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Racial discrimination in the united states criminal justice system
Oj simpson and the justice system
Factors contributing to racial and ethnic disparities within the criminal justice system
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Race has continually been an important issue within the United States and most predominantly the criminal justice system. Racial tension in America is often thought of as being white versus black, even though that is not in fact the case. African-Americans view the system as favoring whites while trying to keep them at the bottom. While whites claim that the criminal justice system is colorblind, blacks clearly do not feel this way; whites underestimate the racial divide in the criminal justice system (Bikel, 2005). The highly publicized OJ Simpson case is well-known for being a case more about race than murder. In the 1999 Gallup Poll, 74% of people said that OJ either “probably” or “definitely” committed murder. A black male on trial for allegedly killing two whites, his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman, was left free not because the jury thought he was innocent but because they were fighting the system that has so long oppressed blacks, primarily black men. This paper is to show that OJ owes his “not guilty” verdict to his race and not his innocence.
Immediately after Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman were found dead, on June 12, 1994, outside Brown’s home in California OJ Simpson was a suspect (Linder, 2000). He was a retired football player then living a short distance from Brown’s home. Being that he was a black male accused of killing two whites, the racial tensions were already brewing.
The importance of race in this case was thought about before the start of the trial especially concerning the jury. The prosecution had decided to conduct the jury selection in downtown Los Angeles even though the crime had happened in Santa Monica. Having a trial in LA meant having a jury composed largely of minorities wh...
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...ustices of the corrupt criminal justice system. Because of the publicity of the case, it was easy to use OJ as an informant for all of America, showing the inequalities American society is built on.
Works Cited
Bikel, O. (2005). The O.J. Verdict. PBS. Retrieved December 3, 2013, From: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/oj/view/.
Gallup. (1995). Opinion Polls on the O. J. Simpson Trial. UMKC School of Law. Retrieved December 3, 2013, From:
Linder, D. (2000). The Trial of Orenthal James Simpson. UMKC School of Law. Retrieved December 3, 2013, From: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Simpson/Simpsonaccount.htm.
Jones, T.L. (2007). The O.J. Simpson Murder Trial. TruTV. Retrieved December 3, 2013, From: http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders /famous/simpson/index_1.html.
This paper proposes that three major factors play a role in the high rate of convictions of black men versus whites and Hispanics. These factors are the lack of diversity among legal professionals in positions of power for decision-making, specifically those in the criminal justice system; secondly, the racial disparities that exist in arrest conviction and sentencing and thirdly, the incidence of discriminatory actions within the justice system. The paper seeks to examine litera...
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
The funeral for the two victims was held on June 16th, 1994. O.J attended the funerals along with Nicole Simpson’s family and Ronald Goldman’s family. Shortly after, on June 17th, O.J was arrested and charged with first degree murder. Simpson immediately pleaded “100% not guilty’” on July 22nd, and the trial officially began on July 24th, 1994 (Linder 1). Because the jury was made up of mostly blacks, many outsiders believed that it would affect final decision of the jury. “O.J is free and so are we!” and “Live with it!” Were many of the comments blurted out during the many days of the trial (Elias 22). Judge Lance A was assigned to the case.
After a lengthy two hundred and fifty-two-day trial “not guilty” were the words that left the world in shock. O.J Simpson was your typical golden boy. He had it all, the nice car, the football career, and his kids. Unfortunately, this all came to an end when two bodies came to be spotted deceased in Nicole Browns front yard and was a gruesome sight. O. J’s ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman both found with brutal stab marks. Unfortunately, all his glory days now brought to an end, he went from playing on the field to begging for his freedom when becoming the main suspect of their murders. Since this trial has not only altered the way Americans viewed celebrities, but it also racially divided society,
The New York Times bestseller book titled Reasonable Doubts: The Criminal Justice System and the O.J. Simpson Case examines the O.J. Simpson criminal trial of the mid-1990s. The author, Alan M. Dershowitz, relates the Simpson case to the broad functions and perspectives of the American criminal justice system as a whole. A Harvard law school teacher at the time and one of the most renowned legal minds in the country, Dershowitz served as one of O.J. Simpson’s twelve defense lawyers during the trial. Dershowitz utilizes the Simpson case to illustrate how today’s criminal justice system operates and relates it to the misperceptions of the public. Many outside spectators of the case firmly believed that Simpson committed the crimes for which he was charged for. Therefore, much of the public was simply dumbfounded when Simpson was acquitted. Dershowitz attempts to explain why the jury acquitted Simpson by examining the entire American criminal justice system as a whole.
The people directly involved with this case are Judge Lance Ito, the prosecution lawyers, Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden, the defense lawyers, Johnnie Cochran, Robert Shapiro and Robert Blasier , the jury and the defendant, O.J. Simpson. The families of the victims have also been present in the courtroom, as well as other spectators and news media. This case has heard one hundred and twenty witnesses over a nine month period.
Civilrights.org. (2002, April 13). Justice on trial. Washington, DC: Leadership Conference on Civil Rights/Leadership Conference on Civil RightsEducation Fund. Retrieved April 12, 2005, from Civilrights.org Web site: http://www.civilrights.org/publications/reports/cj/
For the past few years there has been an ongoing debate surrounding the issue of racial profiling. The act of racial profiling may rest on the assumption that African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to commit crimes than any individual of other races or ethnicities. Both David Cole in the article "The Color of Justice" and William in the article "Road Rage" take stance on this issue and argue against it in order to make humanity aware of how erroneous it is to judge people without evidence. Although Cole and William were very successful in matters of showing situations and qualitative information about racial profiling in their articles, both of them fail at some points.
In several cases and studies, there is a substantial amount of racial bias in the criminal justice system. In fact, the 1978 McClesky conviction has proven to support Baldus’s study in 1998. Warren McClesky, an African American male, was found guilty of killing a Georgia police officer. The legal team who represented McClesky exposed a study that showed how biased racial inequality is in the death penalty, but the court contended the argument because “disparities in sentencing are an inevitable part of our criminal justice system” (Touré). Furthermore, race has always been a serious matter in the Supreme Court and other government administrations, but they fail to recognize the
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.
In the 1970’s and 1980’s, Orenthal James Simpson or OJ Simpson was a well-known celebrity within North America. He was an all American Football player who turned to acting and sports casting after he retired from the National Football League. On June 12, 1994 Nicole Brown, OJ’s ex-wife, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, were found murdered outside Nicole’s residence. The scene of the crime took place outside Ms. Brown’s condominium complex, where two murdered bodies were discovered in the entrance pathway. The police scanned the scene of the crime carefully searching for evidence. They found crucial DNA evidence that supported their idea that Mr. Simpson had been involved in committing these murders. The LAPD issued a statement to the media saying that they were allowing OJ Simpson to turn himself in by June 17 at 11:00 a.m. OJ Simpson did not report to the police station on June 11th. The infamous car chase took place while broadcasted on live television. OJ Simpson's Ford Bronco was spotted driving down the interstate, being driven by his friend Al Cowlings. Mr. Simpson was located in the rear seat with a gun pointing to his head stating that he was going to kill himself if any cop approach the vehicle. Within the video below detective Tom Lange talked to Simpson while the car chase was taking place. He pleads with Mr. Simpson to stop this chase and not to commit suicide. Every news station within the world broadcasted the chase as the police chased Mr. Simpsons white bronco at slow speeds down the highway. Citizens flocked to the overpasses to watch as the truck passed them while being followed by numerous cop cars and news helicopters. The chase finally concluded at Mr. Simpson's home and came to a dramatic end when Cowling park...
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
Abadinsky, Howard. Law and Justice: An Introduction to the American Legal System. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2008. Print.
Garrett, Brandon. Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2011. 86. Print.
Fairchild, H. & Cowan, G (1997). Journal of Social Issues. The O.J. Simpson Trial: Challenges to Science and Society.