As see and discussed last week, the film Presunto Culpable translated to Presumed Guilty presented its viewers the harsh reality of the criminal justice system in Mexico as compared to the system used in the United States. The title itself captures the difficulty with this system. There the defendant is automatically presumed to be guilty at the moment of custody, and that presumption affects the way crimes are investigated and criminal charges are adjudicated. This affects the style of police investigation as see in the documentary, making them care less as long as they produce someone to give the charge too. Here it does not need to be supported by a legit evidence test of the evidence gathered by the police such as forensics, eye-witness …show more content…
This has been proven through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. According to Article 11.1 of this doctrine “Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defense”. Yet, Mexico still as researched, has made little progress implementing this procedure. The presumption of innocence is present in the Mexican legal system and has the consequence that a person charged ‘enjoys the same legal status as an innocent person.’ It is indeed a political starting point that the law of criminal procedure assumes - or should assume - in a Rule of Law state. Meaning that it is acknowledge by the country that “you are innocent until proven guilty” however the state can do whatever they seem fitting. Many states that developed their own codes will have to adjust them to comply with new national standards. In some places the two systems will run in parallel, since crimes committed before the launch of the reforms will still be tried the old way. The Mexican constitutional reform of 2008 acknowledged the need for a justice system that would put an end to impunity and overturn the practices of the traditional system, which violate fundamental rights. This included new bail measures designed to ensure the presence in court of an accused, that he or she does not hinder the criminal process, and to guarantee the safety of complainants, witnesses, and the community. Also requires judges to order mandatory pre-trial detention when any of the following situations apply: organized crime, intentional homicide, rape, kidnapping, human trafficking, crimes committed by violent means such as with the use of weapons and explosives, and serious crimes as defined by national security,
The main point of this documentary is a strong one. Strong Island is a documentary describing the effects of a crime going without justice to a family that had no other option but to move on. The documentary goes into the lives of the family of William Ford’s family and friends before and after his murder.
In America we believe in the saying “you are innocent until proven guilty” but we the people are remarkably swift to point our fingers at someone we believe that committed the crime. This habit is frequently displayed within our criminal justice system when a crime is committed we quickly assume it has something to do with the first person we can link the crime to. We tend to naturally feel sympathy for the victim therefore; if the individual accuses one for a crime the jury has no reason not to believe the victim. Society does not bother to care if the individual did not do the crime because as long as someone was caught and accused of the wrongdoing, then we the people can proceed on with our lives knowing we punished someone for the crime
In El Salvador, the implementation of mano dura resulted in the incarceration of thousands of youths, sometimes based solely on their appearance, associations, or addresses. According to the OAS Hemispheric Security Observatory, between 2004 and 2008 alone, the number of gang members in El Salvador’s jails doubled from 4,000 to 8,000, representing roughly one-third of the total jail population. El Salvador’s 19 prisons, built to hold 8,000 people, held nearly 24,000 in 2012. As a result of such severe overcrowding, many presumed offenders languished in prison for years without ever seeing the inside of a courtroom. Yet still, the gangs continued to grow, and El Salvador’s judicial system became strained to the breaking point.
One contradiction in the job of the prosecutor is that they have nearly limitless direction in critical matters; however, prosecutors’ are also held to a very high ethical standard. Prosecutors must screen cases to determine which ones need to be prosecuted; nevertheless, this is the source of controversy with most people. “What makes charging decisions more intriguing and controversial is the fact that in making this decision, the prosecutor has nearly limitless discretion” (Hemmens, Brody, & Spohn, 2013). This means the prosecutor’s charging decisions are beyond any judicial review, so it must be apparent that a prosecutor
"Fed Up (Soechtig, 2014)." narrated by Katie Couric, focuses on the growing link between sugar consumption and the obesity epidemic. The film aggressively attacks the food industry, advertising, and the government who, it claims, all contribute to the U.S. sugar-dependent, obesity problem. The film sets out to prove the government, and food industry is knowingly causing an increase in the amount of obese children. It reserves its most critical comments for government advisory panels who make and enforce food and health policy, and its failure to properly regulate the food industry. They claim lobbyists for the sugar board have been instrumental in the removal of negative statistics from research papers worldwide. Instead
Mexicans claim that the war in drugs only made the cartels more violent and the state authorities more tainted. The result is that guiltless onlookers are often caught up in the crossfire. For periods, drug transferring groups have used Mexico's fragile political system to make "a network of corruption that ensured distribution rights, market access, and even official government protection for drug traffickers in exchange for lucrative bribes," (Shirk,2011).
All of these dealers claimed they were innocent, but one particular defense attorney, Cynthia Barbare, took her client, Jose Luis Vega, at his word. He claimed to be an honest auto mechanic and the dirt under his fingernails led her to believe him. Plus, she found it odd that a reportedly wealthy drug trafficker lived in such a meager home. Her first line of defense was simply requesting that the drug lab test the veracity of the drugs. None of the prior dealers from Alonso’s cases had done so because the Dallas county court system unofficially penalized anyone who requested verification from the drug lab with a much lengthier sentence. The courts had simply relied upon the officers’ field tests. Ultimately, Barbare’s gutsy choice paid off
Walsh, James, and Dan Browning. "Presumed Guilty Until Proved Innocent." Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN). 23 Jul 2000: A1+. SIRS Issues Researcher.
In his documentary Classified X, Martin Van Peebles describes three areas where African-Americans could be receive some sanctuary from the racism that pervaded almost all Hollywood films. These three places were: the Hollywood version of an all-Black film, the church, and entertainment. Black culture and music is prominent in mainstream society, but the people behind this culture don’t always receive recognition and respect for their creations. Mainstream White pop culture excitedly consumes and appropriates Black culture, but disrespects the source.
I chose to analyze Despicable Me, an animated film geared towards a younger audience, because I was interested in examining underlying theories and messages that this film would be relaying to its viewers. Often times, when watching animated films, children are not aware of these messages, as they are absorbed by the characters, special effects, and humor. But as we have learned throughout this semester, our brains are subconsciously primed by the various surroundings we are exposed to. Since we also studied the impacts of entertainment, such as television and video games, on children, I wanted to see how a popular children’s film might also affect them.
In this paper, I propose to talk about how all the three parts of the criminal justice system works and also delve a little bit on the issue of racism in context of the criminal justice system as a lot of people believe that the system most of the times acts keeping the individual’s race in mind.
The definition of justice and the means by which it must be distributed differ depending on an individual’s background, culture, and own personal morals. As a country of many individualistic citizens, the United States has always tried its best to protect, but not coddle, its people in this area. Therefore, the criminal justice history of the United States is quite extensive and diverse; with each introduction of a new era, more modern technologies and ideals are incorporated into government, all with American citizens’ best interests in mind.
Throughout society there are both individuals and groups of people with a wide range of perceptions about crime and justice. These perceptions are influenced by the media and what the media presents. Media presents crime stories in ways that selectively distort and manipulate public perception, thus creating a false picture of crime. Therefore the media provides us with perceptions and social constructions about our world. Firstly I will be discussing the role of the media in constructing knowledge about crime. I will begin by explaining why the media is important, and go further to explain that media representations construct knowledge of crime and since knowledge about crime is constructed it does not necessarily capture reality in fact crime stories are often sensationalised. I will then link this to my central argument that the media shapes people’s perceptions of crime and how this is important as it can lead to changes in the law. I will then explain what it is that the public or society needs to be aware of when reading and watching media reports about crime. We need to be aware of bias and moral panics that are created by the media and how the media shapes or influence’s public perception through this, it is important for us to be aware of misleading or false crime stories so that we are not swayed by the media in believing what they want us to believe.
The sala of Judge Cresencio Tan was kind enough to allow us to observe cases where evidences were presented in the form of witnesses and documents. The first case was simple enough as it was for the initial reception of the prosecution’s evidence. In this proceeding, the prosecutor merely requested for the markings of the evidences she presented in court and the counsel for the accused was asked if he admits it or not. I was waiting for some evidence that would not be admitted by the counsel for the accused in order to see what would happen next, however, all evidences were admitted. With that, that particular session ended. The second case called was for the continuation of reception of prosecution’s evidence. In this case, a witness was presented and the counsel for the accused addressed the witness. I observed that his line of questioning was set on establishing doubt in relation to his personal knowledge of the crime and the drugs in question. The counsel for the accused was able to establish that since the witness himself admitted that he was not really there during the arrest. This case illustrated to me the importance of the element of personal knowledge of a a crime in the determination of a person’s
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence is a Steven Spielberg science fiction drama film, which conveys the story of a younger generation robot, David, who yearns for his human mother’s love. David’s character stimulates the mind-body question. What is the connection between our “minds” and our bodies?