Post #8 We The Jury

State vs. Rehberg was a case involving child abuse in which Edward Rehberg was tried for murder of his youngest daughter, Clara. It is an important case because it involved the legal status of children and ideas of social classes. Juries in the 19th century were biased towards gender, social class, and age. Edward Rehberg was tried and most likely found guilty of murder. If he had been tried during the 21st century he would have been found innocent.

At the time that Edward was tried in court there were many differences between the ideas of society and modern time’s ideas. Back then people saw the working class (which was the one Edward was considered to be in) to be a very family oriented class. The father would work to feed and provide for his kids and wife, and the mother would stay at home to take care of the kids and housework. During this time it was seen that a mother was the repository of moral judgment, nurture and domesticity. Therefore a mother could not be capable of maiming her child so horribly. Fathers were seen as more aggressive and definitely the head of the household. If the kids did something wrong the father would be the one to discipline them, and that could often mean physical punishment. The evidence against Edward was weak, but the jury was still biased and chose to believe that a mother could not beat her child so horribly. They disregarded the death confession by Clara, in which she
admitted that her step-mother had done the malicious beating for two reasons. Clara was not religious so her word could not be trusted. She was not of sound mind when she gave her confession. With all this the 19th century jury would convict Edward Rehberg of being guilty to the crime of murdering his daughter.

The 21st century has brought a more equal judicial system and unbiased juries. These two ideas along with the changing society would bring a completely different trial to Edward Rehberg. The jury would be more logical and think the evidence through thoroughly. First the evidence clearly shows that Edward had no time in the day to commit the crime. All evidence points to him being busy with the haystack with Joe Tibbow, a worker. He only took a break for dinner and then immediately went back to the haystack. Clara was with her step-mother the whole day helping her in the house and kitchen. The first clue that points to Edward not being capable of beating Clara are in her wounds. Clara was beaten with a utensil used in the kitchen, As many men of the time, Edward works outside and would not have been in the kitchen. Clara was burned with boiling water. How could the dad beat her and simultaneously have boiling water to throw at her unless he was cooking? He was clearly never
cooking on that day. It was stated that Clara was beaten with wooden shoes. It is unlikely that Edward would be wearing wooden shoes. The jury would have to think about why Edward would beat his child so horribly then take her into town to help her and show everyone what happened. No evidence points to Edward being guilty of murdering Clara. In 21st century courts he would not be convicted of this crime.

The bottom line is that Edward was not given a fair trial or an impartial jury back in the 19th century. All the evidence shows no sign of him committing the crime but he would still be convicted because of a biased jury. The improved judicial system of the 21st century would give Edward the trial he deserves. Not only would he have been found innocent, most likely the step-mother would have been found guilty. No jury in modern times would convict Edward Rehberg of murdering his daughter and he would leave the courtroom a free man.

Links
The Court Case

Comments

[Commentator]

For Assignment #8 our group met at Lauren's dorm friday afternoon.We decided Omar would write the paper and Jessica and Becca would proof read it. Lauren reaseached links and Nikki wrote the group comment. Jessica could not make it to the meeting.