On Trial for Murder: America’s Most Famous Murder Trials

In the 20th and 21st centuries, America has witnessed sensational trials, from the Gilded Age of New York City in the 1900s to the racially charged courtrooms in the segregated South to the culturally complicated landscape of today. What is it about cases like the murder of Emmett Till, the anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti, the “Killings of the Flower Moon,” and the trial of college-aged Amanda Knox that capture our imagination?

Criminals have many motives for murder—passion, greed, racial hatred, ideology—but when you step inside a courtroom, you discover that verdicts are often delivered for the same reasons. Media smears, bribed witnesses, corrupt investigators, and psychological blind spots have made a spectacle of many murder trials. These stories stay with us long after the judge bangs the gavel.

On Trial for America’s Most Famous Murder Trials takes you inside the courtrooms and uncovers the stories of 10 of the most well-known trials since the turn of the 20th century. For this riveting foray into criminal law, your guide is Professor Douglas O. Linder, the Elmer Powell Peer Professor of Law at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law and creator of the Famous Trials website.

Professor Linder walks you through the story of 10 notorious murders across the country, including the vengeance-driven killing of an architect at Madison Square Garden; the political assassination of a former governor in Idaho; the mysterious case of Dr. Sam Shepherd (an inspiration for Hollywood’s The Fugitive); and the framing of Leo Frank, a Jewish businessman accused of murdering a teenage factory employee in Georgia.

As you will quickly see, murder trials are bigger than their verdicts. They become windows into prevailing values, prejudices, and our often-messy legal system. In this course, you

· Unravel high-stakes legal battles,

· Dissect race and class dynamics,

· Consider the role of the media, and

· Reflect on confirmation bias.

With the benefit of new evidence and the clarity of hindsight, On Trial for America’s Most Famous Murder Trials surveys these sensational—sometimes lurid—trials with a combination of brilliant storytelling and in-depth analysis, offering important lessons for us today.