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 …show more content…
In Tulia, TX, a five hour drive from Dallas, 46 people were swept up in an early morning drug sting in July of 1999. Thirty-nine of the suspects were black in that tiny, predominantly white town. They represented roughly 20% of the town’s adult black population. The drug sting was the culmination of an 18 month undercover investigation by a narcotics agent, Tom Coleman. He had been hired as part of a federal anti-drug program funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Byrne grant. The local newspapers labelled these suspects as “scumbags” and, based upon a tip from the local authorities, captured video footage of the perp walk as these people were paraded disheveled in their underwear to jail. As a result of such a high profile bust, Coleman was recognized as the Texas Lawman of the Year by the state’s Attorney General in …show more content…
Most of these defendants couldn’t afford private attorneys and depended upon public defenders. For instance, Joe Moore had two prior convictions and was facing a maximum of a 90 year sentence for selling three grams of cocaine. However, Moore begged his public defender to call Eliga Kelly to stand in his defense. Moore claimed that Kelly witnessed him shoe Coleman off of his property. For whatever reasons, his public defender never bothered to call Kelly to the stand or even question him privately. After all, Eliga Kelly was considered a star witness for the prosecution, but, as a result of that negligence, Moore was sentenced to 90 years. Unlike most criminal informants, Eliga Kelly refused to lie under oath and in a subsequent trial for a different defendant, the prosecutor called Kelly to the stand. Kelly contradicted Coleman’s testimony by naming several defendants, including Joe Moore, who refused to sell drugs to
They had an alibi witness, a gas receipt, a ticket on the day of the murder. A police officer who would not come unless the judge subpoena him and the judge of course refused and would not pay the $650 to summon him. There were also two jailhouse snitches who lied about their testimony. The police misconduct was used in how they charged these individuals originally and how they have been accused initially with robbery, which later turned into murder. The police created the story and intimidated an eye witness who refused to testify and threatened to charge her with the murder if she refused. The attorneys told a moving tale and Ron Keine and company ended up being convicted. This case was before DNA testing but what exonerated these individuals was the actual murder confessing to the crimes. The entire case seemed like a fluke and malicious attack on these people. A guy in Carolina, confessed to all charges and had an epiphany and told the police where the weapon was located and how everything happened and how he dragged the body. He had to fight to get the police to accept his confession because the police were acting as if they already had their
On April 19th, 1989, Trisha Meili was the victim of violent assault, rape, and sodomy. The vicious attack left her in a coma for 12 days and The New York Times described it as “one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980’s.” The documentary, The Central Park Five, reveals the truth about what happened the night of April 19th, and how the subordinate group of young black boys were wrongly convicted. Analyzing the conflict theory of crime in association to the case of the central park five, understanding the way they were treated based on setting, why it was so easy for the law enforcement to pin the crime on the young black boys, and how wrongly convicting someone has great consequences along with relating it
The Cocaine Kids focuses on the lives of eight Latino and black young cocaine dealers in New York City from 1982 to 1986. This...
In the interviews Wood (2015) and Balko (2015), medically retired Police Officer and former Marine, Sargent Michael Wood discusses his time on the Baltimore Police Department and the driving factors to police corruption that is drawn from his experience. Sgt. Wood was a police officer for 11 years and for the first four years he was assigned to a majority black neighborhood. His second assignment was in a majority white neighborhood and during this assignment Sgt. Wood formulated an opinion on the police policies that drove corruption among good men and women (Wood, 2015). Although Sgt. Wood identifies many fascinating issues within the Baltimore Police Department, I will focus attention on his insight into the Baltimore police culture and
The following essay is about the assassination of Federal Judge John Wood. Judge John Howland Wood, Jr. was born on March 31, 1916. In 1970, Judge Wood became a United States Federal District Judge for the Western District of Texas. Judge Wood was tough on crimes including the making, selling, and distribution of illegal drugs, and he had a reputation for giving long prison sentences to drug dealers. This reputation gained him the nickname, “Maximum John.” In 1979, mobster Jamiel (“Jimmy”) Chagra was awaiting his trial for drug trafficking, and it was inevitable that he would be found guilty, and he was prepared to take any measure to prevent this fate. Consequently, Judge Wood was killed in front of his
The documentary, 13th, characterizes our criminal justice system and political institutions as corrupt institutions focused on exploiting the human rights of, primarily African Americans but also other minority groups. The documentary showed that the 13th amendment gave freedom to all citizens except criminals and allowed the criminal system to exploit incarcerated African Americans’ rights and still allowed slavery to take place. After the civil war, slavery continued by arresting African Americans for minor offences such as littering. Starting in 1970’s up until today, the war on drugs directly increased the mass incarceration that occurred throughout that time. In class, we learned that there was a huge increase in the incarceration
New Century Foundation. (2005). The Color of Crime: Race, Crime and Justice in America. Retrieved from http://www.colorofcrime.com/colorofcrime2005.pdf
A current event that vaguely mirrors police misconduct and the racial prejudice in similar traffic stops like Cameron and Christian by Officer Ryan is the “arrest of Raymond Wiley, a 66-year-old black man”, on Friday morning when he “was stopped by a police officer and ultimately arrested” as he was taking a walk about four blocks from his house, wearing a pair of gloves to pick up any recyclables in his path as he is a scrapper and travels to automobile shops to collect spare pieces of metal for sale (Winkley). He was also “carrying a shortened cane with duct tape” for protection against unleashed dogs he’s encountered previously. According to police officials, an officer spotted Wiley and suspected he was casing nearby vehicles(Winkley). When stopped and searched, the officer found his car keys (which police officials claim could be utilized to break into vehicles) as well as $2,500 in cash. Wiley was soon arrested on suspicion of two felony charges: possession of a baton as well as burglary tools. His lawyer claims the only thing “Wiley is guilty of being black and living in Encanto”(Winkley). The original article, published by the San Diego Union Tribune appears to have no underlying biases, as it gives both sides a platform to tell their story and remains neutral throughout the
"‘Race Wars’ Part 1: The Shocking Data on Black-on-Black Crime." The Blaze. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
Mauer, Marc. 1999. The Race to Incarcerate. New York: The New Press National Research Council. 1993.
Peterson, R, Krivo, L, & Hagan, J. (2006). The many colors of crime. NY: New York University Press.
The first chapter of Policing Gangs in America is entitled, “Studying the Police Response to Gangs.” The primary purpose of the chapter is to establish how police agencies; Inglewood, Las Vegas, Albuquerque and Phoenix in specific, respond to gang problems in their respective areas. This chapter served as an introduction, giving a brief history of gang-related policing, how the public and media see the gang problem, research studies done regarding gangs and the recent declaration to shift away from suppression-oriented strategies as a result of overly aggressive actions toward citizens. Examples of this misconduct are given in the forms of gang units from Las Vegas, Chicago and Houston.
Historically, the right to counsel was only guaranteed in federal criminal court (Wice, 2005). A person charged with a crime in the state court did not have the right to legal representation. Law scholar Professor Mason Beaney explained this by saying, “only a few states guaranteed the right to appointed counsel…In most jurisdictions counsel was appointed in none but the most serious cases, often only when the crime was punishable by death” (Wice, 2005, p. 3). Many defendants, who were poor, illiterate, and uneducated had to face the justice system without legal assistance (Smith, 2004, p. 579). Los Angeles County started one of the first public defender programs in 1914, spreading slowly to other counties (Neubauer & Fradella, 2011, p. 176). By the 1960’s, less than a dozen states still refused to provide attorneys to defendants unable to afford one (Smith, 2004).
Most of her clients to poor to make bail. Even if they did not commit the crime, it made sense for them to say they did. They would get out of jail quicker if the pleaded guilty than if they fought their
Schmalleger, F. (2011). 16. Drugs and Crime. Criminal justice today: an introductory text for the twenty-first century (11th ed., p. 572). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall.