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The history of the american justice system
Effects of gender equality
Gender inequality and equality in society
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The fight for gender equality spans from the present to some of the earliest civilizations. In America, women were granted the right to vote in 1920. Yet as years passed many states did not deem women fit to decide the fate of their peers in courts. In “The Woman Juror”, Burnita S. Matthews hopes to emphasize that women are not a “defect of sex” and have identical qualifications as their male counterparts regarding serving on a jury. She uses exemplification and description to reveal the lack of logic in female oppression and appeal to the audience’s sympathy and understanding.
Matthews presents a description of the expectations of a juror and how women are excluded from being a juror, without sound reason. The reasoning behind American courts
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Matthews uses an anecdote from a Minnesota attorney general who to noticed that women jurors were “visibly affected by the exhibition.” Yet even with becoming overturn by emotion “a verdict of guilty was promptly returned” with even results from both men and women. A woman’s reception of information may be more emotional, however it does not cloud their judgement. They can be affected by their experiences and bias and still reach the verdict that men reach using reasoning and logic. This highlights the sameness in the qualifications of the sexes. The use of an example allows the audience to picture women in court easier and it illustrates their qualifications through real life instances. It is common for people to feel misjudged based on minimal information concerning them. In this situation, the audience is able to relate to the misjudging of women as being overly emotional. The topic of a jury makes the application easier and more credible because the women of the Minnesota jury are diverse, by the standard of the jury system, so they can represent for the larger group of all women in
All women were persecuted for immoral and heinous crimes during two different periods of American History. Some, like Borden, escaped her trial with all charges dropped, while others like Rebecca Nurse were sentenced to death. This story investigates in depth each trial strategy, period in American history, and woman. The bulk of Schultz’s argument revolves around gender stereotypes and society’s treatment of women. Although not each trial is relevant to the Borden mystery, they all are examples of how gender roles and stereotypes influenced Judicial rulings. Therefore, adding a greater level of validity to the argument that Borden was treated differently because she was a
Narration provided in the text “Abina and the Important Men” exercises the disadvantages Abina had due to the background or status of the jury. “To be a member of the jury, you must speak english well, you must own land or have money, and above all you must be a man.” p.57. Although the judged valued liberty the selection process that was carried out went all against the plaintiff. Abina was a slave, uneducated and suffered a language barrier, and a woman which gave her a
The American Jury system is a judicial process that has been revered as being one of the key practices that ensure the liberties that the United States holds dear. The founding fathers considered it vital to ensuring a fair trial and it has continued to be seen as such. This system isn’t perfect, but it’s still an incredibly valuable tool for democracy, if used well. The American jury system, when used correctly, engages citizens with their local government, creates a wide distribution of power, and ensures impartial rulings.
Sandra Day O’Connor once said, “The power I exert on the court depends on the power of my arguments, not on my gender.”1 Here Sandra exemplifies her believes the power she has on the court is not based on the fact that she is a girl, but in the power that comes from her arguments. This example of confidence resonates as people often think that woman cannot do the same thing as men, but from the day she was appointed to the Supreme Court O’Connor changed politics forever. From growing up on a ranch in El Paso, to becoming the first woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court, she opened so many doors for women in male-dominated professions that were thought to be unattainable.
McCoy and Gray (2007) examined the impact of defendant gender and relationship to victim on juror decisions in a child sexual abuse case. They manipulated the gender of the defendant (male or female) and the relationship (parent or stranger) to the abused child and ask the participants to be as mock jurors to rate the likelihood of guiltiness and their believability in each case. The results in McCoy and Gray (2007) study was that female defendants were less likely to be found guilty than were male defendants in an alleged child sexual assault case. While in the aspect of believability, despite of the male jurors, female jurors rated the victim as more convincing than the defendant.
The jurors are transformed by the process of deliberating. Eleven men voted guilty because of their prejudices, fears, laziness and insecurities, but ...
Guilty or not guilty? This the key question during the murder trial of a young man accused of fatally stabbing his father. The play 12 Angry Men, by Reginald Rose, introduces to the audience twelve members of a jury made up of contrasting men from various backgrounds. One of the most critical elements of the play is how the personalities and experiences of these men influence their initial majority vote of guilty. Three of the most influential members include juror #3, juror #10, and juror #11. Their past experiences and personal bias determine their thoughts and opinions on the case. Therefore, how a person feels inside is reflected in his/her thoughts, opinions, and behavior.
In almost all the countries where jury system is practices, juries have been seen as the best tool for ensuring equity and empowering citizens to determine and play a role in justice. According to Abramson (1994), the only way an ordinary citizen participates in government and injects community values in...
Jury service is extremely important to our democracy. It describes how connected we are as a society. Everybody is treated equal regardless of your race, class, culture, and religion. You’re known as a juror number and you will respond to the number you’re entailed to. There will be no labels of who you are outside the court. This sets equality to everyone; the twelve judges have the right to make their own decisions. They are entailed to the same argument, to the same witness and most importantly everyone gets an equal vote on the settlement.
In the 1800’s, it was illegal for women to vote. One citizen in particular, Susan B. Anthony, found that completely unjust, and cast a vote at the 1872 presidential election. Later that year, she was found guilty of committing a crime. Due to this, Anthony spoke out to the public to prove her that what she did was no crime at all. Susan B. Anthony’s speech “On Women’s Right to Vote” grabs her audience’s focus with the use of references, parallelism, and logic, making it a remarkable speech.
“His or her view could be vital in shifting the direction of the discussions. When there are ambiguities or conflicting positions within the group, he or she is the one entitled to resolve these (Ramesh, 1993).” Studies have indicated that the leader of the group is usually upper class and male, there is a lower incidence of women and minorities that are picked as the leader of the group, and it has been shown that even when the other jurors do not have any idea of their social or financial status, they will pick this type of person with subconscious cues (Ramesh,
A jury trial is not to be confused with a bench trial as it often times is. While a bench trial takes places only in front of a Judge who is then tasked with coming to a verdict on his/her own, a jury trial is one that is “composed of members of the community present at the trial to act as the finder of fact” (McGuigan, 2014). The constitutional trial rights that are sanctioned throughout a jury trial is called a trial by jury. This is in the sixth amendment which says that everyone has the right to a fair and speedy trial by an impartial jury. The steps involved in creating a jury for the purpose of carrying out a jury trial will be expressly addressed in this paper. Furthermore, the purpose of this paper will be to discuss, in detail, the steps that are involved in a jury trial which include selection of the Jury, the trial, the Judge’s charge, deliberation, and the verdict.
Jurors have to be chosen in an acceptable manner. It can not consist of just anyone. According
Women’s equality has made huge advancements in the United States in the past decade. One of the most influential persons to the movement has been a woman named Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ruth faced gender discrimination many times throughout her career and worked hard to ensure that discrimination based on a person’s gender would be eliminated for future generations. Ginsburg not only worked to fight for women’s equality but fought for the rights of men, as well, in order to show that equality was a human right’s issue and not just a problem that women faced. Though she faced hardships and discrimination, Ruth never stopped working and thanks to her equality is a much closer reality than it was fifty years ago. When Ruth first started her journey in law, women were practically unheard of as lawyers; now three women sit on the bench of the highest court in the nation.
Through the intelligent use of various concrete appeals, Elizabeth Cady Stanton brings to light the injustices against women and provokes the audience to take action and form a better nation. Her words pull the heartstrings of the audience while adding emphasis to the wrongdoings happening every day. She calls for gender equality, not just in social life, but in civic and political as well. Among a plethora of inequality, her words ring true. “The right is ours,” she asserts. “The right is ours.”