I Watch Documentaries
There was this amazing 5-part documentary / drama series called The Trial: A Murder in the Family on last week or the week before on Channel 4. Absolutely fascinating.
It's known that you aren't allowed to see the jury's decision-making or deliberating in a trial, so this documentary aimed to do that by creating a case where a husband was on trial for the murder of his wife in September 2015. He was saying he didn't do it but it was difficult.
He said he found her body and called 999 for only 1 second, then 2 minutes later called his friend who didn't answer, then 6 minutes later called 999 again. Why would he wait 8 minutes to get help if he didn't kill her?
We found out that the wife (Carla) and her husband (Simon - the one on trial) were separated and Carla was living with a new boyfriend called Lewis. Lewis had been a police officer 16 years ago but was dismissed because he used unreasonable force and broke a suspect's rib. This suggests he is a violent person - could he have actually killed Carla?
As it turns out, Carla was pregnant, and it was Simon's, meaning they were possibly reconciling their love because Lewis and Carla's relationship was deteriorating and they were no longer active in the bedroom. Carla and Simon have 2 children called Catherine and Oscar, Catherine about 13 and Oscar about 8. Could Lewis have killed Carla because he was jealous and angry about her affair?
Carla's sister made a statement saying she had previously witnessed an argument between Simon and Carla where Simon had slapped Carla hard around the face, suggesting he is also a violent man with a short temper.
Simon's ex-wife from 25 years ago also stated that he had slapped her around the face after she humiliated him in front of her friends at a dinner party. They divorced because of that.
Throughout all of this, we are seeing the jury's discussions during the breaks and about their decisions. People were saying about sexism regarding male domestic abuse, they were bringing in their own experiences (one man had said his wife had cheated on him while he was away in the army, but that doesn't mean he wanted to kill her). It was very intriguing.
There was another witness named Danny who said he saw Lewis in the area of Carla's house around the time she would have died, meaning the jury were considering Simon as possibly innocent because Lewis was there and he had a short temper.
Carla was also secretly planning to move herself and her 2 children up to Scotland where her dad used to live. She had rented a house for at least 6 months - 1 year and was planning on moving the children up there and they would go to school. So she was planning on leaving both Lewis and Simon, even though she was pregnant with Simon's baby.
In the end and spoiler alert in case anyone hasn't seen it, the jury couldn't agree on a majority. 8 voted not guilty, 4 voted guilty. So it was a hung jury. All 4 guilty votes were women, possibly due to the aspect of men being stereotypically more violent than women.
We got to see what happened - Simon went round to Carla's house in the morning and Carla told him she was leaving with the children. Simon got angry and said things like how could she, we were happy, we've been having this affair for over 6 months. Carla said that he never made her happy and she felt trapped with him which made Simon even angrier. He pushed her to the floor and presumably started strangling her (this was obviously not shown on camera, but we could hear the struggles). We could hear Carla saying "I'm pregnant! I'm pregnant!" but Simon didn't stop, possibly because he was seeing red. Eventually the struggling stopped and Carla was dead. It then showed Simon in his car dialling 999, before hanging up after 1 second. He then goes to the loo, picks up an ornament that was kicked over in the struggle, and then rings 999 a second time.
So the jury couldn't find him guilty and most of them said it was because of Danny's statement. If Danny hadn't seen Lewis in the area, then they said it was possible they would have found Simon guilty. But because Lewis was seen there, it made him a possible killer too.
I just found this documentary so fascinating. Mainly because I'm very interested in the psychology of murder, so seeing a murderer so coolly say he is innocent even though he knows he killed his wife is so intriguing! Also, to see the jury and the court process like that was fascinating. Even though I've given away the ending, it's definitely worth watching because it gives such a detailed insight into the jury's decision-making process. Definitely watch it if you are interested in psychology.
It's known that you aren't allowed to see the jury's decision-making or deliberating in a trial, so this documentary aimed to do that by creating a case where a husband was on trial for the murder of his wife in September 2015. He was saying he didn't do it but it was difficult.
He said he found her body and called 999 for only 1 second, then 2 minutes later called his friend who didn't answer, then 6 minutes later called 999 again. Why would he wait 8 minutes to get help if he didn't kill her?
We found out that the wife (Carla) and her husband (Simon - the one on trial) were separated and Carla was living with a new boyfriend called Lewis. Lewis had been a police officer 16 years ago but was dismissed because he used unreasonable force and broke a suspect's rib. This suggests he is a violent person - could he have actually killed Carla?
As it turns out, Carla was pregnant, and it was Simon's, meaning they were possibly reconciling their love because Lewis and Carla's relationship was deteriorating and they were no longer active in the bedroom. Carla and Simon have 2 children called Catherine and Oscar, Catherine about 13 and Oscar about 8. Could Lewis have killed Carla because he was jealous and angry about her affair?
Carla's sister made a statement saying she had previously witnessed an argument between Simon and Carla where Simon had slapped Carla hard around the face, suggesting he is also a violent man with a short temper.
Simon's ex-wife from 25 years ago also stated that he had slapped her around the face after she humiliated him in front of her friends at a dinner party. They divorced because of that.
Throughout all of this, we are seeing the jury's discussions during the breaks and about their decisions. People were saying about sexism regarding male domestic abuse, they were bringing in their own experiences (one man had said his wife had cheated on him while he was away in the army, but that doesn't mean he wanted to kill her). It was very intriguing.
There was another witness named Danny who said he saw Lewis in the area of Carla's house around the time she would have died, meaning the jury were considering Simon as possibly innocent because Lewis was there and he had a short temper.
Carla was also secretly planning to move herself and her 2 children up to Scotland where her dad used to live. She had rented a house for at least 6 months - 1 year and was planning on moving the children up there and they would go to school. So she was planning on leaving both Lewis and Simon, even though she was pregnant with Simon's baby.
In the end and spoiler alert in case anyone hasn't seen it, the jury couldn't agree on a majority. 8 voted not guilty, 4 voted guilty. So it was a hung jury. All 4 guilty votes were women, possibly due to the aspect of men being stereotypically more violent than women.
We got to see what happened - Simon went round to Carla's house in the morning and Carla told him she was leaving with the children. Simon got angry and said things like how could she, we were happy, we've been having this affair for over 6 months. Carla said that he never made her happy and she felt trapped with him which made Simon even angrier. He pushed her to the floor and presumably started strangling her (this was obviously not shown on camera, but we could hear the struggles). We could hear Carla saying "I'm pregnant! I'm pregnant!" but Simon didn't stop, possibly because he was seeing red. Eventually the struggling stopped and Carla was dead. It then showed Simon in his car dialling 999, before hanging up after 1 second. He then goes to the loo, picks up an ornament that was kicked over in the struggle, and then rings 999 a second time.
So the jury couldn't find him guilty and most of them said it was because of Danny's statement. If Danny hadn't seen Lewis in the area, then they said it was possible they would have found Simon guilty. But because Lewis was seen there, it made him a possible killer too.
I just found this documentary so fascinating. Mainly because I'm very interested in the psychology of murder, so seeing a murderer so coolly say he is innocent even though he knows he killed his wife is so intriguing! Also, to see the jury and the court process like that was fascinating. Even though I've given away the ending, it's definitely worth watching because it gives such a detailed insight into the jury's decision-making process. Definitely watch it if you are interested in psychology.
22-25, F
