Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Reading Assingment Four

Hola! I've started to notice that the more I post about this book (The Innocent Man), I am more and more excited about the next post. When I read now, I think, "That'd make a really great post. Make a mental note." It's also helped me understand the book more. Because I'm mentally reviewing things throughout the course of reading this, I'm retaining more information. Hooray! But, on to the topic of the day...

Keeping in the theme of the last post (unjust things in our judicial system) I bring you... mental illness and how it affects your constitutional rights. In my second post, I talked about how Ron Williamson is "off his rocker." He started out fine, but his mental state has slowly declined over the course of the last 7 chapters. As I read each paragraph, my emotions have a wide range; they go from disbelief to anger to sadness. Whenever I read about Ron, those emotions become overshadowed with worry. I worry about him as the pages go on, and each bad thing that happens to him makes me cringe. I know I said that I thought he might have committed the murder of Debbie Carter, but I'm changing my mind again: I don't think he did it. He just couldn't have. There's evidence that he was at home watching a movie with his mother, but my change in heart comes from Ron's obvious mental illness. He comes off as a person not mentally competent, but he seems so- gentle. And confused. His confusion melts my cold resolve that much more.
When Ron is arrested and put on trial for the Carter murder, he actually refuses to be in the court room. He screams and has outbursts, leading the judge to send him back to his jail cell. I don't think Ron knew any better. He should have had a mental evaluation. Had an evaluation occurred, all legal proceeding would halt. If he was found incompetent, his case could change. He could plead insanity. Ron got a psychological evaluation when he was in jail for the first time. When he was on trial for murder, Ron was not so lucky. His trial proceeded normally, with him locked in a jail cell, unaware of the decisions going on.

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