Name: 10 Trials That Caused Massive Backlash
Uploaded: 2026-01-31T17:08:46.000Z
Duration: 16 min 2 s
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Nicolo Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti went to their death in the Massachusetts electric chair in 1927.

Relative clauses (Restrictive vs. nonrestrictive)

And today we're breaking down trials that, for better or worse, caused a public stir.

This case has been so divisive from the start, and the evidence file has something for everyone.

Amanda Knox, she gets a chance to make her case in Italian court tomorrow.

Knox has been at the center of a sensational murder trial there, where she's been in prison for the past 18 months, accused of killing her roommate.

The 2007 killing of British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia became a global spectacle when her American roommate, Amanda Knox and Knox's Italian boyfriend, Rafael Sollecito, were arrested.

Their 2009 convictions sparked widespread outrage in the United States, where many viewed the case as a miscarriage of justice driven by character assassination.

This case has sparked international headlines and deep controversy over the evidence.

As the verdict was read, a crowd outside the courtroom burst into cheers.

Inside the courtroom, Amanda Knox and her family began to sob.

A 2011 appeals court overturned the convictions and ordered their release only for Italy's Supreme Court in 2013 to annul that acquittal and send the case back for retrial.

When Italy's Supreme Court issued a final acquittal in 2015, the ordeal ended, but disagreement did not.

The case was a defining collision of media frenzy, public judgment and judicial uncertainty.

Today, an Italian court sentencing her to three years in prison after finding Knox in a written statement in 2007 had wrongly accused an innocent man of killing 21 year old Meredith Kercher.

We were looking for having a dismissal and we don't know exactly what is the logic behind this decision.

You know, I always tell people that this case is nothing out of the ordinary.

Stuff like this happens to people all the time in the judicial system.

The only thing that made our case exceptional was they had cameras in the courtroom.

If not for that, they would have killed me and this would have been swept under the rug and completely forgotten about.

The 1993 murders of three young boys in West Memphis shattered the small Arkansas community and and ignited national panic.

Teenagers Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jesse Misskelley Jr.

Were swept up in the investigation, targeted because of Misskelley's shaky confession and a community wide panic over satanic rituals.

The way I dress, the music I listened to, the books I read, you know, as, as evidence at the trial, they actually introduced things like Stephen King novels.

They said that was proof that I was satanic.

Physical evidence tying them to the crime scene was virtually non existent.

Yet Echols received a death sentence and the others life without parole.

As doubts grew, a movement formed amplified by filmmakers and celebrities who highlighted the corrosive influence of satanic panic.

Subsequent DNA testing undermined the state's case, leading to the 2011 Alford plea.

This rare legal maneuver allowed the men to maintain their innocence while while technically pleading guilty in exchange for time served.

Considering all the new evidence that's come forward, considering witnesses who've recanted their original accounts, it's very hard to believe that these prosecutors don't have very serious questions about what happened here.

Will be interesting to see if anyone else takes up the search.

Amid protests and unrest following the police shooting of Jacob Blake In August 2020, 17 year old Kyle Rittenhouse traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin stating he intended to protect property and offer first aid.

During a series of confrontations, he shot three individuals, killing two and injuring another.

Charged with multiple felony counts including first degree reckless homicide and first degree intentional homicide, Rittenhouse went to trial in November 2021.

Prosecutors argued his presence was reckless and provocative, while the defense maintained he acted in lawful self defense.

When the jury acquitted him on all charges, reactions split sharply.

Critics saw the verdict as an endorsement of armed civilian intervention, while supporters viewed it as a straightforward application of self defense law.

Members of the jury, are these your unanimous verdicts?

Is there anyone who does not agree with the verdict as read?

And we started just about three weeks ago.

Casey Anthony, to your understanding, how did she die?

And next to next thing you know, she's missing.

The disappearance of two year old Caylee Anthony in 2008 and the subsequent prosecution of her mother, Casey Anthony became a media obsession.

Prosecutors asserted Anthony killed her daughter to escape parental responsibility.

Bolstered by circumstantial evidence and behavior the public found inexplicable, the defense countered with a theory of accidental drowning and family concealment.

Haley Anthony died on June 16, 2008 when she drowned in her family's swimming pool.

It's a story prosecutors now think Casey stole from her former Jail cell neighbor.

A citizen called the Orange County Sheriff's Office left some information about an inmate who may have had contact with Ms.

When the jury acquitted Anthony of murder and manslaughter in 2011, convicting her only for lying to police, the public reaction bordered on disbelief.

Many cited her delay in reporting Caylee missing as a damning indicator.

But jurors later stated they did not find the forensic evidence sufficiently conclusive to prove how the child died.

Casey Anthony cried as the court clerk read the jury's verdict as to the charge of first degree murder.

Verdict as to count one, we the jury find the defendant not guilty.

The jury delivered not guilty verdicts on all counts of murder, manslaughter and child abuse.

They handed down guilty verdicts on four lesser charges of lying to police officers.

All of the defendants gave videotaped statements to police implicating themselves or others.

But some of their attorneys charged today that police obtained the confessions by force.

The first statement, he said he had nothing to do with it, and

they put pressure on him, A lot of pressure.

In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Youssef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Corey Wise, were arrested for the brutal assault of a jogger in Central Park.

Their convictions hinged on confessions taken after high pressure interrogations without lawyers present.

The trials unfolded amid intense racial anxiety and sensational press coverage.

There have been videos, movies shown about the case, and

you came out with a full page ad saying that they should die, that they shared the death penalty.

All five were convicted, with Wise serving the longest time behind bars.

In 2002, serial offender Matias Reyes confessed and his DNA matched the crime, leading to the convictions being vacated.

Public fury shifted from the defendants to the system itself, resulting in a $41 million settlement with the City of New York in 2014.

Y' all don't really understand what we went through.

Y' all tried to dehumanize us as human beings.

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10 Trials That Caused Massive Backlash

panic

evidence

bias

split