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Racial discrimination in the justice system
Discrimination in the u.s justice system
Discrimination in the u.s justice system
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In the U.S there is unfortunately a history of racial discrimination and injustice, including unequal treatment of minorities legally. In the case of James Batson, a man is fighting for representation of his community to reflect in the jurors who will decide his fate after a crime he has committed. It is not an easy task to appeal court decisions, and it is an even more difficult one when trying to prove mistakes in the legal system. Is it coincidence or is there really something at stake when considering race in the criminal justice system.
James Batson was an African-American man convicted of burglary in Kentucky. The crime’s jurisdiction fell in state in the city of Louisville, an area in which the jury that convicted him was all white.
The concept of family violence, tied in with mental illness is highly contentious and arguable. When reading about the Luke Batty case, I was firstly shocked and later confused. The whole situation is terrible and I feel remorse for everyone who was affected, especially Rosie. On the surface this case appears to be black and white, however when you dig deeper there’s a lot more to it.
Paul Butler discusses this in essay titled “Racially Based Jury Nullification” where he proposes that black juries should acquit black defendants if the crime is considered non-violent/victimless. It is important that we consider this notion, regardless of how extreme it may seem. Butler takes great care to discuss how putting way those who are poor and who are black, is an unjust way of punishing them. When whole communities are not provided with enough resource to become functioning member of societies, exceptions must be made to accommodate such situations. Jury nullification gives power to the juries to act as barriers to those who are abused by the state. When lack of state support forces individuals into crime for the purpose of survival, it must be taken into consideration when deciding upon a verdict. Butler admits that this proposal is “rough” and only acts as in “intermediate plan” for it is clear that such action is meant in a form of a protest against the current process. Racially based jury nullification exists as an eye opener for members of the American justice system, and the communities which are affected by high incarceration/crime rates. It stands to make a point that putting people in jail does not work as a form of deterrence, or “justice”, it is not surprising law enforcement is widely distrusted. With this kept in mind, I
In Bryan Stevenson’s essay, “Close To Death: Reflections on Race and Capital Punishment In America” he claims that there is a tremendous racial problem in our criminal justice system. Stevenson explains,
Institutional racism, maintains the unequal outcomes in the criminal justice system result from the practice, resides in the policies, procedures, operations and culture of public or private institutions – reinforcing individual prejudices and being reinforced by them in turn’(Sveinsson, n.d.). This approach was generated by the Macpherson report, Stephen Lawrence, a young black
In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Batson. The Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment forbids the prosecutor from challenging potential jurors solely on account of their race or on the assumption that black jurors as a group will be unable to consider the state’s case ag...
Welch, Kelly. 2007. “Black Criminal Stereotypes and Racial Profiling.” Journal of Contemporary Justice 23(3): 276-288 also talks about the discrimination within the courtroom, in the court it has been shown that the prosecutors when fighting a case against the defendant who’s client is Black use their race as an argument to win the case. They try to show how Black people are prone to be violent due to racial factors and therefore should be sentenced harshly. Given the history, unfortunately this argument sets in well and therefore leads to sentencing and prison time for the Black
For much of the twentieth century, punishment and crime have portrayed some of the most powerful signs of the racial divide in the United States. Marginalized and the poor remains the most biased against the criminal justice scheme (Barak, 2010). Throughout the Americas. racial minorities were tried in white courtrooms by white juries. Class and race are challenging.
In modern-day America the issue of racial discrimination in the criminal justice system is controversial because there is substantial evidence confirming both individual and systemic biases. While there is reason to believe that there are discriminatory elements at every step of the judicial process, this treatment will investigate and attempt to elucidate such elements in two of the most critical judicial junctures, criminal apprehension and prosecution.
When a person of color is being sentenced the unjustness of sentencing is blatantly shown such as in the article Race Sentencing and Testimony which stated, “ These scholars conclude that black male arrestees “face significantly more severe charges conditional on arrest offense and other observed characteristics” and attribute this primarily to prosecution charging decisions” (Mauer 4). This piece of writing explains that for no other reason than race do these people get convicted far more significantly than others who have the same charge but are white, which continues as far as giving a person of color the max sentence that they can have on a certain charge just for the color of their skin. The justice system has turned into the opposite of what it claims to be and continues to grow as a racist overseer, bashing down on those that they believe should be punished as harshly as possible simply for the color of their skin. The system has gone as deep as to making it so that even if a person has not committed a crime, but are being charged for it they can agree to a plea bargain, which makes it so even though the person did not do it the system is going to have them convicted of it anyway (Quigley 1). “As one young man told me ‘who wouldn’t rather do three years for a crime they didn’t commit than risk twenty-five years
Today, if a black male is accused of committing a crime against a white person, there is an extremely high possibility of him being in jail for the rest of his life.
It is important that each case is treated equally when carrying out justice to keep the United States a safe place, to form a nation with good education, and to teach people to judge right from wrong. However, sometimes rights are taken from the wrong people. Our legal system is creating a dangerous path for African Americans in our country because of its’ highest per capita incarceration rate, its’ favoritism towards those in power, and its failure to carry out justice to protect people from the dangerous acts of those who are defined as criminals. Was justice really served in the “State of Florida vs. George Zimmerman” case? Is our justice system fair to all races?
The article “What It’s like to Be Black in the Criminal Justice System “ say that blacks are more likely to be jailed while awaiting trial. Many would say that the defendants and their families could not afford to pay their bail, which may have been true, but he may have not even been allowed a bond at all. Not being able to be bailed out of jail causes a lot of hurt to a family physically, emotionally and economically. According to the article “Is the Criminal Justice System Racist” racism is not why more blacks were in prison proportionately than whites and for longer terms. They say blacks are more likely to be imprisoned for crimes, but who really knows the truth. All we know is that blacks are not treated fairly when it comes to bonds and
It is apparent that this prejudice against people of color leads to harsher punishment as well as higher rates of incarceration for people of color. This is a large problem that affects everyone, even though evidently we can see that it is often overlooked since, it has continued going on for so long. When a police officer pulls over a person to search them it is seen as enough of a reason to do so because of their race this is clearly an unfair system. When someone is invaded and searched and made to feel violated due to these searches there has to more to it than just the color of their skin. If their entire life can be affected due to this system of “justice” it needs to be acknowledged as a very real and present
Like in 2015 a jury of 11 white men and women and one black man will hear the case of Michael Slager who was charged with murder for shooting a black man (NBC News). Slager was probably able to get a court with an all white jury because he was white making him less likely to be convicted of the crime of killing a black person. During another court case Gary Sterling was sentenced to death in 1989 by and all white jury for murdering a white man in the course of a robbery (Mother Jones). In this case a black man was given an all white jury this was probably done to increase the chances of the black man being convicted. In 2005 a black man Andre Thomas was sentenced to death by an all white that was obtained because the state of Texas used “the “shuffle” which got rid of a large majority of black jurors” (Mother Jones). The entire state could be called racist for doing this because they purposely eliminated most of all the black jurors using the “shuffle” which made this court case have an all white
“The biggest crime in the U.S. criminal justice system is that it is a race-based institution where African-Americans are directly targeted and punished in a much more aggressive way than white people(Quigley).” In a study that was observed in Texas, the probably was higher for defendants that were black men to be convicted to death sentence than a white man, and death was more likely to be a conviction for white victims than black victims (Phillips). The the same study we see that, “The multivariate models indicate that the odds of seeking death are 43 percent lower on behalf of black victims compared to white victims. The transformation occurred because black victims were twice as likely to be killed in murders that had multiple victims. So the DA sought death less on behalf of black victims than white victims. The bar was set higher for seeking death on behalf of black victims.” As we can observe there is prejudice in the justice system, and is a factor we must examine closely in capital punishment trials. Although we may not realize it, we all have stereotypes filed somewhere in our memory and we all hold prejudices, we are blind to facts and we must learn to overcome that. There are numerous convictions in which criminals are convicted unjustly because of the DA’s bias. In the same we need to establish a system of checks and balances in the Judicial system, so that we can achieve the least