not about the physical evidence. A majority of the physical evidence was very confusing and made little sense; there were some key pieces that showed her innocence and some that showed her guilt but the prosecution decided to avoid this. Instead, they pointed out that she was materialistic by the money she had spent on their new home and other luxuries such as her breast implant. From this, they declared that she cared more about her own physical appearance than her children and although this doesn't give her a motive, it doesn't matter because the prosecution does not need to show motive. Since Kerrville was conservative, they became against Darlie as a mother and were able to start visualizing her as a terrible mother. There were other parts that the prosecution used, such as the rap song the parents played at the kids funeral and finally, the infamous "silly string" video at one of the son's grave. Combining these, the prosecution was able to convince the jury Darlie was guilty of killing her sons, without strong physical evidence against her. This shows the true power of character assassination and how it can be the deciding factor in a case when in reality it does not prove the guilt of a defendant.
The prosecution focused most of their case on how Darlie was as a mother and not about the physical evidence. A majority of the physical evidence was very confusing and made little sense; there were some key pieces that showed her innocence and some that showed her guilt but the prosecution decided to avoid this. Instead, they pointed out that she was materialistic by the money she had spent on their new home and other luxuries such as her breast implant. From this, they declared that she cared more about her own physical appearance than her children and although this doesn't give her a motive, it doesn't matter because the prosecution does not need to show motive. Since Kerrville was conservative, they became against Darlie as a mother and were able to start visualizing her as a terrible mother. There were other parts that the prosecution used, such as the rap song the parents played at the kids funeral and finally, the infamous "silly string" video at one of the son's grave. Combining these, the prosecution was able to convince the jury Darlie was guilty of killing her sons, without strong physical evidence against her. This shows the true power of character assassination and how it can be the deciding factor in a case when in reality it does not prove the guilt of a defendant.
I definitely agree with your understanding of the power of character assassination. In another recent case, that of the dog attack, it's clear that there is also some form of character assassination there. The inclusion of the details about the Aryan brotherhood, the weird polyamorous something going on between Noel, Knoller, and the prison dude was extraneous to the actual matter of the case. But it caused immediate emotional revulsion from the SF population, with the media pushing out more and more outlandish claims of evildoing. Even our class seemed vindicated by their punishment, although there had been little concrete evidence for second degree murder (not enough proof of purposefulness / awareness). It's kind of funny to me that as a group we sympathized with Darlie as she was being slandered, but when the person on trial went against liberal values.... off to prison!
ReplyDeleteI also agree that in many cases they use character assassination and how powerful it can be like in the shooting of Michael brown they used character assassination and made him look really bad by showing the public the video tape of him supposedly shoplifting the store when we really know he didn't do that. He had made an exchange the night before in where he traded weed for a box of cigarillos with the store clerk who he seemed to knows pretty well. However they didn't release the footage of him making that exchange in the first place, so they just wanted to make him look bad.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a really interesting concept. Our current judicial system allows character assassination and other forms of persuasion. This leeway increases the importance of having an exceptional lawyer. I believe that this is one of the reasons that our current judicial system is flawed. There is such a de-emphasis on evidence that cases are based off who has the best lawyer, and who can pay the most. This means that affluent individuals are able to get off, while impoverished individuals are further disenfranchised. In contrast, European countries have an inquisitorial system where there is a more even playing field and the court is actively involved in investigating the facts of the case. Both the inquisitorial and US justice systems are not perfect. However, the inquisitorial system puts a greater emphasis on evidence than the United States, which prevents character assassination.
ReplyDeleteI find character assassination to be a huge issue in todays government. Essentially, politics has become the constant assassination of characters around a politician on their own way to the top. In this election season's political battle, I've seen state superintending duke it in between two Modern Family episodes. I've even had people drop character assassination post cards in the male box of their political competitor.
ReplyDeleteI think that the constant assassination of character, both in the justice system and among our elected officials, comes from the fact that people remember negativity. I can't remember all of the nice things that my best friend has said to me over the years, but I always bring up the time that he called me out on my shizz.