Midterm 2

Question 1

This season is about the case of Curtis Flowers, a black man from a small town in Mississippi who has spent the past 22 years fighting for his life—and a white prosecutor who’s spent that same time trying just as hard to execute him.

Answer 1

1. “In the Dark”, by Madeleine Baran.
2. Madeleine Baran
3. Contents of season 2 are introduced in this episode
4. Podcast is an example of wound culture within the media, it sensationalizes Curtis Flower’s case as a white prosecutor tries his case 6 times, since Flower was never acquitted.

Question 2

It was a jigsaw puzzle. They throw the pieces in and they fit. They tracked him from the time he left his house to the time he got back. Well, OK, we didn’t find the tennis shoes. We found a tennis shoe box, though. We didn’t find the gun, but we found the projectiles. The evidence was there. You just had to sit down, listen to it with an open mind, and then come back with your verdict.

Answer 2

1. “In the Dark”, by Madeline Baran
2. Randy Stewart
3. The speaker attempts to justify how and why Curtis Flowers is guilty for the murders
4. This quote highlights tellability, it gives “a point” to the story which is a key aspect of what makes a story, a story.

Question 3

In criminal cases, the trial is the paramount event for determining the defendant’s guilt or innocence. Where, as here, a defendant has been afforded a fair trial and convicted of the offense for which he was charged, the constitutional presumption of innocence disappears. Federal habeas courts do not sit to correct errors of fact, but to ensure that individuals are not imprisoned in violation of the Constitution. Thus, claims of actual innocence based on newly discovered evidence have never been held to state a ground for federal habeas relief absent an independent constitutional violation occurring in the course of the underlying state criminal proceedings.

Answer 3

1. Narratives of Guilt and Innocence - Ralph Gruenwald
2. Herrera v. Collins, 1993, a supreme court decision
3. In regular criminal trials, when a defendant is charged, they are considered guilty because it has been proven. Federal courts exist to ensure defendants haven’t had their constitutional rights violated, and therefore when new evidence is presented that should go to state courts instead of federal ones.
4. Significant because it highlighted the importance of finality in criminal judgements, and just claims of innocence without constitutional violations are not enough for federal court action.

Question 4

My memory of Ted Bundy is clear, but bifurcated. I remember two Teds. One is the young man who sat beside me two nights a week in Seattle’s Crisis Clinic. The other is the voyeur, the rapist, the killer, and the necrophile. Try as I might, I still can’t bring the images together. Looking at them under an imaginary microscope, I cannot superimpose the murderer over the promising student.

Answer 4

1. The Stranger Beside me by Ann Rule
2. Ann Rule
3. The quote recalls Ann’s memory of Ted Bundy, while vocalizing her trouble understanding how a man who was beside her in a moment of need could also be such a villianous person, and she can never see the two as one.
4. The “point” that Ann Rule is trying to get across to the audience is that Ted had two different personas which indicates her two different narratives due to her experiences. One narrative being personal since she had a friendly relationship with Ted as a work colleague. However, she then began to have a criminal and suspicious perspective of Ted as the stars began to align with the murders and how her close relationship with Ted was connected to her impression of Bundy.

Question 5

[_____’s] crop of curly brown hair gave him a faunlike appearance.

Answer 5

1. The Stranger Beside me, by Ann Rule
2. Ann Rule
3. Making him seem young and innocent
4. We see Ann Rule mention this toward the beginning of her book. The juxtaposition of this is to paint the picture of the kind of man that Ann thought Bundy to be and how she initially viewed him before his conviction. It again, sets a young and innocent tone to Bundy’s character before dissecting into the weeds of the darker side of him.

Question 6

You go to the mouth of any great river and pull out a handful of water that’s flowing from it and say, where did it come from? To trace it back, okay? And this is what we’re dealing with here— We’re talking about microscopic events as it were, and undistinguishable, undetectable events. The melting of a single snowflake as it were, okay? The advent of spring and the combination of other forces perhaps and the ultimate result that we appreciate which is the river itself.

Answer 6

1. Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, by Joe Berlinger
2. Ted Bundy
3. Bundy uses metaphors to explain manifestations of a condition, such as sexual desires that lead to violence. He implies like a river, the manifestations could begin as a small speck that is barely detectable, but later grows into a great river that can’t be stopped.
4. Homodiegetic narrativity is where the character in the story tells their story. We see this present in this scene in the documentary as Ted Bundy gives a close up to his thoughts and desires. Also, controlling of the narrative. Bundy wanted to have a sense of control over the way that people saw him so he made sure to eliminate some of the legitimacy of history in relation to events in order to insert his own narrative as to what happened. He is taking narrative agency.

Question 7

Chris, I know you didn’t mean to, but you made me feel really unwanted last night. After a good meal, we came home, you binged on the rest of the cookies, then with your nightgown around your waist and while I was rubbing your hands and arms, you farted and fell asleep. I’m not mad or expecting a big production. I just wanted you to know how I feel without us getting into another fight about sex. Just think how you might have felt if you were left hanging on your birthday. ILY [signed] “M.”

Answer 7

1. Narratives of Guilt and Innocence, Ralph Grunewald
2. Michael
3. A letter by MIchael left for his wife to read, following an argument they had. It was used as primary evidence against him in a murder case. It showcased the sexual aggression that he had.
4. Demonstrates how the narrative blueprint can impact individuals who are innocent but are portrayed in a particular manner due to the archetypes established within the criminal realm.