Let's Talk Crime

  This case is different than any I have done so far, but will not likely be the last of its kind that you will see here. This is a civil case, not a criminal case, and does not involve a murder. Civil cases are much different, and have different rules than criminal cases. Most will tell you that the biggest thing is the standard used to find a “defendant,” more commonly called a respondent in civil cases, guilty or responsible. In criminal cases it is “beyond a reasonable doubt” while in civil cases it is a “preponderance of the evidence.” This is important because criminal cases generally involve taking the freedom of someone. In civil cases it is generally about punishing someone financially. Another big difference between the two types of courts is that when all is said and done in civil courts a percentage of responsibility is often allotted to all of the parties involved and that can include the person who brought the lawsuit. This case is not only about hot coffe...

  Once again this has become a blog in which I have started, erased, started again and erased again. The Jeffrey MacDonald case is an extremely long and complicated case. In fact, it has been called one of the “most litigated” and the “longest” criminal/murder case in U.S. History. The murders of MacDonald's pregnant wife and two young daughters occurred in 1970. There was an Article 32 Hearing through the Army in 1970 that ended with a recommendation that charges be dropped against him but no actual trial. Over the next several years both the Army and the Federal Government were investigating the murders and MacDonald remained their prime suspect. He was officially federally indicted on three counts of murder in January of 1975. For the next few years things were in and out of the courts considering whether there were issues involving double jeopardy or MacDonald's right to a speedy trial. MacDonald finally went to trial in July of 1979 and was convicted. However, t...

  I had not intended on doing this case just quite yet. There are so many layers to this case and so much more to be seen yet through the courts. My previous blog site was established enough that I could add cases that were older and unknown and well quite honestly shorter and easier to put together. So initially I was thinking as I did a re-launch that the more stories I got out, the better to get it off the ground. While I do share the links on my person Facebook page as well as the page from the old blog, that is the only traffic it will see unless someone is looking for something specific. And let's face it people are not searching for obscure older cases, they are searching the cases that are in the news and current or a least still in the minds of people. This is another case where I have started, erased and started again more than once. My goal was to tell the story like I do in so many other cases and then analyze it. I was attempting to simply concentrate on th...

  I have been sitting here going over my list of cases and nothing is really jumping out at me. I have researched one and working on it now but when it comes time to put it all together I like for things to be really quiet so I can think a little more clearly and put it together better. That only generally occurs late at night after my husband had gone to bed and only happens as long as I do not fall into another rabbit hole of some sort on television or Google. I tend to try to do cases that “grab” me in the moment. When I am more interested in the case I will not only dig more into the research but I will also enjoy doing it more. That in turn makes them easier and quicker to do and, in my opinion, makes it better. Since this is a “re-launch” of sorts it is making it more difficult. I have vowed not to copy and paste from previous blog for a multitude of reasons. Information can change, sometimes even in much older cases, over time. Sometimes things are added; sometimes t...