We are here today to decide whether or not a young black boy by the name of David Mondondo, also known as Tsotsi, is guilty or innocent. I hereby declare that Tsotsi is guilty but deserves alternative sentencing. What he has done in the past makes him guilty, but what he has done in the present is what makes him not guilty enough to spend his whole life in jail. He must spend time in jail but also have some type of counseling to help him, since he was indeed traumatized. He is guilty because he had planned the murder of Gumboot Dhlamini and took part in it, he had conspired the murder of someone else but didn’t go through with it: he was the mastermind, and he beat up someone up the point to where he was almost killing him. Although, those crimes were in his past he has still committed them with the help of others but in his …show more content…
He is guilty for participating and planning the murder of Gumboot Dhlamini. For example, on pages 10 and 11 state, “Gumboot had made three mistakes. -- Firstly, he smiled. -- His second mistake was the tie. -- And there, the third mistake. He bought the ticket with money from his pay ticket.” This evidence goes to show that Tsotsi was observing, no stalking someone, waiting to find the right person to kill, the person who he had thought made mistakes. In Tsotsi’s eyes, Mr. Dhlamini had made three mistakes that sealed his fate. These were all things Tsotsi didn't like because they were signs of happiness, emotions and feelings: things he didn't that have. Because of simple things like that, small things Tsotsi’s gang had killed Mr. Dhalmini on the train. Each member in Tsotsi's gang took a part in the crime. Die Aap held the man down, Boston stole his wallet, Butcher had the knife that he had used to stab and kill Mr. Dhlamini, and Tsotsi finished it off by whispering in his ear, while he was practically dead. This proves that he is guilty for participating and planning the murder of another human
Steve Bogira, a prizewinning writer, spent a year observing Chicago's Cook County Criminal Courthouse. The author focuses on two main issues, the death penalty and innocent defendants who are getting convicted by the pressure of plea bargains, which will be the focus of this review. The book tells many different stories that are told by defendants, prosecutors, a judge, clerks, and jurors; all the people who are being affected and contributing to the miscarriage of justice in today’s courtrooms.
In 2 years the trial ended with the verdict of guilty on the account of
The first piece of evidence against Adnan is a testimony given by his acquaintance and partner-in-crime, Jay. The State uses this as one of their main claims. However, there are many reasons why this was the wrong way to go. First
In July of 2008, one of the biggest crime cases devastated the United States nation-wide. The death of Caylee Anthony, a two year old baby, became the most popular topic in a brief amount of time. Caylee’s mother, Casey Anthony, became the main suspect after the child supposedly was kidnapped and went missing. To this day, the Casey Anthony case shocks me because justice, in my opinion, wasn’t served. I feel as if the criminal conviction system became somewhat corrupted in this case. The entire nation, including the court system, knew that Casey Anthony was behind this criminal act, but yet she escaped all charges. I chose this case not only because it’s debatable, but also to help state the obvious, this case was handled the wrong way. Clearly the legal system was biased, which worked in Casey Anthony’s favor, freeing a murderer.
Many themes are demonstrated in To Kill A Mockingbird and Mississippi Trial, 1955. Three of the most predominant themes were courage, integrity, and truth. The author developed these themes gradually throughout both books by illustrating the actions and thoughts of the main characters. Because of these characteristics, Hiram Hilburn and Atticus Finch emerge as the heroes of the stories. The way in which heroes become inspirational to others is by learning from their mistakes. Atticus and Hiram both struggle with the pressure to follow the crowd, but the critical question is will they be able to do what’s best for the town?
Capital punishment and bias in sentencing is among many issue minorities faced for many years in the better part of the nineteen hundreds. Now it continues to spill into the twenty first century due to the erroneous issues our criminal justice system has caused many people to suffer. In the book Just Mercy authored by Bryan Stevenson, Stevenson explains many cases of injustice. Stevenson goes into details of numerous cases of wrongfully accused people, thirteen and fourteen year olds being sentenced to death and sentences of life without parole for children. These issues Stevenson raises bring to question whether the death penalty is as viable as it should be. It brings to light the many issues our criminal justice system has today. There
In this podcast Sarah explores and digs deep into the two options, is Adnan guilty? Or is Adnan innocent of his past? Adnan Syed should stay in jail and not be released from prison due to some main reasons that lean towards Adnan’s guilt. It didn’t seem like a healthy relationship should look like.
Juror #3 is very biased against the 19-year-old boy that is being tried, and this affects all of his thoughts and actions regarding the case. He has this bias because his own son hit him in the jaw and ran away from home at the age of 15: “I’ve got a kid…when he was fifteen he hit me in the face…I haven’t seen him in three years. Rotten kid! I hate tough kids! You work your heart out [but it’s no use] (21).”According to this quote from the text, this juror condemns all teenagers and feels resentment towards them. He especially feels strongly about the boy being tried, because the boy grew up in the slums, and this juror is also biased against these people who grew up there. It is because of these feelings that he is strongly cemented in his vote of guilty.
In conclusion, we have seen that the race of the victim and the emotionality of the victim impact statements highly affects the jury’s empathy and therefore might influence their decision making. Understanding the interaction between the racial in-group/out-group and empathy may allow defense attorneys to lead jurors for harsher punishments for out-group racial groups and more lenient punishments for in-groups by playing on juror empathy and thus putting emotions before law and reason. Consequently, in any capital punishment case, race of the victim and race of the jury, could be the difference between life and death for a defendant and therefore needs to be studied further.
The main purpose of this article is to look at the possible link between race and exoneration, and how race and wrongful convictions lead to the exonerations. There were three reasons that the authors chose this topic to research. The first reason was the research previously done in the field show racial biased in the criminal justice system. This paper looks at how that effects wrongful conviction and the subsequent exoneration. The second reason is because if there is an innocent person in prison that means that the real culprit is still out there, and more than likely committing more crimes. The third reason is racial composition of the dyad, victim and the perpetrator. This article is the first to mention the dyad and the authors focus on that in their discussion of wrongful conviction. This article is a very insightful look at the problem of the racial bias in the system that leads to wrongful conviction and how that leads to exoneration. It effectively explains the causes of wrongful convictions and how race affects those causes, especially how the dyad is incorporated in it.
The first reason is that Tybalt indeed murdered before. Guilty does not begin to describe Tybalt, he is a
This essay with critique “Race Capital Punishment and the Cost of Murder” by M. Cholbi. The Critique will discuss and point out some unnecessary concepts and flaws in the author’s argument along with logical fallacies. The author appeals for a moratorium among capital punishment due to racial disparities. This essay will analyze the author’s paper on the subject of race and capital punishment. The subject of capital punishment is controversial, as some citizens believe capital punishment is unconstitutional. Other citizens believe it does not matter if a convict is black or white, if a person murders someone they deserve to die.
Order of Exonerating Cameron Todd Willingham "Cameron Todd Willingham – Innocent and Executed." Cameron Todd Willingham Innocent and Executed RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. The Web. The Web.
Race plays a large factor in showing how you are viewed in society. Although there is no longer slavery and separate water fountains, we can still see areas of our daily life clearly affected by race. One of these areas is the criminal justice system and that is because the color of your skin can easily yet unfairly determine if you receive the death penalty. The controversial evidence showing that race is a large contributing factor in death penalty cases shows that there needs to be a change in the system and action taken against these biases. The issue is wide spread throughout the United States and can be proven with statistics. There is a higher probability that a black on white crime will result in a death penalty verdict than black on black or white on black. Race will ultimately define the final ruling of the sentence which is evident in the racial disparities of the death penalty. The amount of blacks on death row can easily be seen considering the majority of the prison population is black or blacks that committed the same crime as a white person but got a harsher sentence. The biases and prejudices that are in our society relating to race come to light when a jury is selected to determine a death sentence. So what is the relationship between race and the death penalty? This paper is set out to prove findings of different race related sentences and why blacks are sentenced to death more for a black on white crime. Looking at the racial divide we once had in early American history and statistics from sources and data regarding the number of blacks on death row/executed, we can expose the issues with this racial dilemma.
The word Tsotsi means “thug”, which is what the character is portrayed as at the start of the novel. He kills for the money to survive, but the manner in which he does suggests it is not out of necessity but rather choice. When killing a man in public for his money, he “smiled at the growing bewilderment on the big bastard’s face... Even as that was happening, Tsotsi bent close to the dying man and in his ear whispered an obscene reference to his mother” (12). The novel suggests that he kills not from desperation, but as a way of life. His reasons are psychological. “The big men, the brave ones, stood down because of him, the fear was of him, the hate was for him. It was all there because of him. He knew he was.” (7). Tsotsi kills not only for survival, but as a way of justifying his existence, a way of confirming that he does exist. This makes more sense when his fear is explained, a fear of nothingness. He kill...