Witnesses in the Michael Brown case
As we have gone over about half of the volumes of court transcripts in class, we have heard from countless witnesses and their recollection of the incident. Most of them had different viewpoints and backgrounds and along with that they have had quite different stories. There are some overlaps between a few of them, like the fact that Brown and Wilson were tussling at his window and that Brown ran away from the vehicle after Wilson fired a shot. Wilson then shot Brown until he was on the ground dead from his wounds. However, the majority of the details with these events are very different not only with where they were standing and moving to but more importantly, who was at fault. Did Brown attack Wilson and forced him to act in self-defense or was Wilson unnecessarily violent and targeted Brown.
Most witnesses were unsure of who was attacking who with the initial altercation at Wilson's car in his window, but with the rest of the events, they saw different things. Personally, one of my witnesses explained that Michael ran to the sidewalk, stopped, examined his body to see where he was shot and then took a step onto the sidewalk where Wilson shot him. Brown started staggering towards Wilson and Wilson shot him continuously until he fell face first. From this recollection, Wilson seems to be the one who was aggressive and was using unnecessary violence in order to eventually kill Michael. Because of his actions, as the grand jury, I would say that he should be tried for second-degree murder. However, it's far from being this straightforward as there are witnesses who can't even agree on what color the Monte Carlo was.
With the inconsistencies of witnesses, it is incredibly hard for the jury because they might discredit some witnesses and see them as unreliable while another juror completely believes them. Without having seen the incident and maybe not being very familiar with the area, it is incredibly hard for the jurors to figure out which witnesses to trust so that they can use the witness statements to understand what punishment Wilson should get, or if he is even guilty.
Most witnesses were unsure of who was attacking who with the initial altercation at Wilson's car in his window, but with the rest of the events, they saw different things. Personally, one of my witnesses explained that Michael ran to the sidewalk, stopped, examined his body to see where he was shot and then took a step onto the sidewalk where Wilson shot him. Brown started staggering towards Wilson and Wilson shot him continuously until he fell face first. From this recollection, Wilson seems to be the one who was aggressive and was using unnecessary violence in order to eventually kill Michael. Because of his actions, as the grand jury, I would say that he should be tried for second-degree murder. However, it's far from being this straightforward as there are witnesses who can't even agree on what color the Monte Carlo was.
With the inconsistencies of witnesses, it is incredibly hard for the jury because they might discredit some witnesses and see them as unreliable while another juror completely believes them. Without having seen the incident and maybe not being very familiar with the area, it is incredibly hard for the jurors to figure out which witnesses to trust so that they can use the witness statements to understand what punishment Wilson should get, or if he is even guilty.
The inconsistencies of witnesses does in fact provide a tremendous difficulty for the jury, as they have to look at all the presented evidence and testimony when deciding whether or not to convict Wilson. The jury had to make a difficult decision, but so far from the evidence that has been presented, the juries final decision was wrong in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI agree I think that it was definitely hard for the jurors to decide because all the witnesses say different things and they all have different perspectives of the way they witnessed the situation. And It's even more difficult for the Jurors because they have to try to figure out who to believe and decide if Michale Brown was trying to threat or attack Wilson or not. With my volume, the first witness said she did witness them tussling by the passenger side however the second witness said she saw Michael clearly punching Wilson which I found really hard to believe either because you don't know who to believe so i can only imagine it must have been hard for the Jurors with their final decision which I also thinks it was wrong and they could have at least charged Wilson with something.
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