In class, most, but not all documentaries showed injustices in the Criminal Justice System. The criminal cases listed below convey some type of criminal injustice. The "Criminal Injustice" is an analytical writing on criminal injustices by Rebecca Silbert, John Hollway, and Darya Larizadeh published around 2015. In the introduction they state that "Criminal (In)justice examines 692 adult felony criminal cases where California missed the mark in public safety by failing to prosecute the right person or by pursuing a flawed or unsustainable conviction." which shows that because the court had "The individuals subjected to these faulty proceedings endured hundreds of trials, mistrials, appeals, and habeas petitions and served more than two thousand years in prison and jail, at a total cost to California taxpayers of more than $282 million". The biggest consequences that come from injustices is the cost, but also having someone go through so many obstacles to find Justice.
Disproportionately More Errors Found in Convictions for Violent Crime as Compared to Property and Drug Crimes
Disproportionately More Errors Found in Convictions for Violent Crime as Compared to Property and Drug Crimes
- They claim that "30% of the individuals in our sample were improperly convicted of violent crimes, including homicide, rape, assault, and robbery, while only 18% of California’s felony convictions were for violent crime in 2013" which captures the truth that there are many ruin reputations and life's being dramatically change just because they were wrongly convicted.
Prosecutorial Misconduct
- There are even prosecutors that commit "Brady 49 violations (failure to meet the constitutional obligation to turn potentially exculpatory information over to the defense) and other misconduct (e.g., overzealous closing argument, improper admission of evidence, violation of judicial order, knowing admission of false testimony)" like in the Garrett Phillips case, we went through in class, when the prosecutor didn't give an interview from a witness that would have help the defendant's case.
- "When They See Us"
- Kids were threaten by police to confess they committed the rape crime
- "OJ Made in America"
- Was let free for the murder of Nicole Brown
- "The Los Angles Riots"
- Rodney King wasn't compensated for being brutally beat him up by the police officer
Sources:
https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/media/publications/Criminal%20Injustice%20-%20A%20Cost%20Analysis%20of%20Wrongful%20Convictions%2C%20Errors%20and%20Failed%20Prosecutions%20in%20California%2C%20UCLA%20Berkeley%20Law%2C%202015.pdf
I always knew there were injustices within the criminal justice system, but by watching these documentaries it allowed me to see the different things that need to be changed. While most of these issues surround race, many of them also have to do with an individual's socioeconomic status. I wonder what we can do, as a a society, to help bring these changes to the justice system. It is already affected thousands of innocent people and it will continue to affect more if nothing is done about it.
ReplyDeleteAdding onto Evelyn's comment. Before looking more into depth of cases like we have looked at I also had an idea of how the justice system worked and the injustices that came along, I never would've imagine the outcomes of few of the cases there is that did not get their justice. It is devastating and frustrating to watch that there is clear evidence that proves most of the people in the cases that are innocent, but due to their skin color they are not. If the justice system treats every case and people with equal fairness the world would be better.
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