Mock Assignment
(Mrs McDonald)
In this report I will be reviewing the evidence of this case for a safe and just verdict.
The case that I will be reviewing is a murder of a woman approximately 30 years of age. She was found dead in a park, and it seemed she had been a victim of a frenzied attack.
The first appendix I will be reviewing is Appendix 1, which is the autopsy report. The victim was killed as a result of multiple stab wounds to the scalp and neck. There was a defence wound on the ring finger of the right hand (incised wound). The victim was also cut vertically and horizontally in the neck and stabbed in the cervical spine (C3) which can cause paralysis and can stop the person from breathing. There was also a scalp bruise on the right side of the forehead. So what may have happened is the victim noticed the perpetrator had a knife and put her hands up, which explains the defence would on the finger. Then the perpetrator went on to hit the victim on the head which may have knocked them unconscious, and that’s when the perpetrator made all the cuts and incisions on the victim.
The second appendix is the weather report on the day of the murder. By the evening much of the rain over England, Wales and Northern Ireland had died away with on Scotland remaining wet, and the sunset was a 7:15 pm. There is also another piece of evidence that states an eye-witness saw Mrs McDonald at around 7pm, but according to the Turnbull Criteria, any sightings that were in poor lighting could affect what a person can see.
The third appendix is an offender profile report. This report shows that this was a disorganised killer, is unstable, unskilled and uncontrolled. They have a lower-than-average IQ, and is socially and sexually incompetent. It is thought that the offender lives alone or with their mother, and their behaviour would have a major change after they had committed the murder. They are also suspected to live close to the crime scene. The offender is suspected to be between 25-30 years of age, likely to be male and of white ethnicity. He may have attended a special needs school and had severe behavioural problems, and have below-average intelligence. May be unemployed, an only child or from a small family. It is also suspected that the offender has strong hatred and anger towards women.
The fourth appendix I will be reviewing is an eye-witness statement from John Chandler. In this eye-witness statement, it does not specify what time the statement was taken, and after he gave the police his statement, he was not taken to the police station to complete a sketch or E-fit of the person that he saw, he did that 4 months after the sighting, which according to the Turnbull Criteria, can affect the memory as he did not see the person for a long period of time, it was a matter of seconds. On more of a positive note, Mr Chandler was able to give a free recall on what he exactly saw and when asked to reinstate the context he did, and that is part of the cognitive interview technique which gets 47% more detail than a standard police interview.
The fifth appendix I will be reviewing I will be reviewing is a note from a juror to the trial judge. In this note, the juror had accused a fellow juror of bringing in newspaper clippings of the defendants’ personal information from the internet and photos of the victim, presuming when the victim was dead, as it tells me in the brief the person who found the body took pictures, so this could mean the person in question sent the photos to the juror. Also, this was on the third day of deliberations and the rest of the jurors discussed this. As soon as the accused juror came in with the information and photos, someone should have spoken sooner because now they could be influenced by what they have seen.
The sixth appendix that I will be reviewing is the police custody record. In this document, it states that the suspect is female, but is 5’11”, and this is a very unusual height for a woman. John Chandler also stated that the person he supposedly saw was around 5’3”. It also states that she understood her rights and that she did not want to seek legal advice, but just wanted to see her mum, bearing in mind that Mrs McDonald is a fully grown adult, so this could suggest that she has special needs if she only wants to see her mum, which could also mean that if she is special needs then she may not have understood her rights correctly if they were not explained to her in a way that she would understand, and in the offender profile, it does say that the offender may live with their mother.
The seventh appendix I will be reviewing is the list of Mrs McDonalds’ previous convictions. In this document, it lists all of Mrs McDonalds’ previous convictions. She was charged with possession of a Class B drug, and was given a sentence of 5 months in prison, Common Assault, which she was on probation for, ABH, was given a sentence of 24 months in prison with supervision, and harassment, which she was sentenced to 6 months in prison. The last three convictions could have been directed at the same person, or could even be the person that has been killed, but, if it was the person the last 3 crimes were directed at and was the one who ended up dead, that would have been said right at the beginning.