On Friday night, I joined Judge Scott Miller as well as other Rose Scholars to watch The Talented Mr. Ripley and discuss the different degrees of murder. The movie followed Tom Ripley and his obsession with Dickie Greenleaf, the son of a successful businessman who frolics around Italy spending his father’s money and living the high life. Ripley falls in love with Greenleaf and creates a whole persona that he thinks Dickie will want to be with. However, the two have a falling out and Ripley ends up killing Greenleaf. The events leading up to the death of Dickie Greenleaf define whether the killing was second degree murder, manslaughter, or self defense. Murder involves actively choosing to kill someone and then carrying it out, while manslaughter is more recklessness. The different opinions of the “prosecutors” and the “defense attorneys” showed to me how, even when all the evidence is laid out in front of us, even when we know all the events leading up to the killing, there is still room to argue whether it was murder, manslaughter, or self defense. I can’t imagine how many more factors, more arguments, and more gray area there is in a court of law with a real crime, without the entire story.