True Crime Stories

The next two cases on my agenda to put together are very similar. They both pertain to the murders of young girls, but they also both show how easily an innocent person can be convicted when there are those out there determined they are the perpetrators. I have spoken recently about cases in which from a legal standard are not necessarily “solved” because there has not been a conviction in a court of law. When it comes to the case of twelve year old Tina Harmon, two men actually were convicted and sentenced to life but those convictions were reversed and the two men were set free. The actual perpetrator was never officially charged with her death. Robert Anthony Buell was executed in September of 2002 for the murder of another young girl, eleven year old Krista Lee Harrison. And, while at the time of his death, despite not being charge, there was a universal belief that he was the murderer of Tina Harmon. Buell went to the execution chamber protesting his innocenc...

This is one of the classic cases that helped, or harmed, the idea of domestic violence reform. By the mid-1980's domestic violence was being taken a little more serious, or at least on the surface, and for many in law enforcement and government, that is what counts it seems. If a man stalked or even beat his wife or girlfriend say in the 1960's there were many who believed she “must have done something to deserve” it. By the 1980's women were being taken a little more seriously and were able to get things like restraining orders and in some case even get their abuser put in prison. That was the case in Indiana. Lisa Bianco was able to get some action done against her ex-husband, Alan Matheney. And then one day in 1989 he was given a day pass from prison without any supervision. Lisa had no idea that this had happened. Alan made his way to his ex-wife's home and her neighbors watched helplessly in horror as he chased her down the street and beat her to death...

There has been an upswing of executions in 2017 after a lull of them in many states. In some, if not most cases, it had to do with first a medication used in executions being difficult to obtain and after a few what some called “botched” executions. A lot of this causes many states to halt executions. Arkansas was one of those states. After obtaining another medication to replace the one that could not longer be shipped to the United States for use in executions, they executed four men in the last week of April. Even Florida had an execution just this past week, their first in over eighteen months, after being one of the most active states when it comes to executions. Ronald Phillips became the first in Ohio on July 26 th in over three years. By all accounts it seems that all seventeen executions that have taken place in 2017 have been conducted without issue and it seems that many of these states intend to move forward in executions. Regardless of your position on the deat...