Trial by media | SPOTTED COUCH

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Appeal Denied: Nyki Kish Remains Behind Bars in a Travesty of Justice

March 18, 2014

Poet, songwriter and community activist Nyki Kish is currently serving a life sentence for a murder she did not commit. Nyki was charged and convicted in 2011 for the stabbing death of Ross Hammond, an internet porn marketing executive with no physical evidence and despite multiple eye witnesses accounts that all verified her story. Justice […]

Crazy Bitches on Trial

February 19, 2014

“… Criminals are an exception among civilised people and women are the exception among criminals… As a double exception, then, the criminal woman is a monster.” – Cesare Lomroso, Italian Criminologist, 1893 The public’s fascination with women who murder is palpable, if not dangerously obscene. Apart from its statistical rarity, female killers (or those accused) fascinate […]

Fembots, Flesh Dresses and the (Anti-)Fetishization of Jodi Arias

February 18, 2014

In a sensationalist plot where consumerism meets science fiction meets true crime, Jodi Arias emerges as the perfect fembot (or flesh dress) who obediently shaved her parts, donned superhero briefs and bent over tirelessly for her man. Their perverse game met a brutal end when Arias murdered lover Travis Alexander. As Arias awaits sentencing, her […]

Playing Dirty: A Tale of False Charges

November 8, 2013

“When pigs fly, wrongful convictions will be dust in the wind.” Too cynical? Perhaps. The story I’m about to tell you will shock some, but not those who follow wrongful convictions. Hopefully, it will shed some light on the precarious dance between a media who wants “its dirt” and law enforcement who wants “its perp.” […]

Media Abuse and the Wrongful Conviction of Nyki Kish

November 3, 2013

Crime myths are falsehoods that grow into public ‘truisms’, told and retold over time, or sensationalised to create “moral” mythologies surrounding a crime. This type of mythmaking is usually aimed at specific groups (i.e. femme fatale, black youth, the homeless, etc.) or behaviours (i.e. panhandling or fatal attractions) that are flagged as potential threats to […]

HLNTV: Hate and the Modern-day Gladiator Ring

June 24, 2013

With the Jodi Arias trial kicking off this week, people are prepping for huge parties. Bags of chips and buckets of onion dip are flying off store shelves. Fans are sporting their favourite coloured ribbons and pom poms. And, as with any lynch mob, the more, the merrier. Sounds ludicrous, right? Well, it may be […]

Dear Jailer: Free Nyki Kish

June 18, 2013

Dear jailer Hello. I just wanted to say hello. You see me everyday But you never say hello. You’ve yelled at me before You’ve touched my body before You’ve written reports on me before, But you’ve never said hello. Excerpt from A Poem written by Nyki Kish from her cell at the Grand Valley Institution for […]

Crazy Bitches on Trial

June 16, 2013

Please link to the updated version of Crazy Bitches on Trial with this URL. Thank you!

Ribbons Gone Amiss

June 8, 2013

In 1989, my dad revealed that he was HIV+. Oddly (or perhaps not), his confession came the same year that The Names Project – AIDS Memorial Quilt was touring to several host cities across the US and Canada. It was a surreal time filled with intense emotion and shock. Along with the quilt display was a […]