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Racial discrimination in the US justice system
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I do not agree with King that racial and class privilege played a role in the sentencing of a person. This is a great criminal justice question, because we learn that judges do perform stereotypes on people. Though they do not mean to, it just a habit, because they really do not know the offender life story, they use past cases to sentence a person. Also, many young black offenders cannot afford a lawyer, so they use a public defender, who only speaks to the person for 3-5 minutes, because he is over worked. Just like the video’s some black people do not fully know their rights, either be of education or fear of the police, they take a plea bargain, even if they did not commit the acts. Plus, just like in Turner’s case, the judge saw himself in Turner’s shoes. Then looking at Judge Monte Wilkins, a black judge who presided over Cory Batey did not see himself in Batey’s shoes. Same could be stated about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Many black people dislike him, because he distanced himself from other black groups, because he is seemed as a Uncle Tom or betrayed his race, just as Judge Wilkins did to Batey given him a harsher sentence. See the problem I saw about these two cases, Judge Wilkins was fair and justice, as Judge Aaron Persky used his emotions to …show more content…
Like the video’s we are seen in class, some individuals mostly black people, cannot afford bail so they accept the plea bargain, because they can’t miss work, and have a criminal record. But the justice system was designed to punish, not rehabilitate. Most individuals cannot afford bail, because they are poor. Taken the video of the lady who just was able to afford our house payment, what would have happen if she received a ticket? Should she pay it, and maybe not buy food or skip a bill or forget it and get a bench warrant of for her arrest. I believe white privilege only plays a factor, if the person of white color is
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).
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
To me, this argument is logical and valid. King acknowledges this by describing policy makers crafting the living conditions of the Negroes. King states, “The slums are the handiwork of a vicious system of the white society; Negroes live in them, but they do not make them, any more than a prisoner makes a prison,” (King, 8). King refers to the slums as the housing projects of the Negroes and states the policy makers flagrantly violate building codes and regulations. This would show the white man not enforcing the laws and breaking laws intentionally when dealing with Negroes. As Negroes stood up for what they believed to be true, the white man became increasingly defiant. To me, it seems as if the white men were afraid to allow Negroes rights that they themselves possessed and perhaps even took for granted. My inference here is that white men were not prepared and were frightened to allow a class of people that they found less than human be present and existent in their everyday society. I believe fear was one of the major adversaries on both sides. The white man was afraid of change and this fear birthed hate and discrimination to a race that they were unsure of. They were more involved in their own self-interests than in a whole race of people. The only thing that they thought was right was to keep Negroes and whites separated through segregation, which fumed the emotions of the Negroes and ultimately established their conclusions to violence and riots. The white man perpetuated policy making that effected the Negroes in a negative way which I believe caused harm to race
The majority of our prison population is made up of African Americans of low social and economic classes, who come from low income houses and have low levels of education. The chapter also discusses the amount of money the United States loses yearly due to white collar crime as compared to the cost of violent crime. Another main point was the factors that make it more likely for a poor person to be incarcerated, such as the difficulty they would have in accessing adequate legal counsel and their inability to pay bail. This chapter addresses the inequality of sentencing in regards to race, it supplies us with NCVS data that shows less than one-fourth of assailants are perceived as black even though they are arrested at a much higher rate. In addition to African Americans being more likely to be charged with a crime, they are also more likely to receive harsher punishments for the same crimes- which can be seen in the crack/cocaine disparities. These harsher punishments are also shown in the higher rates of African Americans sentenced to
This incident would have produced nothing more than another report for resisting arrest had a bystander, George Holliday, not videotaped the altercation. Holliday then released the footage to the media. LAPD Officers Lawrence Powell, Stacey Koon, Timothy Wind and Theodore Brisino were indicted and charged with assaulting King. Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg ordered a change of venue to suburban Simi Valley, which is a predominantly white suburb of Los Angeles. All officers were subsequently acquitted by a jury comprised of 10 whites, one Hispanic and one Asian, and the African American community responded in a manner far worse than the Watts Riots of 1965. ?While the King beating was tragic, it was just the trigger that released the rage of a community in economic strife and a police department in serious dec...
Upon spending his night in jail for refusing to pay his poll taxes, Thoreau said that he felt “As if he alone of all his townsmen had paid his tax” (Thoreau 319). Thoreau is trying to say that he is feeling as if he was the only one who really served his time in prison and paid his justice more than those who object and claim they haven’t. King went to jail due to a program of sit-ins at luncheon counters. While King was in jail he wrote a letter which was formally intended for the eight white clergymen. As I mention before, King believes that he has been unjustly put in jail and he is being a responsible citizen although he knows he has been put in jail wrongfully. By Both being in jail they agree that injustice exists. Thoreau thinks of injustice as pressure that can wear the machine down. King thinks that injustice just exists and tension must be created with direct action to negotiate with the machine. I also agree with King here, how he thinks that injustice still exist because up to this day there is injustice in our country and others as well. As a matter of fact, the black community today is facing injustice by law enforcement. A few black men have been killed by police and the government is not doing much about the issue and letting the police get away with it. This is an example of injustice to all blacks because police seem to be murdering these innocent people only because of their race. This
“Most modem sentencing systems in the United States express an explicit commitment to ensuring that a defendant 's sentence is not affected by the defendant 's race or gender (Hessick, 2010).” Even though individuals are protected through the Bill of Rights and Sentencing Reform Acts, there are still disparities in sentencing within the criminal justice systems. Often, race and gender bias negatively affects sentencing.
Turner, Billy. 1986. “Race and Peremptory Challenges During Voir Dire: Do Prosecution and Defense Agree?” Journal of Criminal Justice 14: 61-69.
Many inequalities exist within the justice system that need to be brought to light and addressed. Statistics show that African American men are arrested more often than females and people of other races. There are some measures that can and need to be taken to reduce the racial disparity in the justice system.
In the United States, the rate of incarceration has increased shockingly over the past few years. In 2008, it was said that one in 100 U.S. adults were behind bars, meaning more than 2.3 million people. Even more surprising than this high rate is the fact that African Americans have been disproportionately incarcerated, especially low-income and lowly educated blacks. This is racialized mass incarceration. There are a few reasons why racialized mass incarceration occurs and how it negatively affects poor black communities.
Clarence Thomas and the many blacks like him also contribute to the “class” rift in the black community. The many educated blacks who do not give back to their community are labeled as “sellouts” by their peers and family me...
2010, “Racial Disparities in Sentencing: Implications for the Criminal Justice System and the African American Community”, African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies 4(1): 1-31, in this Albonetti’s study is discussed in which it was found that minority status alone accounted for an additional sentence length of “one to seven months.” African American defendants were “likely to receive pretrial release but were more likely to be convicted, and be given harsher sentences after conviction than white defendants charged with the same crimes.” One of the reasons behind this are the sentencing laws, it is seen that these laws are designed in a way that they tend to be harsher towards a certain group of people, generally towards the people of color than others thus leading to inequality with the sentencing
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?
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
The policies of the criminal justice system are economically biased and racially discriminatory. This results in the poor and minorities being disproportionately arrested and imprisoned. They are also more likely to receive harsher and longer sentences. The system “weeds out the wealthy” by not punishing the crimes committed by the rich (a.k.a White Collar Crimes) as severely as those committed by the poor. This discriminatory process is explained using a transmission belt and a funnel. There are two separate belts for the poor and the rich. The transmission belt of the poor, is easier to ride and rather difficult to fall off along with shorter orders into prison. While the belt of the rich is much slower and exiting the belt is easier. The funneling occurs during the sentencing process. The population of people who go through the funnel (the criminal justice system) is relatively large; however, as the process continues, this group grows smaller. At the end of the funnel, all who is left is the poor and the racially disadvantaged. An example which supports the reason for differential treatment of the rich and the poor, is the class difference and access to resources. This can include a chance at getting a high profile lawyer or paying their bail. This also includes living situations of those in poverty. It is more likely for arrests for drugs to occur in inner cities opposed to the suburbs.