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Registered: 12-2016
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Truth is truly stranger than fiction


This story sounds like a movie plot or a plot from Perry Mason.

It certainly is one from the archives but it still illustrates how our criminal justice system, including its use of a jury, can go wrong. In 1947 in California, a state with a long history of injustice, actress Madge Meredith was convicted of kidnapping her business manager by a jury of 11 women and one man.

quote:

In 1947, Meredith, whose legal name is Marjorie May Massow, was convicted of kidnapping. But in March 1951, the California Assembly Interim Committee on Crime and Corrections issued a report stating Meredith was "framed" by her former business manager.

According to a Los Angeles Times story on March 27, 1951, the Assembly committee stated: "Had Miss Meredith been properly defended in a court free of prejudice she would have undoubtedly been proven innocent of the crime. ... There is shocking evidence of perjury, suppression of evidence and an almost unbelievable reluctance on the part of defense counsel to investigate the cause of defendant Meredith."

After her release, Meredith sued Gianaclis, winning back her home lost after her conviction. She returned to television acting in the 1950s before retiring in the early 1960s.




http://www.latimes.com/visuals/photography/la-me-fw-archives-i-am-free-20170321-story.html

quote:

The trial lasted for four weeks and on December 12, 1947, the jury of 11 women and 1 man returned guilty verdicts for each of the defendants.

Madge was found guilty of five felony charges involving the kidnapping of Nick. Two of her co-defendants, Albert Tucker and Damon Klinkenberg, were also convicted. A fourth defendant, James Hatfield, the former Beverly Hills cop, was found guilty only on the possession of a deadly weapon charge.

Madge was sentenced to from 5 to life in Tehachapi; Albert Tucker was sent to San Quentin; Damon Klinkenberg received three 60 day County Jail sentences to run concurrently, and James Hatfield was confined for just 30 days.



Notice any differences in those sentences? Two of the men convicted seemed to be favored over Madge. Their sentences were much shorter than hers. It apparently helped one of them that he had been a Beverly Hills cop and he was only convicted on a weapons charge. The one who was treated more like her and sent to San Quentin was supposed to be her boyfriend.

12/31/2017, 9:22 am Link to this post PM Philer Blog
 
mais oui Profile
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Re: Truth is truly stranger than fiction


a 70 year old case!!!

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HAPPINESS, THE IGNOBLE LIFE GOAL OF THE ILLITERATE
12/31/2017, 1:06 pm Link to this post PM mais oui Blog
 
Philer Profile
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Re: Truth is truly stranger than fiction


quote:

mais oui wrote:

a 70 year old case!!!



Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Last edited by Philer, 12/31/2017, 11:50 pm
12/31/2017, 11:40 pm Link to this post PM Philer Blog
 
katie5445 Profile
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Re: Truth is truly stranger than fiction


To show my illiteracy on a computer, how do you get accent marks?
1/1/2018, 12:27 am Link to this post PM katie5445 Blog
 


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