Talk:Louise Woodward case

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Cleanup

I'm going to overhaul this article later today. I'm not expecting anyone to be making any major edits (or really viewing this page so much), but it'll be an easy fix.

Hjfreyer 10:51, 7 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This case also highlighted the institutional racism of the American judicial system and the supporters of Woodward, namely the British media. When a white girl from the UK murders a brown baby the likes of the Daily Mirror mounted a huge campaign to have Woodward freed, even though they had no idea if she was innocent or not. However when Manjit Basuta, a brown brit who was accused of murdering a white baby no such media frenzy was visible. And the US justice system sent her down for life. - Equality? - Don't make me laugh - 81.179.244.250 18:59, 14 April 2006 (UTC)P[reply]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_412000/412542.stm

The above post is misleading. Unlike LW, Ms Basuta was a professional 43 year old childcarer. She was convicted largely because of eyewitness evidence by a (non-caucasion) employee. There was in fact a considerable effort on her behalf which did lead to an order for a retrial and to her being released in December 2003.

The Louise Woodward entry is also wrong to say that the US Supreme Court rejected the prosecution’s appeal against the reduction of the conviction from second-degree murder to involuntary manslaughter. That appeal was rejected unanimously. It was the prosecution’s appeal against the 279-day sentence which was rejected 4-3.

Popped the baby on the bed

At the moment this article (falsely) assumes that all readers will know what this phrase means in US English. Could a native speaker of American English please clarify it?

You're right that it's not clear, and I've never seen an account of what an actual juror took the term to mean. So it might just be a media-created controversy, or perhaps the defense team trying to do some anticipatory damage control with no regard as to whether or not it was necessary. As a native speaker (who watched the whole trial, by the way), I took "pop" to be a casual way of saying "place" or "put" pretty much just as Woodward said she intended. Akin to the idea of when you intend to visit someone for a short time, an American might say "I'll pop over later." When you hear a non-American accent, you allow a little more leeway as to what the speaker literally means. The only other American meanings of "pop" as a verb are violent ones that don't make sense in this context, such as squeezing something until it explodes or punching someone in the face with your fist. I think it may be a tempest in a tea pot: Woodward always represented herself with a collected, rational demeanor, and no killer in her right mind would confess a violent action like squeezing the baby to death or beating the baby with her fist and then plead not guilty. This "pop" business isn't really evidence of anything one way or the other. But rather than try to settle the linguistic matter, it would be far more instructive and relevant to the article to find out how the jurors actually received the term. JimmyTheSaint 23:32, 6 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

'Pop the baby on the bed' is UK English, surely? Certainly I;ve been using the phrase (and similar) all my life StuartDouglas 11:07, 1 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Salsa ?

She quit law studies to become a salsa dance teacher ?? That is so wierd...she is going to be making no money in salsa teaching, thatz for sure...

UK Response?

I was in the US at the time she was first sentenced, and I heard that there was a strong and widespread reaction against it in the UK. I was curious to know whether that negative reaction was because there were doubts of her guilt, a feeling that the trial was unjust, a feeling that the sentence was too harsh, or some other issue entirely. I was hoping the article might have some information on this.

Muddle-headed Wombat 16:45, 6 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There was a fair bit of media inspired agitation, but for peopl ein general 'strong and widespread' would be pushing it. StuartDouglas 10:57, 1 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed - as far as I can tell, the US media generally got a bit carried away with interpreting the British media's scepticism about the trial and LW's guilt as "strong and widespread" support for her. Take a look at an old opinion page from the BBC around that time and you'll get a sense that UK opinion was more divided than some UK tabloids and the US media seemed to suggest... - 82.152.179.138 00:04, 5 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Category Removed: English Murderers

I removed the category "English murderers" because the conviction that stands is of involuntary manslaughter. DeSales 23:47, 25 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The removal of this category is not supported by the colloquial definition of "murder" provided by the dictionary, or the legal definition of murder provided by Massachusetts law. Cbreitel 04:46, 27 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

On the contrary, given that the conviction was adjusted FROM (second-degree) murder TO manslaughter, makes it very clear that using the term "murderer" for Louise Woodward is not accurate, is not defensible legally and could even be libellous. Murder and manslaughter are very different, even "colloquially". - 82.152.179.138 23:53, 4 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]