Read about the recent case of Cece McDonald's murder trial in the local newspaper City Pages. Afterwards answer the following questions:
- Do you think the facts of the case help McDonald or the prosecution more?
- Do you think McDonald would have gotten a fair trial?
- Do you agree with her decision to take a plea deal of 2nd degree manslaughter?
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- Find Law: http://lp.findlaw.com/
10 comments:
the facts help the prosecution more because they exclude certain factors that would be detrimental to their case.
McDonald would not have gotten a fair trail because of the judges possible bias and they facts were not on her side.
Disagree with her because she could have appealed and probably won.
- Do you think the facts of the case help McDonald or the prosecution more? well it will help her a lot more but i think she will still founded guilty.
- Do you think McDonald would have gotten a fair trial? not really because the Jury would be against her.
- Do you agree with her decision to take a plea deal of 2nd degree manslaughter? She took the best option of the this case. Because if she did went through the trail the jury would say that she is guilty.
the facts of the case would obviously help the prosecution more because most of the evidence that would help the defendant had been thrown out by the judge.
Looking at how the case seemed, it is unlikely that the defendant would have gotten fair trial.
No i very much disagree because on my personal views the judge had no right to disregard the evidence that would have helped the defendant. The judge basically made the case impossible to win for the defendant.
Do you think the facts of the case help McDonald or the prosecution more?
The prosecution because most of the information that was shown is more of testimony by the victims friend. In addition some of the evidence that the defense wanted to show was excluded from the trial. But i do feel like the evidence presented helps the prosecution more than the defense.
- Do you think McDonald would have gotten a fair trial?
Yes since justice is blind and it doesn't matter on the gender all the things that went against her was more of the evidence than her being black or transgender.
- Do you agree with her decision to take a plea deal of 2nd degree manslaughter?
Well i can't really say what would i do. I do believe that this is a somewhat a good decision because she does get a less sentencing but she did have a possibility to win the case.
- Do you think the facts of the case help McDonald or the prosecution more?
I think that they could all go either way. They could make an argument on the case about how it was self defense and she was getting beat up already and was scared for her life. They could also go the other way and say that he didn't have any weapons. He wasn't very threatening and he was pulling her out of the fight. So depending on which one you look at, you could pretty well make a case for either side of this.
- Do you think McDonald would have gotten a fair trial?
No, I don't think that she did. The judge did not include evidence that could have been very useful for her. They could have made the jury more sympathetic and to say that she was innocent in my opinion.
- Do you agree with her decision to take a plea deal of 2nd degree manslaughter?
I kind of agree with it but at the same time I don't think she should have just given up like that. If she thought she was probably going to lose this case, she could still appeal it. I would have probably done that and appealed it to a higher court. It would have been a big chance but I think that it would have been a chance worth taking.
- Do you think the facts of the case help McDonald or the prosecution more?
I think that the evidence helps prove the prosecutors side because McDonald changed her story many times. Also everyone was saying that they seen her steps towards him and stab him so there was no reason she couldn't have ran away or something.
- Do you think McDonald would have gotten a fair trial?
To be honest no. I think this because for one she is transgender so they aren't going to see her the same as everyone else. Also she didn't have a lot of evidence helping her.
- Do you agree with her decision to take a plea deal of 2nd degree manslaughter?
Yes because everyone was trying to get her even more time and a bigger sentence so she did the right thing by taking the plea deal.
- Do you think the facts of the case help McDonald or the prosecution more?
I honestly think it could go either way... Probably the prosecution more only because they were able to decided what evidence to use and no one really has any idea of what happened and she did kill him..
- Do you think McDonald would have gotten a fair trial? Yes, They had plenty of reasons and people that would have been able to prove her not guilty
- Do you agree with her decision to take a plea deal of 2nd degree manslaughter?
I might have done the same thing, only because it's all about what you can prove in court and proving that it was okay that she killed him, might not go very well.
- Do you think the facts of the case help McDonald or the prosecution more?
I think the facts help the prosecution. The victim seems to be more humanized and the witnesses were in the victims favor.
- Do you think McDonald would have gotten a fair trial?
I think she could have because the idea of a hate crime or something along those lines could have played out well.
- Do you agree with her decision to take a plea deal of 2nd degree manslaughter?
I probably would do the same. It was the best option for her and gave her a better life after prison because of a shorter sentence than she could have potentially gotten if she didn't take the plea bargain.
Do you think the facts of the case help McDonald or the prosecution more?
- Do you think McDonald would have gotten a fair trial?
- Do you agree with her decision to take a plea deal of 2nd degree manslaughter?
The facts help the prosecution more than McDonald, even though they are kind of hazy. I don't think she would have gotten a fair trial due to the media making the case extremely public, which can cause bias either way, also because of people's viewpoints of transgenders. I think in her place taking the plea deal was a good idea, even though the facts were hazy, they were all stacked against her. Also because of what the judge did in regards to evidence.
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