Today was an interesting lecture, we learnt more about the innocence project which i know our lectures are particualrly involved in and it was thought provoking stuff. The idea of the innocence project is to rally behind people that have been framed for crimes with the aspiration to get them freed. I decided to read up on a few cases of miscarriages of justice and the the overall theme behind them was prejudice. In the 80's the IRA were rife and bombs were exploding up and down England, most notably in Guildford and Birmingham. It seems that anyone with Irish heritage was a suspect and maybe due to the lack evidence innocent Irishmen were the victims of police corruption, by officers keen to please the public.
The Guildford bombings took place on October the 5th 1974 and shortly after 3 men and a woman were convicted for the act of terrorism. However none of them committed the crime but were forced to sign confessions by police officers using torture techniques. After 15 years they were acquitted of the crime. 15 years is a long time to spend behind bars for something you had no involvement in which is why the innocence project is hellbent on seeing justice take place. I know of several cases they are currently working on and hopefully they manage to unearth new 'fresh' evidence that could mean an appeal can be launched. I expect that the one thing that keeps these wrongly convicted criminals optimistic is the knowledge that they have a team of people behind them working tirelessly to see that they are released.
Afterwards we were asked to assume the position of a CCRC (Criminal cases review commission) official. This body was put together to stop further miscarriages of justice taking place however they have limited power and will only distribute appeals if the case was 'unsafe' i.e the defendant was given an unfair trial in some way. If they feel a case was not conducted properly or they require further evidence they can also call for a section 17 or a section 19 both of which will mean re-evaluating the evidence as well as looking for fresh evidence.
The case we were given to work with was a double murder of an elderly couple. In summary a man named Warner was accused of murdering the elderly couple after stabbing them repeatedly and raping the woman. The man admitted to breaking into the house hoping to steal from them but claims to have not gone upstairs which was were they were killed, there is no evidence to prove he did go upstairs. Warner's house mate claims that he returned around 3 in the morning with the time of death being 2. Another suspect was believed to be the next door neighbour and also there was apparently a man who got a taxi covered in blood but this was around 12.45, so in reality this guy doesn't seem to have a leg to stand on. Unfortunately for us we were left on a bit of a cliffhanger and will have to wait a while to find out the final verdict but i'll leave it up to you to form your own opinions.
Thursday, 16 February 2012
Thursday, 9 February 2012
Radio Transcript
Unfortunately it's that time of year again that all males dread. A time for our girlfriends to make irrational demands and expectations well exceeding their poor boyfriends bank balance, of course I am talking about Valentines day. The thing that people might find annoying is that the day was originally to commemorate the lives of a trio of Christian matyrs who were all named Valentine and none of these were connected to romance in the slightest. The person we have to blame for this is Geoffrey Chaucer, I for one was already not a big Chaucer fan for what he put most of us through in secondary school English, but when I saw that it was him we have to blame for this joke of a day i wondered if his plan all along was to leave a legacy of annoying poems and the most pointless day in the calendar for years to come. And I'm adament that Chaucer will be chuckling away in heaven or hell knowing the pain and anguish he is causing to us all.
This Valentines day will be the fifth that i've spent with my girlfriend and like any other girlfriend she always ends up disappointed on the 14th of February. It's not that i don't try and make an effort but its just the recurring problem that is becoming too regular in my life that i am hopeless. For example i wasn't aware that tables needed to be booked in advance so one year we spent an hour in the cold outside eagerly waiting for our buzzer to go off so we could tuck into their delightful Italian Cuisine. Another time I totally forgot, it's not exactly as well publicised as christmas is it? You don't hear Band Aid for months before as a warning, its an honest mistake. My girlfriend however was not very sympathetic infact i was shunned for several days after.
My main grumbles with Valentines day are firstly, that it has been built up too much by cheesy Hollywood films, girls need to realise that the majority of them will not be cruising through Venice on a gondola or eating garlic bread beneath the eiffel tower. It's not that i wouldn't like to do that sort of thing for my lady friend it's just not feasible on a student loan. Secondly I'm going to complain about the showoffs who do do this type of thing on Valentines. In the words of the Kaiser Chiefs 'Loves not a competition but I'm winning' its this mentality I disagree with it's not a competiton. Whoopty doo you took your girlfriend for a hot air balloon ride over to Spain where you ate Tapa's and proposed on a beach overlooking the sunset, me and my girlfriend had a takeaway and watched Geordie Shore, we still had a great evening regardless I just refuse to be drawn into this competition.
I know this seems like an incredibly long winded way to justify to my girlfriend why she'll only be getting chocolates and a hand made card but if it works it'll be totally worth it.
This Valentines day will be the fifth that i've spent with my girlfriend and like any other girlfriend she always ends up disappointed on the 14th of February. It's not that i don't try and make an effort but its just the recurring problem that is becoming too regular in my life that i am hopeless. For example i wasn't aware that tables needed to be booked in advance so one year we spent an hour in the cold outside eagerly waiting for our buzzer to go off so we could tuck into their delightful Italian Cuisine. Another time I totally forgot, it's not exactly as well publicised as christmas is it? You don't hear Band Aid for months before as a warning, its an honest mistake. My girlfriend however was not very sympathetic infact i was shunned for several days after.
My main grumbles with Valentines day are firstly, that it has been built up too much by cheesy Hollywood films, girls need to realise that the majority of them will not be cruising through Venice on a gondola or eating garlic bread beneath the eiffel tower. It's not that i wouldn't like to do that sort of thing for my lady friend it's just not feasible on a student loan. Secondly I'm going to complain about the showoffs who do do this type of thing on Valentines. In the words of the Kaiser Chiefs 'Loves not a competition but I'm winning' its this mentality I disagree with it's not a competiton. Whoopty doo you took your girlfriend for a hot air balloon ride over to Spain where you ate Tapa's and proposed on a beach overlooking the sunset, me and my girlfriend had a takeaway and watched Geordie Shore, we still had a great evening regardless I just refuse to be drawn into this competition.
I know this seems like an incredibly long winded way to justify to my girlfriend why she'll only be getting chocolates and a hand made card but if it works it'll be totally worth it.
The infamous Andrew Napier
This is my new blog that i'm hoping will shortly be holding its own on the alexa rankings. I wasn't really getting along with tumblr so I thought seeing as this will be my first blog of the new year a change of blogs was in order badda bing badda bong here I am.
So today we were treated to a visit from Andrew Napier a local journalist famous for being able to concoct several news worthy stories from what i gather was a very mundane council meeting. He came in and gave us an idea of what he is expected to do as a local reporter covering the Winchester area. He had a lot of interesting stuff to share with us and it was evident he was a good journalist so naturally i wondered why he had decided to stick to local reporting as oppose to working for the more glamorous national papers. He responded by telling us an anecdote which essentially expressed his belief that national reporters act immorally in order to get stories which he wasn't prepared to do. I thought that was a fair enough answer but he did seem to be harbouring some very negative feelings towards national papers which interested me so as a journalist i thought i'd investigate ;) to see where this bitterness stemmed from, however i had no luck, but i did find Andrew's blog in which he talks alot about walking his pet Jack Russel 'Esme'.
So Pretty poor journalism on my behalf there unless you're interested in that sort of thing maybe the Marley and Me fans might enjoy it who knows? Nonetheless a good experience as prior to this I haven't had the opportunity to speak to an active Journalist and I think everyone came out of the talk feeling a little more enlightened. I think maybe a talk from someone who works for a national paper would definitely offer an interesting contrast to Andrew, hint hint.
So today we were treated to a visit from Andrew Napier a local journalist famous for being able to concoct several news worthy stories from what i gather was a very mundane council meeting. He came in and gave us an idea of what he is expected to do as a local reporter covering the Winchester area. He had a lot of interesting stuff to share with us and it was evident he was a good journalist so naturally i wondered why he had decided to stick to local reporting as oppose to working for the more glamorous national papers. He responded by telling us an anecdote which essentially expressed his belief that national reporters act immorally in order to get stories which he wasn't prepared to do. I thought that was a fair enough answer but he did seem to be harbouring some very negative feelings towards national papers which interested me so as a journalist i thought i'd investigate ;) to see where this bitterness stemmed from, however i had no luck, but i did find Andrew's blog in which he talks alot about walking his pet Jack Russel 'Esme'.
So Pretty poor journalism on my behalf there unless you're interested in that sort of thing maybe the Marley and Me fans might enjoy it who knows? Nonetheless a good experience as prior to this I haven't had the opportunity to speak to an active Journalist and I think everyone came out of the talk feeling a little more enlightened. I think maybe a talk from someone who works for a national paper would definitely offer an interesting contrast to Andrew, hint hint.
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