Sharon Maultsby

Movie Essay Assignment

The topic of this paper is about the mindset of a murderer and the cockiness of a prosecutor. The facts are a signed confession, missing evidence, court proceedings, being outsmarted and defeated, and facing double jeopardy. Some of the issues are no evidence, confession thrown out, hostage negotiator and defendant’s wife was in a relationship, the hostage negotiator beat up the defendant, and the hostage negotiator insisted on being in the room during the interrogation. After the assistant district attorney is stopped at all ends, it is realized that this case is not a slam dunk as he thought and double jeopardy does not come into play. The facts in this case is there was an assistant district attorney who loved to win and was too smart for his own good. As well as the defendant being the same way. Both the defendant and the prosecutor was trading wits with each other. The signed confession was thrown out on a technicality. Police officers were unable to locate the firearm. The hostage negotiator and the defendant’s wife was in relationship. Once the negotiator saw his lover lying in a pool of blood, he no longer paid attention to the crime scene and no other evidence could be located. The wife of the defendant was in a coma and non-responsive. The defendant was charged with penal law code section 664-187 attempted murder. The defendant pulled the plug on his wife. The first issue of this case is the cockiness of the district attorney. He thought with all the evidence presented to him that the case would be over and done with in a matter of days. Therefore he didn’t take the time to look into any part of the case or the evidence and took the officers at their word. Especially the hostage negotiator. He was not prepared and he received a huge surprise in the case. Which was the relationship between the defendant’s wife and the hostage negotiator. Although the defendant verbally confessed to the negotiator; no one else heard it. Blinded by rage and pain, the negotiator attacked the defendant at the crime scene and insisted on being inside the interrogation room where the defendant signed a confession. However, because of the beating from the negotiator, the defendant claimed to be fearful of the negotiator. Therefore the judge ruled the confession as being coerced and through it out. Other issues were the lying from the police, evidence not being located, and the police trying to make evidence appear when they didn’t have any. The first step that should have been taken was not entering the crime scene alone or at least leave the door open. That way other