FIVE FAMOUS TRIALS IN HISTORY

 

The Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard trial has recently brought me to give a look at the most famous trials that shocked the world. Here’s five of the most famous ones.

 

1. Socrates

It dates back to 399 BC and it’s of the first trials I’ve read about. He was accused by his fellow philosophers claiming that “he’s corrupting youth with his works”. He was sentenced to death and forced to drink hemlock, a mortal poison.

Many thinks that his “attempt of corrupting” wasn’t the main reason of his sentence: he may have had the democracy against, and so they may have decided to get rid of him. In Plato’s Apology he describes Socrates’ trail highlighting the importance of free speech and the inefficiency of the laws of the State.

2. Galileo

In 1663 Galileo published a book exposing the Copernican solar system model, which believed the Earth orbiting around the Sun. At that time, the Catholic Church had the Inquisition educate the population by introducing censorship. It tried to impose its vision of the world and it was forbidden to circulate different ideas.

He was accused of heresy and sentenced to imprisonment. He was captured, long-tortured and, eventually, forced to declare abjure. 

Only in 1992 the Pope made his formal apologies to Galileo, condemning the brutality of the Church.

3. Charles Manson

After spending many years in several reformatories, he joined the “Family” and becoming its leader. It was a religious cult made by mostly women who admired Manson as a prophet and calling themselves “Man-Son”. In the last 60s, the group started committing several homicides, spurred by Manson. Their most famous victim is the actress Sharon Tate, killed in his house in Los Angeles with her three hosts.

The consequent trial in 1970-71 had everyone’s eyes on: Manson and his “Family” were sentenced to death but California abolished death penalty in 1972 sothey were sentenced to life sentence.

4. Ted Bundy

Also known as the American boogieman, his favourite target to kill were female young students. Thanks to his charism and charm, he managed to gain their trust and approach them in public spaces. He had an ingenious way (ingenious for a criminal mind) to approach his victims: he pretended to be physically disabled and asked for help. He then turned himself in and was arrested in 1975.

The curious fact about his trail was that he was allowed to be his own defence in court. He was very clever and had studied law in college so he refused counsel and represented himself.

He was then sentenced to death and executed in the electric chair.

5. Amanda Knox

She was involved, together with her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, in the Meredith Kercher’s homicide, taken place in Italy in 2007. Amanda and the victim were English students studying in Perugia and shared the same apartment. Meredith was found dead in their apartment and both Amanda and Raffaele were accused. It gave start to a controversial trial where Amanda was accused of sexual violence, homicides and first-degree burglary.

After several appeals, they were both declared guilty of the charges but Amanda only served four of the 26 years that her sentence had established.

In 2015 they were acquitted for lack of evidence and mistakes connected to the investigations.

Maria, 4scB