A Case Study of The Patty Hearst Trial Essay

The Patty Hearst Trial The Patty Hearst trial is a well-known criminal case originally tried in the 1970s. Wesley Walker and I reenacted the Patty Hearst case as the prosecuting attorneys. In this case there were several facts we had to provide to the jury in order to effectively prosecute this case. Patty was on trial for the use of an assault weapon to commit felony bank robbery, and we had to prove to the jury, beyond a reasonable doubt, that she indeed committed bank robbery. Although in our case the class was split on the verdict, in Pattys real trial she was found guilty by the jury in California. In this paper, I will show how Wesley and I effectively worked together, using both ethos and logic, to provide the jury with a well organized presentation of the facts in the trial of Patty Hearst. The Patricia Hearst case is not a simple case rather it is a case involving a kidnapping, brainwashing, and force. As the prosecution we could not simply present the facts showing that she committed the crime, rather we had to additionally convince the jury that brainwashing was an explanation for her actions, but not a justification for her crime. We also had to provide the jury with evidence that Patty committed this crime of her own free will. The defense made this a hard one to prove. They had proof from our own textbook to show the jury that Patty was brainwashed, and our job was to convince the jury that brainwashing is not a justification. Also a test question from the Thursday before the trial referred to the to Pattys brainwashing. We therefore concluded that it would be difficult to show that she was not brainwashed. Therefore, rather than try to prove that she was not brainwashed, we decided to convince the jury that brainwashing was not legal justification for her actions. We also brought in recordings...