Criminal Experience

I recently watched a court trial down at the courthouse on the fifth floor. And for those of you who don't know, this floor is where felonies get taken care of. This preliminary hearing was for Richard Hal Culley to make his plea and to get his sentencing. Culley was being charged with sexually assaulting a 16 year old girl this past summer. He took nude pictures of the young girl and put them on his computer and then he even put the pictures on a disc. The girl, a.k.a. the victim was in the courtroom but her name wasn't released because of reasons like embarrassment of what happened to her. Culley pleaded guilty, but denied the fact that he had submitted these pictures on the internet. He had also sent some inmates pictures of the girl, but denied that too. He said the only person he sent pictures to, were his ex-wife because he said that the girl looked like the ex-wife's daughter. Culley was a 68 year old man with a history of criminal records. Before Culley started sexually assaulting this girl, he would let the girl come over to use his internet. He was a neighbor to this girl, and noticed that she was always by herself because her mom was out doing her own thing. Culley would also buy the 16 year old alcohol, cigarettes, etc. In exchange for letting her use his computer and him buying her alcohol and other things he thought taking pictures of her was a good trade. When Culley would take pictures of the girl, he would either make her take her clothes off or leave only her bra and underwear on. He would then start taking pictures of her and touch himself. He had also told her that he wasn't interested in "her," but he was interested in her "parts." Then he climbed on top of her and began to rape her. This girl was ashamed of herself and disgusted with this old man and what he did to her. She has to live with this for the rest of her life now. The judge sentenced Richard Culley to 12 years at the penitentiary. Only 3 years minimum, and 15 years for the maximum. This experience was a great way to see how the trial processing really works. You can actually see how the process is used in person.

Chapter 11 Woman and the Law

Over the years, woman have come a long way. There's always going to be that saying that woman are supposed to be in the kitchen cooking or cleaning or looking after the kids, because that's how some men and women were raised to think. Women didn't have equal rights with men back in the earlier years. Women were under men, because men were superior to women. A woman was also never considered to be her own property...they were their husband's or father's property. I'm glad that women have come so far in life to reach equality because I think everyone that was put on earth has equal rights to one another. I know that men and women have their differences, but for a man to think he's better than a woman, that's absurd. Today there are stereotypes for men and women. Women are categorized as being weaker than men, men are stronger, therefore a man will perform better in things. That is not necessarily true. Yes, there are jobs that you have to be strong because of the lifting part, but a woman shouldn't be rejected right away to be hired from that job. Woman are often times underestimated. It's interesting to me that men actually thought less of women. Nowadays, if women aren't educated and successful in life, she is looked down upon. Well back then, women didn't really have the choice to become more educated and get a successful job. It's interesting how the world has really changed. I think that men like women that are educated, but I think some men don't like it when women are more successful then them because it makes a man look dumb or not as smart. On a time-line I found online, it wasn't until 1848 that the 12 resolutions was adopted which made it so that women had equal rights as men under the voting rights. I also found that it wasn't until 1896, that women were granted the amendment that said they had the right to vote.
I think that women and men are as equally qualified to do anything they desire.


http://www.infoplease.com/spot/womenstimeline1.html