Description of the Seminar.
I was very interested in this class from the moment that I read the description on the honors website. I have always been very interested in the criminal justice system - while I am pursuing a degree in interior design, law was always I field I have considered going into. My dad is a lawyer. I was on the mock trial team in high school and love reading books about crime, books about law, and even just reading my state's code. In the fall semester of my first year, I had been reading a lot about the flaws in our criminal justice system and the racial undertones. Because of this, I was very excited to learn more about wrongful convictions from the founder of the Ohio Innocence project himself. In this seminar, which met once I week, a long list of guests came and spoke to the class from exonerees to expert witnesses. This class completely changed the way that I see the criminal justice system and really had a profound impact on me. I thought that I was pretty well educated on the criminal justice system in America, but I was completely taken aback by the corruption and error that happens every day. I loved to hear firsthand from people who were and are directly impacted by the system. I flew through the required readings and even picked up other books on the topics that we were learning about. I loved having my eyes opened to a different point of view than the one I had been exposed to my whole life before this class.
My Work from this Class.
For the final project, we had to research a case in which a wrongful conviction occurred and discuss why the conviction occurred. I chose to write about two different murders and four wrongful convictions that occurred in Ada, Oklahoma. This case became something that I really cared about, and it showcases a lot of the different things that I learned about.
Woodruff_final_paper.pdf | |
File Size: | 59 kb |
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