Crimes in America can be vicious and brutal, often leading to long, draw out trials, but it is only fair if you charge the right man. The only way that it can be fair is if you go by the facts and not the appearance of the accused. Many trials in America have men of color pointed out to be criminals. Many crimes are committed for a reason but many people label it as unknown. People are racist especially against colored people, they believe that white men are innocent but that is not always true. They always turn against the colored people for many crimes that could have been committed by a white man. The novel,Monster and the documentary “Murder On A Sunday Morning” are the same because,both cases have similar charges,both crimes were taken …show more content…
Steve Harmon was accused of felony murder of Alguinado Nesbitt, a drugstore owner that was killed on December 22 of last year. After the murder, Steve kept telling himself that he was a monster and that he doesn’t know who he is anymore. The nickname monster came from the prosecutor of the state Ms.Petrocelli. To help him cope with the situation that he is in, he starts to write a screenplay about what is going on in the trial. In the trial the jury is already accusing him for the murder of Nesbitt. As the prosecutor creates a strong argument that makes it sound like he is guilty of this murder. With the strong argument toward Steve the attorneys also have a stronger argument towards the state. As Steve takes the witness stand he gives a look toward the jury that looks suspicious.Other criminals were to take the witness stand but they only did it because it meant that they could get a shorter sentence time. After the trial Steve was found not guilty to the jury and he could go …show more content…
Both cases have similar charges. Both of the men are young and black and are accused of murder while attempting to rob the victims. Both crimes were committed in a public place with a witness point to the jury they both should be pleaded guilty. An example from the novel, Monster the crime took place at a drugstore. In the documentary, “Murder on A Sunday Morning,” the crime took place at a motel on an early Sunday morning. They both consist of racism by either the jury or the police. From the novel Monster the jury was just looking at Steve Harmon and already assuming him guilty not even listening to the story that goes behind the crime. In the documentary “Murder on A Sunday Morning” the police men were taking Brenton Butler as a suspect for the crime because he was walking on the sidewalk when the crime happened. Both men were pleaded not guilty and then the actual killer came forward and confessed to the
The hypocrisy and double standard that allowed whites to bring harm to blacks without fear of any repercussions had existed for years before the murder Tyson wrote about occurred in May of 1970 (Tyson 2004, 1). Lynching of black men was common place in the south as Billie Holiday sang her song “Strange Fruit” and the eyes of justice looked the other way. On the other side of the coin, justice was brought swiftly to those blacks who stepped out of line and brought harm to the white race. Take for instance Nate Turner, the slave who led a rebellion against whites. Even the Teel’s brought their own form of justice to Henry Marrow because he “said something” to one of their white wives (1).
What we do know is that many people think Steve is guilty. One of the guards describes the case, “Six days – maybe seven. It’s a motion case. They go through the motions; then they lock them up” (14). The judicial system has many flaws, one of which being that they assume guilt before proof when it comes to people like Steve. The phrase “innocent until proven guilty” does not apply to cases like his. As prosecutor Petrocelli states in reference to people like Steve, “There are also monsters in our communities – people who are willing to steal and to kill, people who disregard the rights of others” (21). O’Brien succinctly sums this up for Steve, “You’re young, you’re Black, and you’re on ...
Gender and Race play the most prominent role in the criminal justice system. As seen in the movie Central Park 5, five African American boys were charged with the rape of the a white women. In class decision we’ve discussed how the media explodes when it reports cross-racial crimes. The Central Park 5 were known everywhere and even terms were being made up during the process such as wilding. Also, during one of the class discussions it was brought up that victims of crime are of the same race of the perpetrator. However, the media likes to sensationalize crime of the victim being of a different race, because it makes for a good story. By doing this, the media does create more of a division of race. As seen in the video Donald Trump was trying
Just Mercy’s Bryan Stevenson exposes some of these disparities woven around his presentation of the Walter McMillian case, and the overrepresentation of African-American men in our criminal justice system. His accounts of actors in the criminal justice system such as Judge Robert E. Lee and the D.A. Tom Chapman who refused to open up the case or provide support regardless of the overwhelmingly amount of inconsistencies found in the case. The fact that there were instances where policemen paid people off to testify falsely against McMillian others on death row significantly supports this perpetuation of racism. For many of the people of color featured in Stevenson’s book, the justice system was unfair to them wrongfully or excessively punishing them for crimes both violent and nonviolent compared to their white counterparts. Racism towards those of color has caused a “lack of concern and responsiveness by police, prosecutors, and victims’ services providers” and ultimately leads to the mass incarceration of this population (Stevenson, 2014, p. 141). Moreover the lack of diversity within the jury system and those in power plays into the already existing racism. African-American men are quickly becoming disenfranchised in our country through such racist biases leading to over 1/3 of this population “missing” from the overall American population because they are within the criminal justice
Throughout the entire film, viewers can witness how Steven Avery is being poorly treated because of his socioeconomic status, and the fact that he is different from everyone in the Manitowoc County. Steven was lied on, picked on, and accused of committing a crime he did not commit, all because he was looked down upon and viewed as being less of a person than everyone else in the community. Watching this episode invokes an emotion that is prevalent today with our justice system. Many minorities are falsely accused and falsely imprisoned due to personal vendettas from private citizens or members of the law enforcement. Others are disfranchised due to their socioeconomic status. Ultimately, there are numerous innocent men and women serving life sentences and are on death row for crimes they did not commit. As an illustration, in the year of 2007, Davontae Sanford, who was just 14 years old at the time, was wrongfully convicted of murdering four people and sentenced 90 years in prison. Sandford was an individual a part of the lower social class, coming from a rough part of Detroit, he was a victim of poverty. He stated how he was such a naïve kid and was coerced by detectives and his defense attorney to confess and plead guilty to murders he did not commit. Sanford told how his attorney commented, “you’re a black kid from the ghetto; these white people from the suburbs are gonna come in here and they’re gonna find you guilty.” He was exonerated June of 2016 after the real offender came forward and denied Sanford’s involvement in the murder. What is exposed as this bigger picture is how the criminal justice system is corrupted, being prejudice and stereotyping individuals based on their socioeconomic status is how the system seems to incarcerate people and sad to say,
Throughout the entire film, viewers can witness how Steven Avery is being poorly treated because of his socioeconomic status, and the fact that he is different from everyone in the Manitowoc County. Steven was lied on, picked on, and accused of committing a crime he did not commit, all because he was looked down upon and viewed as being less of a person than everyone else in the community. Watching this episode invokes an emotion that is prevalent today with our justice system. Many minorities are falsely accused and falsely imprisoned due to personal vendettas from private citizens or members of the law enforcement. Many are disfranchised due to their socioeconomic status. There are many innocent men and women serving life sentences and on death row for crimes they did not commit. In the year of 2007, Devontae Sanford, who was just 14 years old at the time, was wrongfully convicted of a crime and sentenced 90 years in
Construction of Holmes’s World’s Fair Hotel, or better known as “The Murder Castle” in modern times, began in 1890. The building consisted of over 60 rooms and 51 oddly cut doors. By Holmes’s request, new construction workers were brought in each week so no one would know the exact layout besides him, and he refused to pay for any of the labor or materials used. Holmes used his intelligence and carefully contemplated every action to make sure it would be virtually impossible for anyone to catch him. In the top two floors of the 162 by 50 foot three story hotel there were trap doors, asphyxiation chambers, and blowtorches in the walls to torture and kill the people working in and staying at the hotel and a dissection table, crematory, and
On December 18th 2015 Netflix aired with great popularity a 10 part documentary series called “making a Murderer” The documentary, written by Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demo, present the case of Steven Avery; a convicted murderer exonerated on DNA evidence after serving 18 years for the assault and attempted murder of Penny Beerntsen. The writers present the series in a way that suggest that Avery was framed by the Manitowoc Country police department. and present that the police planted evidence to frame Steven Avery because he had been exonerated from the previous crime. The ethical problem with this as is presented by Kathryn Schulz in The New Yorker, is that the documentary argues their case so passionately that they leave out important
Staring Monster, and “Murder on a Sunday Morning,” if you want to find out what the book “Monster” and the documentary “Murder On a Sunday Morning” are about then you should probably go to the library and get the book, and rent the documentary. Once you start reading the book Monster you wont want to stop, and once you start watching the documentary “Murder On A Sunday Morning” you will be just like a couch potato some one will have to come pry you off of your couch. Trust me when I say you will be a couch potato then I mean you will be a couch potato. I think that you will love the documentary “ Murder On A Sunday Morning,” and the book staring Walter Dean Myers “Monster.” This book and documentary will leave you on the edge of you seat, because their is so much thrill and excitement. One thing will happen and then the book will stop right then and there, you will have to start a new chapter to get to the good stuff. Same with eh documentary you will get to a certain part of the movie and then all of the sudden another thrill pops up and
Its funny but when am sitting in the courtroom i don't feel like i'm involved in the case. It's like the lawyers and the judge and everybody doing their job that involves me. Both mary and steve went to prison and only one of them was caught. In the stories Monster and Lamb to the slaughter the characters steve and mary are dangerous because considering munder as a oppiction. Steve is a 16 year old boy and he was arrested for a look out in the robbery. Steve ends up in a bad place and the store owner ends up dead. Even no Steve didnt touch the gun he could still possibly face time in jail. Because Steve was still part of the robbery he is facing jail time at the age of 16 and possibly going to get charged with murder. Steve had made some bad
This crime has been an important piece of criminal history for the past 70 years. This is an example of an extreme case being published due to the fact that more extreme cases make more interesting articles. This was only one of 636 murders in New York City that year. This was also a case that also had implications of how we view human nature. Though there are several things that this case has influenced over the past several years, there were many misrepresentations in the article. Though this case has often been misinterpreted, some of the most important things to take note of are the way people viewed the case vs. how it took place, the inaccuracies found in the article, and the tangible consequences of the murder.
African americans males where thought to be animalistic, sexually unrestrained, criminals, and rapists. These stereotypical characteristics of african american males were conveyed through the documentary “Central Park 5,” where five young men, in which four were black and one Spanish, were wrongfully convicted of raping a woman by the criminal justice system. These young men were also tried for rape, physical aggression, stealing, rioting, sexual abuse, and even attempted murder. They had to serve a time from six to 13 years in prison a serial rapist confessed to the crime. The myth of the bestial black man is used to impact the justice system on their decision towards these young men. Jeremi Duru explains, “The myth of the Bestial black man is as a myth, deeply imbedded in American culture, that black men are animalistic, sexually unrestrained, inherently criminal, and ultimately bent on rape.” Also, they were looked down upon because they were low class and they didn’t have the education and the money to get out of their situation. The criminal justice system used that to their advantage by interrogating these young men for over 24 hours without any food until they got a confession from them to use against them. They were treated like animals because of the color of their skin. Because of the color of their skin and stereotypes, they did not have justice. They served many years because
It was a mistaken identity case where the distressed raped women picked out the wrong black man. Even though the conviction was overturned due to DNA evidence, a mistaken eyewitness testimony led to a wrongful conviction that the Burlington Police upheld without question due to prejudice feelings toward determine Ronald Cotton (Thompson-Cannino, Cotton and Torneo 283). Ronald had his whole family testify that he had been home the night Jennifer was raped however because he had mixed up his dates when he originally confessed that police assumed he was lying despite what he and his family said. The other indication of racism on the police force was when the second rape victim did not pick Ronald Cotton out of the physical lineup; she claimed she was terrified of the black men standing in front of her and just needed to leave, even though she knew it saw Ronald that had raped her (Thompson-Cannino, Cotton and Torneo 129). Ronald was believed to be guilty and was trying to prove his innocence from the beginning. This simply cannot occur in a justice system where one is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty; racism played a part in convicting this innocent man. Even during the second court case when he was trying to prove his innocence he remembered feeling the jury turn and look at him, "every single one of their white faces" believed how terrible of a man he was (Thompson-Cannino, Cotton and Torneo
Racism is happening before the suspect even gets a chance to explain themselves or be accused of any crime, and the rules of being able to do such a thing are becoming even more lenient so that police are able to perform such actions. “The rule requiring police to have ‘specific information’ was loosened. This piece of writing explains that for no other reason than race, 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 defendants had to deal with a higher human authority, the judge and jury of their area. In To Kill A Mockingbird Tom Robinson had to deal with an alleged rape, and no matter what the evidence said, or how hard his lawyer worked, he was convicted and later died. Tom was falsely accused, and his death was untimely and could have been avoided. But he accepted his fate calmly, as if he knew no matter what he would be convicted. The defendant in A Time To Kill, Carl Lee was accused of murder of the two men who raped his daughter. Carl was found not guilty, even though he did kill those men, and later on in life will have to deal with his actions. Both men had to deal with what the court brought against them, and they both did. Carl and Tom dealt with multiple issues, but the prejudices of their race, and the time they were tried ultimately determined their fates.