Any state as a major form of organization of a civilized society imposes on a variety of socially significant functions. One of those is a law enforcement function, due to the need to protect the interests of society and the state from illegal acts that endanger life and its development.
There is no doubt that the modern democratic state of law designed primarily to protect the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of citizens and society as a whole, the constitutional order of the state and other significant social benefits. Nevertheless, it happens quite often that states cannot protect their citizens. Our intention is to show the violation of ethical norms of criminal justice with the help of the case of Jeffery MacDonald (Singer, 1995).
They say that law enforcement is the branch that demands the moral behavior the most comparing with other professions. Law enforcement should follow the particular ethical and moral norms. However, it is a pity that in many cases, law enforcement ignores the illegal behavior of individuals and does not see their acts as a crime. It is ridiculous how they can decide the destiny of another person and charge of something when their acts are not examples for the following. To my mind, our society suffers from the bad judiciary system that does not struggle for justice but gives a birth to the new crimes. We will see this in the case of Jeffrey MacDonald (Singer, 1995).
The Case of Jeffrey MacDonald was very popular case as it provoked many debates and discussions. Jeffrey MacDonald was accused of murder of his wife and two children. It has happened in 1970. As we see, this case was not very simple, it was ambiguous and intricate. The facts of this terrible crime were deviated and contradicted with legal hearings. The wife and two children were killed in their own home. Jeffrey MacDonald was found without conscious also in his home near killed wife and children (Meroney, 2013).
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According to the words of MacDonald, a hippy-type woman who wore a floppy hat and three men attacked them. MacDonald also had injuries on his fingers, hands, shoulders and chest. However, in spite of these facts, MacDonald was charged with this horrifying murder. His injuries were supposed to be self-inflicted. In 1970, MacDonald was charged formally with the murdering of his family. In 1971, MacDonald was released. The parents of his wife supported him and supposed him to be innocent. However, soon their opinion changed, and they began to accuse him in the murder. In 1974, the trial against MacDonald continued (Meroney, 2013).
The sentence of MacDonald was three years for killing of two children and his wife. Is it too long or too short? Indeed, the case of MacDonald was the subject of many TV shows, newspaper articles, and books.
During the investigation of the case, it was cleared that MacDonald cheated his wife in their marriage so it could be the reason of murder. However, MacDonald rejected everything and was looking for support in the press and mass media. Indeed, the reputation of MacDonald was not clean as he was involved in drug affairs. Another suspected was Helena Shoeckley who confessed that she was in the house of MacDonald at the night of murder. However, the jury did not pay attention to that fact.
Helena Stoeckley made the statement that indicated that she was involved in this crime. This was her who wore a floppy hat and she was under the influence of drugs that night. Helena Stoeckley confessed that she burnt the paces of crime. However, despite this, nobody paid attention to that evidence. They said that many children of military officers that were in friendly relations with Stoeckley were involved in drug trafficking that is why these military officers decided to blame MacDonald on this murder in order to avoid suspicion.
As we see, this crime consisted of several crimes: murder of two children and woman, MacDonald’s injuries, drug trafficking and police crime (avoiding suspecting and blaming of an innocent person).
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Besides Stoeckley, Greg Mitchell was one of the suspected in this terrible crime. He was a boyfriend of Helena Stoeckley. He was also a drug addict. Mitchell confessed that he committed many murders. Greg Mitchell admitted his part in murder at MacDonald’s home.
Despite this terrible murder had occurred almost 39 years ago, it is well-know at the present time. It still provokes new debates with new questions. To my mind, MacDonald was not guilty; he suffered from imperfectness of juridical system and criminal justice. This case proves malfeasance of investigation. It is very strange that there were many hearings of this case, but they did not help to clear this terrible crime. The case of Jeffrey MacDonald is the example of the mistake of criminal justice.
Speaking about the psychology of the crime, it is necessary to mention that every crime has its psychological and cognitive background. In this case, the crime is not spontaneous, it is planned in advance. To my mind, in this case there is such psychological aspect as revenge to MacDonald with murder of his children and wife. MacDonald was left alive, and this was the biggest punishment for him. The criminal committed this crime with the aim of revenge and he had chosen a terrible way (Bartol, 1999).
Revenge has the psychological and cognitive nature as it is a reaction of the insulted person on somebody who insults his/her. In this case, MacDonald and his family had become the victims of revenge. Indeed MacDonald got the biggest punishment for his insult (We do not know for what and from who). He lost his family and was charged with murder of his family, he endured many trials, and he had become the victim of torturous injustice and wrongful conviction. MacDonald underwent many discussion of being a murder. The jury was sure that he was guilty but, in spite of their decision, the case was lasting for a long time (Carlsmith, 2008).
Revenge is cognitively complicated phenomenon as it is based on struggling with injustice. However, the problem is that the notion of justice is different in every person.
As we know from the facts and evidence MacDonald was involved in drugs affairs, and he also cheated his wife. His reputation was not clean that is why it could be serve the motives for murder and revenge to him.
In this case, the deal is with aggression, and it is uncontrolled and inhuman. Killing of two children and a woman is the indicator of revenge, aggression and fury. It is difficult to struggle with displays of aggression. As we see, aggression and desire of revenge may lead to crime.
One can explain criminal behavior with his/her genetics and the way of life. In this case, we tend to think that criminals have dealt with drugs this is why their criminal behavior has been connected not only with murder but also with drugs. It is very strange that judge and the jury did not pay attention to this fact.
According to crime typology, on can refer the criminal to the homicide offender as he or she killed three persons. It was a single murder that was intentional and well-planned as it took place at night when all people slept. MacDonald also was injured but left alive, and he saw those criminals, but nobody believed him.
The murders left the paces of their crime, but as we know the prosecution suppressed that evidence and tried to hide the pieces of evidence from a courtroom.
MacDonald was supposed to be an offender. As to the real offenders, they were not given a competence to stand trial evaluation and were not found.
Ethics is one of the most important aspects of criminal justice and security management. Reasonably, criminal justice should be based on the deontological and utilitarian ethical and moral principles. Utilitarianism is the idea of moral preferences and actions in the interests of others. It is one of the powerful and persuasive approaches in philosophy. Utilitarianism is a morally right action. It supports the ideas of making good to other people. Utilitarian ethics determines moral principles of behavior of an individual. Deontological ethics is the ideas of following set rules and duties. It defines right moral choice and what is permitted, required, and forbidden. According to deontological philosophy, when a person follows duties, he/she behaves morally.
However, this case was investigated without following ethics. One may say that together with a murder, we deal with once more crime as police crime. Police crime is an abuse of power. Police crimes can be organized, occupational, and corruptional. Police crime is characterized by violation of rights, excessive use of power, illegal acts, etc. Torts committed by police officers are also supposed to be an excessive use of power. So, it is obvious that ethical principles are violated and ignored very often that is why there is so much violence in the contemporary society. MacDonald’s case was the example of violation of rules. It was strange that policemen did not want to investigate the murder till the end. It was easier for them to charge MacDonald with it.
Nobody denies the fact that, in the judiciary, judges must be models for following when it comes to their personal and professional lives. As to the personal life, his/her moral qualities, his/her attitude to people, human and just conduct are taken into consideration. As to the professional life, we mean his/her knowledge of affair, following of laws, an ability to be just, the right decision making, competence, punctuality of decisions and avoidance of conflicts and personal interest.
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The case of Jeffrey MacDonald was full of ethical violations such as non-investigation of the case till the end, avoidance of the relevant evidence, non-taking into consideration the words of MacDonald who was witness to the terrible event.
As we know, police whose children were under suspicion tried to hide the main evidence and this was the violation of ethical norms of criminal justice. Police did not admit such evidence as human skin under the wife’s fingernails, found brown hair that did not belong to dead women, found blonde hair. All these evidence did not concern MacDonald.
All existing evidence were rejected, lost, destroyed, misrepresented, suppressed and lost. One can guess that police did everything in order to charge MacDonald with this crime.
Conclusions
In conclusion, it is necessary to say that the case of Jeffrey MacDonald is an example of a mistake of criminal justice. This case is really ambiguous and intricate; there were people who believed in MacDonald’s innocence and those who accused him. To my mind, MacDonald was not guilty; he suffered from imperfectness of juridical system and criminal justice. This case proves malfeasance of investigation. It is very strange that there were many hearings of this case, but they did not help to clear this terrible crime.
This murder is the result of psychological insult that soon turned into revenge. In this case, MacDonald and his family had become the victims of revenge. Indeed MacDonald got the biggest punishment for his insult (We do not know for what and from who). He had lost his family, he was charged with murder of his family, he endured many trials, and he had become the victim of torturous injustice and wrongful conviction. According to crime typology, on can refer the criminal to the homicide offender as he or she killed three persons. It was a single murder that was intentional and well-planned as it took place at night when all people slept.
MacDonald was supposed to be an offender. As to the real offenders, they were not given a competence to stand trial evaluation and were not found. This case was investigated without following ethics. One may say that together with a murder, we deal with one more crime as police crime. Police crime is an abuse of power. Police crime is characterized by violation of rights, excessive use of power, illegal acts. As we know police whose children were under suspicion tried to hide the main evidence and this was the violation of ethical norms of criminal justice. Police did not admit such evidence as human skin under the wife’s fingernails, found brown hair that did not belong to dead women, found blonde hair. All these evidence did not concern MacDonald.
All existing evidence were rejected, lost, destroyed, misrepresented, suppressed and lost. One can guess that police did everything in order to charge MacDonald with this crime.
In conclusion, it is necessary to say that such system destroys life and psychology of people, especially if they are not prepared for it and cannot prove their innocence.
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