Unit 6 discussioon: Describe a legal case in your state or community that evolved, perhaps more publicly than others, around the issue of the legal process—that is Civil or Criminal procedure. In other words, describe a case that involved some aspect of the legal process that made the case stand out.
First, identify the purpose of the trial. Identify who brought the charges and the defendant.
Next, select a specific procedure such as issues of jurisdiction, right to a trial, discovery, pleadings, rules of evidence, rules of the trial, beyond a reasonable doubt (any aspect of criminal or civil PROCEDURE discussed in Unit 6 video lecture). Describe the procedure you selected.
Then discuss how the legal process shaped the litigation?
Finally, discuss the following: Just as the Benjamin Franklin’s (1785) quote, “That it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer…,” reflects how the value of preserving liberty shapes criminal process, what social values were reflected, advanced, or hindered by the process you describe?
If you do not know of a case, select a scene from a television drama series such as Law and Order or Bull and respond to the same question.
Be sure to not just describe any case, the evidence, and the verdict. In this discussion, you are looking specifically at the judicial procedures such as issues of the procedure discussed in Professor Helton’s video lecture. You are looking at issues of right to a trial, discovery, pleadings, rules of evidence, rules of the trial or beyond a reasonable doubt in this specific case, how it impacted the case, and what value was considered (reflected, advanced, or hindered) by the process you describe.
Havasupai Tribe vs Arizona State University, tribal member Carletta Tilousi discovered the failure to use informed consent and research misconduct of blood samples taken from more than 200 blood samples from tribal members were collected, which researchers claimed to being used for studies of Type 2 to understand why more than half of the members were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (Boomersbach 2008). However, mental health disorders and other studies related to it such as schizophrenia, ethnic migration and population inbreeding were being studied.
Havasupai Tribe filed a lawsuit against the Arizona Board of Regents in 2004 over the misuse of samples taken from 400 Havasupai tribal members between 1990 and 1994. An important challenge to the use of “informed consent” where participants signed informed consents that said the samples would be used for genetic studies on diabetes (Bommersbach 2008; Hart and Sobraske 2003).
The University obtained approval for studies on diabetes and schizophrenia, but Havasupai tribal members alleged that the University failed to specify that the samples may be used for studies on schizophrenia. Mental illness is taboo in Havasupai culture and taken care of in a culturally sensitive manner (Harmon 2010b). DNA is sacred to many Indigenous people and perfectly stated by the late Hopi geneticist, Dr. Frank Dukepoo, who said, “To us, any part of ourselves is sacred. Scientists say it is just DNA. For an Indian, it is not just DNA, it is part of a person, it is sacred, with deep religious meaning. It is part of the essence of a person (Petit 1998).
References:
(Bommersbach 2008).
(Harmon 2010b).
(Hart and Sobraske 2003).
(Petit 1998)
