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The united states court system essay
The united states court system essay
The united states court system essay
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The Assassination of the Mayor of Castro Street and the Consensus of the Judicial System
It was November 27th, 1978. There was a cheerful atmosphere in San Francisco’s City Hall that morning. Supervisor Harvey Milk’s good mood was due to Mayor George Moscone’s upcoming announcement to the press. He was going to publicize that he had decided not to reappoint the ultra-conservative "voice for the family", Dan White, back to the board of supervisors. Harvey Milk was a fierce advocate of this political move, for he was the first openly gay elected official, and thus, the most important political leader for homosexuals at the time. Dan White, on the other hand, enforced family values and therefore was not someone that supported this progressive civil rights movement. Thus, the opposition towards Dan White shown by his colleges and the minorities of the community was a new victory for the homosexual rights movement and the many supporters of Harvey Milk. However, Dan White had other plans. The press did not hear that announcement, but instead saw this: [video of announcement of assassinations,
"As president of the Board of Supervisors it is my duty to make this announcement . . . Both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed. The suspect . . . is Supervisor Dan White.", Dianne Feinstein.] (Epstein & Schmiechen, 1984).
Dan White abruptly and severely altered the success of the civil rights movement occurring in the most liberal city of its time. Richard DeLeon states this in his book, Left Coast City: Progressive Politics of San Francisco 1975-1991, "…this sad episode in San Francisco’s political history almost certainly delayed the opportunity to fulfill Mayor Moscone’s progressive agenda through the nine ye...
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...duced. Their personal negative predisposition towards homosexuals was the underlying principle for their conviction. This obvious stigma associated with Harvey Milk’s sexuality was an instant and enormous step backward in all that Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Milk had accomplished.
It is a shame that while the United States is supposed to be the most powerful country in the world, the structure of its judicial system has obvious flaws, which have not been modified for over two hundred years. To fix this problem of the oppression of minorities, one of two things needs to happen. Either the jury system needs to be modified, or society needs to be mature enough to respect each individual without discrimination towards race, gender, or sexual orientation. Until these changes occur, our judicial system will continue to allow people like Dan White to get away with murder.
The Times of Harvey Milk suggests that the experiences of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people in the 1980s and 1990s reflect on the dangers of visibility. While the election of the first openly gay politician, Harvey Milk, was a first, representing change in it’s own, the murder of Harvey Milk spoke even louder, specifically the short amount of time his murderer, Dan White, was sentenced. The film suggests that while being openly gay at the time, while accepted by some, remained and still remains a danger. Public leaders within the movement experienced violence, discrimination, and in Harvey Milk’s case murder. Even so, it is shown that with every injustice the community grows bigger and stronger, never losing the support of its community and allies. This is shown in the film by the silent, candlelight parade of 45,000 people on the night of the murder, followed by an angry, violent, riot following the sentencing of his murderer. Though Milk was murdered, a decade before he would have never been elected, he wouldn’t have had support, this was a pivotal point in the growth of the movement.
““Anger had no place among homosexuals of those years, only fear. Not only fear of the police but fear of himself”(Shilts, 4). Being gay was such a bad thing back then that even gay people feared themselves. I think a lot of people ask the question “well how come no one ever just spoke up and fought back?” In reality, it’s not that simple. People of the minority carried immense fear and felt such a burden about it because there’s nothing they can do it “fix” it. I also think it’s important to remember that Harvey always kind of knew he was going to be killed because of what he believed in. “This is Harvey Milk… This is to be played only after the event of my death by assassination… I fully realize that a person who stands for what I stand for, an activist, a gay activist, becomes the target or potential target for a person who is insecure, terrified, afraid or very disturbed with themselves”(275). This is just a pattern in history. You can look at almost any person who fought for justice in a social movement and a lot of them end up dead. If not dead, almost all have had multiple death threats thrown their way. Harvey knew this fact and he knew that it was a possibility. It goes to show how scary standing up for what you believe in is and why it’s not as easy just to fight
The author detailed the many of the difficulties faced by the special operations forces in Afghanistan. They made significant gains with the Village Stability Operations and a major concern for them was losing ground. However, certain factors threatened those gains. In particular, the wars unpopularity at home and President Obama 2014 timetable to withdraw were major hurdles. The author explained that this complicated the efforts of the special operations forces because; a counterinsurgency strategy takes time to cultivate. Many military leaders fear that their efforts will not hold up in their absence. They believe the assistance of the United States is crucial to continued success in the war. The biggest obstacle to this effort was the relationship between American and Afghani Leadership. President Karzai insisted Afghan Special Forces accompany U.S. Special Forces on night raids. Military leaders were hesitant at first nevertheless, president Karzai insisted. In addition, he wanted Afghan approval for every mission launched. The author concludes that the real intention for accompanying the U....
Racial discrimination has been an immense problem in our society for a very long time. The fact that the race of a victim plays a role in his or her sentencing is appalling. Discrimination within our society needs to come to an end. It’s frightening to think that if you are a minority facing a capital punishment case, which you might be found guilty only because of the color of your skin.
The abolishment of slavery, no matter what country it took place in, was a significant turning point in world history. Due to this it has become the discussion of much scholarly debate. There are three historians to highlight that provide key points to why slavery needed to be abolished and the significance of it. David Brion Davis, C.L.R. James, and Orlando Patterson all share similar and differing viewpoints for why slavery needed to be discontinued. This is important to discuss so we as humans who are building a society do not make the same mistakes again as we continue to learn from our past. Whether they are social, economic, or moral wrongdoings we can take a step in the right direction towards avoiding them by observing and contemplating what has occurred before us. This is why reading these historians’ accounts are so important. The three historians David Brion Davis, C.L.R. James, and Orlando Patterson show why slavery could not be sustained and why it was necessary to rid ourselves of it.
Despite the efforts of lawyers and judges to eliminate racial discrimination in the courts, does racial bias play a part in today’s jury selection? Positive steps have been taken in past court cases to ensure fair and unbiased juries. Unfortunately, a popular strategy among lawyers is to incorporate racial bias without directing attention to their actions. They are taught to look for the unseen and to notice the unnoticed. The Supreme Court in its precedent setting decision on the case of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), is the first step to limiting racial discrimination in the court room. The process of selecting jurors begins with prospective jurors being brought into the courtroom, then separating them into smaller groups to be seated in the jury box. The judge and or attorneys ask questions with intent to determine if any juror is biased or cannot deal with the issues fairly. The question process is referred to as voir dire, a French word meaning, “to see to speak”. During voir dire, attorneys have the right to excuse a juror in peremptory challenges. Peremptory challenges are based on the potential juror admitting bias, acquaintanceship with one of the parties, personal knowledge of the facts, or the attorney believing he/she might not be impartial. In the case of Batson v. Kentucky, James Batson, a black man, was indicted for second-degree burglary and receipt of stolen goods. During the selection of the jury the prosecutor used his peremptory challenges to strike out all of the four black potential jurors, leaving an all white jury. Batson’s attorney moved to discharge the venire, the list from which jurors may be selected, on the grounds that the prosecutor’s peremptory challenges violated his client’s Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to have a jury derived from a “cross-section of the community”(People v. Wheeler, 583 P.3d 748 [Calif. 1978]). The circuit court ruled in favor of the prosecutor and convicted Batson on both counts. This case went through the courts and finalized in the U.S. Supreme Court.
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.
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.
McKinley, Jesse. "Harvey Milk's Shop, Center of a Movement, Is Now the Center of an Internal Fight." New York Times. N.p., 19 Dec. 2010. Web.
This research essay discusses racial disparities in the sentencing policies and process, which is one of the major factors contributing to the current overrepresentation of minorities in the judicial system, further threatening the African American and Latino communities. This is also evident from the fact that Blacks are almost 7 times more likely to be incarcerated than are Whites (Kartz, 2000). The argument presented in the essay is that how the laws that have been established for sentencing tend to target the people of color more and therefore their chances of ending up on prison are higher than the whites. The essay further goes on to talk about the judges and the prosecutors who due to different factors, tend to make their decisions
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?
This article was written to bring attention to the way men and women act because of how they were thought to think of themselves. Shaw and Lee explain how biology determines what sex a person is but a persons cultures determines how that person should act according to their gender(Shaw, Lee 124). The article brings up the point that, “a persons gender is something that a person performs daily, it is what we do rather than what we have” (Shaw, Lee 126). They ...
The dictatorship of President Batista caught the attention of a young attorney named Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, or better known as Fidel Castro. In protest against President Batista, Castro formed and led a small group called M-26-7. The name of this group symbolized when the group attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba on July 26, 1953. This marked the beginning of the Cuban Revolution. The attack was unsuccessful and it left many of the attackers, including leader Fidel Castro, jailed while others fled the country and a few killed in the attack. After going to trial, on October 16, 1953, Castro was sentenced to 15 years in prison in the hospital wing of the Presidio Modelo while delivering his History Will Absolve Me speech. However, on May 15, 1955, Castro and the rest of the prisoners were released after President Batista believed that to be of no threat. Upon getting being released from prison, Castro’s main focus was to strengthen the M-26-7. Later that year, Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl Castro fled Cuba to avoid being arrested after the 1955 bombings. Fidel said that his reason for leaving was because all doors of peaceful struggle had closed on him.
When a defendant has been convicted of killing a white person, the odds that the defendant will be executed by the state are much higher. Eighty-five percent of those who have been executed since 1976 were convicted for killing a white person, while only 13% were executed for killing a black person. When will people realize that just because a person is of another race that they are more dangerous than another race? For instance, the 1972 Furman V. Georgia case abolished the death penalty for four years on the grounds that capital punishment was extensive with racial inequalities (Latzer 21). Over twenty five years later, those inequalities are higher than ever.
In today’s global economy, free trade and globalization are deeply intertwined. Globalization makes free trade possible and vice versa. It is beyond doubt that as time goes by the speed at which international integration is increasing and reduction of barriers to free trade are decreasing have gone up. While there is some resistance against the forces of globalization and free trade (McMaken, 2016), most nations have come to accept it as a reality of the modern era. This large scale acceptance is generally regarded as progress towards a world with less conflict. Arguments in favor of free trade and globalization stem from a variety of interdisciplinary sources. This paper goes into the details of some arguments for free trade and globalization, and explains why Globalization and free trade reduce the prevalence of conflicts in the international arena, and promote peace, cooperation and disarmament