IN COLD BLOOD ESSAY The phrase “in cold blood” means to be killed with no motive, mercy, or justice. In Capote’s book, he explains the murders of the clutter family that are killed in cold blood; not only the victims, but the murders themselves.
The Clutter family was murdered in cold blood for the simple reason that they were made to suffer unnecessary mental and physical pain. The way they were killed was inhumane and savage. The fact that the Clutter family was tied up and literally psychologically tortured for something that never existed really brings out the horror in this murder. Before the killings began, Herb was suffering both physical and psychological pain. He was tied up, got his throat slit, and then finally shot. All while worrying about his family. Herb wasn’t the only one who suffered. The entire was family was shot while tied up and completely helpless. The mental suffering was also severe. Kenyon watched his father beg for mercy for his family and tortured right in front of him and worst of all the gunshots were heard from Nancy and Barbara. This had them both guessing if the murderers’ actually killed Herb and Kenyon which stroked fear into their hearts. When it was the women of the family’s turn the steps of the boots climbing up the stairs had them guessing if they were going to be murdered or not. At the end all members of the family had suffered a horrific experience to end their lives.
Dick was killed in cold blood because of his unfair trial, which had 3 aspects: Judge’s bias, jury misconduct, and lawyer incompetence. The Judge showed his bias in many ways. One of the ways was that the trial was scheduled the day after the Clutter family house was auctioned off. The issue with this is that potential Jurors that attended the auction would see the location where the Clutter family was murdered. The Juries would develop resentment for Dick and Perry. Another way that showed the Judge bias is that a request for another trial date so that the Jurors would feel a little less resentment towards the criminals. The Judge denies the request almost instantly and sets the trial date right after the auction day. Also, the Judge approved the photos of the murders of the clutter family to be shown during the trial. This was shown so the Jury would have a deep hate towards Dick and Perry. The way the jury showed misconduct was because the jury only took 40 minutes to deliberate a verdict. The problem with this is that the jury had a predetermined conscience on Dick. Lastly the lawyer incompetence resulted in an unfair trial. The lawyers were chosen really didn’t want to represent and defend Dick and Perry. They didn’t want the case, they didn’t even try to defend Dick and Perry at all. Overall, they honestly did less then minimum effort. When they were interviewing the potential jurors they asked one of