Racial Inequality in the Usa Judicial System
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John R. Roberts, Chief Justice of the United States
Emily Miner
From:
Josh Kavanagh
Date:
November 13, 2016
Subject: Inequality of Blacks in the U.S. Judicial System
Introduction
Racial inequality: It is a subject that seems to have been brought up more in recent years than just about anything else. As a society, whites tend to believe racism no longer exists and that everyone is treated fairly, while minorities a lot of the time think the exact opposite. But there are facts that cannot be ignored from either side in certain aspects of this broad issue, the judicial system being one of them. This memo is being written to attempt to answer one question- how is racial inequality prevalent in the system today? To answer this, I will examine the areas of wrongful conviction, the differences in sentencing from race to race, and the injustice for black juveniles. There are many officials who are either unaware of this problem, or are simply turning a blind eye to it. A change undoubtedly needs to be made.
Wrongful Conviction
Many criminal cases have subdued to stereotypes and discrimination, and as a result, many blacks have been incorrectly or unjustly convicted of a crime. The media, our peers, and our family all play a large role in how we think of different groups, and as Americans many are prone to tagging quality traits or titles to races. In the instance of African Americans, some of these titles may include “thief” or “violent”. This is a harmful action that unfortunately is seen quite frequently, and has leaked its way into legitimate criminal cases. Many Americans typically stereotype African Americans as violent people who commit the most vicious crimes. This is reiterated by a social survey conducted that Villanova professor Kelly Welch talks about in her journal titled “Black Criminal Stereotypes and Racial Profiling”. She says that “54% of Whites believe that Blacks are prone to violence, and are aggressive”. These stereotypes are what leads to injustice in the courts. Going off of the survey, if around half of White Americans have this distinct association of blacks to crime, then technically around half of white judges could realistically have swayed opinions. According to Edwin Grimsley of the Innocence Project, “More than 2000 false convictions have happened in the past 23 years, 61% of which involve African Americans”. Coincidence? Probably not. This statistic shows that whether there is corruption, carelessness, or racial prejudice involved, they all can have detrimental effects on the lives of those affected. And unfortunately blacks are well over half of this category. Another more famous example of wrongful conviction is the story of Ricky Jackson. Hilary Hanson, a writer for The Huffington Post, covered the story of this black man who was sentenced to life in prison for murder he allegedly committed. The entire case was careless, and because he was black, the system was content to hastily rush to a conviction. After 39 years, he was found innocent and released from death row. There were many factors that played a role in the injustice of Jackson’s case, but race was without a doubt one of the largest ones. Jackson’s story is just one of many who was victim to an injustice he had no control over. Evidence, facts, witnesses, and reliable information should be the basis and deciding factors of trials, not the color of an individual’s skin.
Differences in Sentencing
It seems silly to think that one person could have a higher probability of being arrested or going to prison than his peer just because of his skin color, right? Unfortunately, there is also an inequality issue present when it comes to sentencing crimes. All people, regardless of race, obviously have the ability to do the same level of good or evil. While there may be differential factors from person to person including their upbringing, environment, or support, race does not play a definite factor in the choices someone chooses to make or how different situations should be handled. The justice system, however, does not seem to agree. According to an article written by Sophia Kerby of the Center for American Progress, “While people of color make up about 30 percent of the United States’ population, they account for 60 percent of those imprisoned. 1 in every 15 African American men are incarcerated in comparison to 1 in every 106 white men”. She also points out that one out of every three Black men can expect to be incarcerated at some point in their life. The disproportion here is staggeringly large. Racial profiling can become a large factor, with countless stories of Blacks being stopped, arrested, or even shot when they were not doing anything. A change needs to be made, and people need to stop being treated so unequal. The problem does not stop just at the fact that African Americans are more likely to be arrested than their White counterparts. Once arrested, they face harsher punishment and longer sentences as well. In an article written by the U.S. Sentencing Commission titled “Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Disparities in Federal Sentencing Today” the author states that “In the federal system, Black offenders receive sentences that are ten percent longer than White offenders for the same crime”. Blacks are also more likely to be locked up in high security prisons. It simply does not make sense. There is no reason that two people that committed the same crime be treated any differently, especially because of race. By allowing prison time and severity to differ from person to person according to the color of their skin, the judicial system is promoting inequality and allowing the people who are supposed to be unbiased to be the exact opposite. There needs to be a shift in how sentences are decided, and guidelines need to be set to ensure more fairness with these trials.
Injustice for Juveniles
It is a known standard in America that children, ages up to seventeen, can be tried as juveniles for committing a crime rather than adults due to significant differences in reasoning ability, impulse control, and overall brain development. On rare enough occasion, however, juveniles can be tried as adults. There seems to be a double standard when it comes to this as well. What is being seen more and more is that black children are tried as adults much more often than white children. Jennifer Eberhardt, a psychology professor at Stanford, recently published a study in the New York Times that she and other colleagues conducted that stated as