Free Peggy Hettrick Essay Example

In any law suit, several people play a key role in determining the route with which the case will take. The judge, the prosecutor and the defense counsel are very important people. They determine whether the accused will be found guilty or will be found innocent. In this case, the role of the judge is to ensure that justice is serviced. The judge holds an authoritative position hence he or she is responsible for ensuring that the rights of the person being accused are balanced with the interests of the society.
The prosecutor on the other hand presents the case against the person being accused. The defense counsel in turn represents the accused person so as to prevent him or her from being arrested or convicted during the court process. Therefore, these law practitioners will be discussed and their roles identified as in the case of Peggy Hettrick.
Peggy Hettrick case is a case that revolves around the unsolved murder of Peggy Hettrick in 1987 in Fort Collins. In this case, Tim Masters was accused for the murder of Peggy in cold blood. He was charged and then convicted of killing Peggy Hettrick. Nevertheless, Tim Masters was later exonerated of the charges that had been filed against him. This exoneration was after he had been locked behind bars for several years. In this case, we can identify how these law practitioners worked on information that was inconclusive. The fact that the little Tim Masters had failed to report that he had found a body as he was heading to school made him to be a key suspect in the murder case. In addition, the fact that many pages of artwork characterized with violence and a collection of knives found in his room also made him a key suspect.
The defense counsel failed in its duty of protecting the rights of the innocent. Even though Tim Masters had items that could implicate him to the murder, there was no actual evidence that those items were used in the murder. For instance, even though a collection of knives was found in his bedroom, there was no traces of blood or hair belonging to Peggy. Even the results for the lie detector were inconclusive. Had he committed the crime, the lie detector could have sniffed him out of the lie. Despite the pressure because of the questioning without any adult present, the young boy maintained his innocence. Unknown fingerprints were found on Peggy’s body. In addition, they did not resemble Tim’s fingerprints hence implying that he was not involved. It is the duty of the defense counsel to ensure that the accused is not arrested or sentenced by working on the accused evidence. The defense should not have let him be convicted because all the evidence that was found did not tie him to the murder. The role of the defense counsel was to make sure that Tim Masters remains innocent and thus preventing him from the conviction. It failed on that part.
The role of the judge is to be impartial and make his or her judgment rationally and based on the evidence provided. He or she should also observe the evidence and identify the link between the evidence and the suspect. In this case the conviction was done unfairly because there was no solid evidence that could tie Tim Masters to the murder. In this case, the judge leaned on the interests of the society more hence making a wrongful judgment that sent an innocent person in prison.
The prosecutor in this case played a crucial part towards the conviction. The prosecutor was able to provide evidence in front of the court for the accused to be found guilty. Even though no evidence could tie the murder directly to the accused, it was enough to convict and sentence Tim Masters. Therefore, we have been able to see the different roles this persons played in the case.

References

Susan, S. (n.d). For December 24, 2011, CBS. 48 Hours (CBS News),