Every report of the case of serial killer Stephen Griffiths referred to him as the ‘Crossbow Cannibal’. But where did this name come from? Griffiths gave this name when making his first court appearance before Magistrates in May 2010. He didn’t come up with it himself – because it had already featured in a headline in the Sun …
Author archives: murdermap
A Literary Graph of Murder
What does this graph tell us? It’s meant to show the frequency of the terms murder and homicide in English books from the time of ‘Jack the Ripper’ to the present day. The answer is probably ‘not much’ – apart from showing that murder is used much more often (in those books that have been …
21st Century Court Reporting
Reports that legal history had been made by a judge allowing the use of Twitter in open court for an extradition hearing in London sparked a few earth-shattering predictions. Was this the end of court reporting as we know it? Could this be ‘possibly the final nail in the coffin of shorthand’? Will court hearings soon be televised? …
Third Time Lucky? The case of Anthony Carter
It could almost be a scientific experiment. Take one murder case, subject it to three trials, each with different juries, and await the results. Would you expect the verdicts to be the same?
The Sentencing Con Trick
If a man receives an eight year sentence for robbery, how much time does he actually serve behind bars? It’s not eight years, for a start. It might not even be four years, although most criminals are told they will serve half their sentences before being released on licence. Some are released even earlier on …