The judicial system in the United States has helped convict numerous people for the crimes they have committed, but it has also wrongfully convicted several people. Most of the time these wrongful convictions are a genuine mistake, but sometimes important documents are hidden or lied about to arrest the innocent. Sometimes these errors lead to innocent people spending several years of their life in jail for a crime they never committed or some spend their whole lives in a cell to never be given the justice they deserve. These injustices cause several people to have less faith in the judicial system to make the right choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Court Junkies is a podcast that was created by Jillian Pandac to shed light on the injustices in the judicial system by reviewing court documents, interviews and information from previous cases that have controversial results. Each episode discusses a different case where Jillian introduces new interviews and information that wasn\u2019t originally discussed in the case to help the audience to question the integrity of the results. The first and second episode discuss a case about a daycare worker named Melissa Calusinski who was arrested for the murder of Benjamin Kingan. Melissa was working the day that Ben was found unresponsive at daycare and called medical services, but by the time they had arrived it was too late to save Ben. The autopsy report that was done on Ben showed that foul play was involved in Ben\u2019s death because of a skull fracture that had occurred within three hours of his death. These results led to the arrest of Melissa who when pressured admitted that Ben had hit his head. Years later a mysterious phone call revealed that newly discovered x-rays had been found that never made it into trial, which showed that Ben did not have a recent skull fracture, but an old injury. The decision that Melissa is guilty still stands, but Jillian concludes the podcast by saying that she thinks Melissa is innocent and this causes all viewers to question the true story of Ben Kingan\u2019s death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To encourage the readers to question the cases presented, Jillian interviews close relatives, transitions with sad music and includes factual evidence from the case to allow for listeners to become invested in all the people that are involved and all the facts that are a part of the case. In the case involving Melissa the interrogations are included to show the emotion of Melissa and the intense pressure that is put on her to answer the questions that are asked. Jillian also included facts from medical professionals, such as the coroners involved in the case, to show the injuries on Ben\u2019s body and she even included the results of Melissa\u2019s IQ test that were much lower than average to help provoke the sympathy of viewers. Slow music is played during the transitions to continue to remind people that are listening that something isn\u2019t right with the case being presented and that they should be encouraged to question the case. The final concluding effort to draw sympathy comes from the interviews at the recent trial. Melissa\u2019s mom and sister both talk about how much progress the case has made and how excited they are to possibly have their loved one be free, which leads to people feeling empathy for these struggling family members. The evidence and emotions that are introduced during the podcast are intended to help viewers question the fairness of the judicial system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of these features are strategically placed in the podcast to gain the reader\u2019s attention and to bring their emotions into their thought process. Jillian uses these to cause the readers to question if the judicial system is just.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Word Count: 618
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