Bentley - Crime Story PDF

Preview

Summary

An essay about a famous British murder case involving Derek Bentley....

Description

Summary The time was November of 1952. In a town south of London named Croydon, two men were preparing to burgle a warehouse. Their names were Chris Craig and Derek Bentley. A girl saw them trying to get in, and her father called the police. Once police arrived on the scene, they asked the two men to come down, but they refused. Police then tried to go into the warehouse to come up to capture these men. A struggle ensues, and Sgt. officer Fairfax is shot. Bentley is captured, but Craig is still free. Police Constable Sidney Miles attempts to capture Craig, and Craig shoots him dead. Craig continue shooting at police, and tries to escape, falling off the building, but surviving. Police capture both and take them into custody. About a month later, they are tried for murder. Even though Craig pulled the trigger, Bentley was under arrest when PC Miles was killed, and this death occurred around fifteen minutes after Bentley’s alleged cry of, “Let him have it Chris!”, the jury finds both Craig and Bentley guilty of the murder of PC Sidney Miles. Because Craig was 16, he is tried as a minor, and sentenced as a minor, and serves 11 years. However, Bentley is sentenced to death because he is an adult. He was later hanged. Much of the controversy over this case resided in what exactly Bentley meant when he told Craig to “let him have it.” The entire case is basically a study in linguistics, specifically questioning whether or not the language Bentley used indicated that he knew Craig had a gun and was thus part of the murder of the officer. Another item in playing was whether there was coercion involved in the questioning process, and whether the questioning process overall was fair. Overall, the odds are that the police severely interfered with the questioning process, and Bentley was manipulated. Britain did grant a “pardon” of sorts, but it was too little, 45 years too late.

Reflections I think this case is absolutely tragic, and fascinating at the same time. This is an incredible situation where something as small as the way a word is used can have an influence on whether someone lives or dies, which is absolutely incredible. This case also shows why it's so unique that the American justice system is set up like it is, because so much of the world's history has in-

volved deeply corrupt justice systems that rarely if ever put the rights of the accused in first place. Cases like this show why the concept of being innocent until proven guilty is such an important thing, and also shows why it's so important to put more control rather than less on bodies of authority in the government, justice system, and the like. Even though the country tried to do the right thing almost half a century later, it simply wasn't enough....