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  • Essay / Lee v. Gillis: Is the media important? - 1440

    There were two serial killers working on their kill list at the same time, in the same place, but only one was noticed by the media. Both killed at least seven women. You would think that these two killers would attract media attention. Unfortunately, only one was reported, which made the other jealous, causing him to kill more. It wasn't until after the first serial killer, Lee, was arrested that anyone knew Gillis was on the same murderous path. If the media hadn't focused solely on one killer, others might not have died at the hands of another. We should not only be concerned about the media's impact on trials, but also its impact on cases even before the accused are known, those who seek glory even through murder. Nicknamed the "Baton Rouge Serial Killer," Derrick Todd Lee was just one of two serial killers working in the Baton Rouge area between 1992 and 2004. Lee is a black man who lived with his wife and children. children in St. Francisville, LA. Lee had avoided arrest for many years because an eyewitness told authorities that the suspect was a white man (Mustafa, Clayton, & Israel, 2006). This information was very credible because most serial killers do not cross racial boundaries when choosing their victims and all but one of Lee's victims were white (Mustafa, Clayton, & Israel, 2006). Lee was finally named as a suspect in 2002 when DNA testing revealed that the killer was a black man (Stewart, Boyd, M., & Nunnally, D. (2002). He was arrested in 2003 and now lives down the hall of death in the Louisiana State Penitentiary The Lee murders received widespread media coverage, which alarmed the Baton Rouge community. DNA information was leaked and...... middle of newspaper..... .reme-court/05KA2098.opn-0.pdf.Mustafa, SD and Israel, S. (2011) Dismembered New York, NY : Kensington.Mustafa, SD, Clayton, T. and Israel, S. (2006) Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse.State v. Gillis, No. 2007KA1909 (1st Cir. March 26, 2008),http:/ /caselaw.findlaw.com/la-court-of.-appeal/1013735.html.Stewart, B., Boyd, M. and Nunnally, D. (2002). Retrieved February 20, 2012 from EBSCOhost Tresniowski, A. , Rozsa, L., Barnes, S., Wescott, G., Pierce, E., & Cosgriff, G. (2003). People, 59(22), 56. Retrieved February 20, 2012 from EBSCOhostWOIO. (2003). Developments in the case of accused serial killer Derrick Todd Lee. Accessed February 20, 2012, from http://www.woio.com/story/1847852/developments-in-the-cases-of-accused-serial-killer-derrick-todd-lee?clienttype=printable