#8: 2 Centuries, 2 Verdicts

   

                           

   

In the case the State of Montana vs. Edward Rehberg (1885), an eleven year old girl, Clara Rehberg, was physically abused and died from the injuries she sustained from this action. Edward Rehberg, her father, is on trial for her murder that occurred in August of 1885. Back then they didn’t have the same investigating and interrogating techniques as they did today so there is a possibility that the verdict in the 19th century would differ from that of the 20th.

    During the 19th century, the forensic science that goes on in shows like CSI was not even an idea in people’s minds. This puts a larger burden on the attorney to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that his client, Edward Rehberg, is innocent. The only eyewitness testimony was from the victim, and since it was on her deathbed, it was deemed inadmissible in court. Even though the testimony of the older sister Emma gives information that proves the father was not around to do any of the beating, the ideas of the time do not coincide with the accusations of the step-mother’s involvement. No one would suspect a woman to do that kind of damage to a young child. Also, these accusations were stricken from the record because an objection on the grounds of improper cross-examination. As a group, we decided that because of the gender roles and stereotypes that were in place at this time Edward Rehberg would be found guilty.

   

In contrast, during the 20th century we though it would be much easier to prove his innocence because of already proven cases of child abuse by women. Even though it is still not possible to use the victim’s death bed testimony in court, it would certainly help investigators make a stronger case for considering the step-mother a suspect. Also the evidence of the father’s absence all day and his arthritis give the impression that it would have been impossible for him to have committed this atrocity. If given the opportunity to decide the verdict of this case we would say that Mr. Rehberg was innocent of this crime and that his wife, Louisa, beat Clara.

   

Since the daily life and mentalities of people are completely different between the two time periods a case such as this could go either way depending on the century. People now consider women much more equal to men in good ways as well as bad. They see them just as capable to commit violent crimes as they would be for any career.

Links:

http://college.hmco.com/history/us/resources/students/primary/rehburg.htm http://www.kidsafe-caps.org/report.html

http://www.apa.org/pubinfo/anger.html

From Group Commentator:
Our group met in Innovation Hall room 204 on Friday to disccuse the case "State vs. Rehberg". We had a disscussion for about an hour. In the disscusiion we determined that Andrew was the draft writer, Eyma was the Editor, Joe was the image researcher, Diana was the link researcher, and Katie was the group commentator. After we determenined each persons role we started to disccuse the case in general. After we all had a clear understanding we started to talk about the case as if we were a "petite jury". We acted as if we were a jury during the 19th century. We concluded that at this time period it was unheard of for a woman to commit such a henious crime. Even if there was clear testomony that the father wasnt there at the time. Then we acted as a 20th century jury. So we ended up saying that Edward Rehberg would be found innoncent hands down. WIth all the evidence, testimony and all the advance technology we have today we would be able to not only set a free man but also convict the real abuser.

Comments

[Nicole and Becca]

Group Post #8
The post was overall an informative and to the point response. 
Your thesis was good in that the rest of the blog followed it, but it could have been reworded for better flow and clearer clarification.  The topic sentence of the second paragragh does not belong with the rest of the information in the paragragh. The conclusion was very brief and could have been more in depth.  The last sentence would be better understood if it used the word women instead of stating them and they.  The answer was well written gave a lot of useful information.