Essay On The Scottsboro Boys

the prisoners were lucky enough to escape the being lynched when they were moved into Scottsboro. In this trial, nine young, black boys were charged with the rape of two white girls while on a train. This case was a major source of controversy in the 1930’s. “Despite testimony by doctors who had examined the women that no rape had occurred, the all- white jury convicted the nine, and all but the youngest, who was 12 years old were sentenced to death” (“Scottsboro”). The boys’ lawyer, Samuel Leibowitz, did not even get assigned to the case until the first day of the trial. “If he could show a jury that these nine boys were innocent, as the record indicated, the jury would surely free them. To Leibowitz, that was simple!” (Chalmers 35). However, it was not that simple. Many white citizens would not change their minds about

The injustice that comes from this prosecution isn’t taken as seriously as it should be, with it ruining lives of loved of victims and the victims themselves. A study by Katherine Beckett, details how jurors in Washington State were 3 times more likely to impose the death penalty to a person of color than a white person. Deaths that have included white victims make up 80% of Capital cases, while these victims only make up one half of all murder cases. By 2002, 12 cases of the defendant being white and the murder victim being black have been sent to the death penalty, while 178 cases of the defendant being black have been executed. Discrimination in a court of law that relates to the death penalty correlates directly with the prosecution and defense provided. 94.5% of elected prosecutors that reside in death penalty states are white, even going as far as 100% white in 9 states like Washington and Tennessee. These statistics showcase how the legal system is much more harsher and likely to punish people based on their skin

Some of the ways I have forward my ideas about the issue of the justice system failing was by giving example to real life events that took place recently. The ideas that I wrote about pertain to the central idea and why the justice system might be still falling apart to this day. The police have the upperhand in lots of situation like for example many believe in the police reports or their story compared to a civilian.

I had never heard of the Scottsboro Boys before until this class, which was very surprising to me. It is one of the most notorious cases of racial injustice in the United States history. This tragedy was what sparked Harper Lee’s idea for writing To Kill a Mockingbird, and has since inspired numerous other books, films, documentaries, songs, etc.

Martin Luther King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. In a lesson before dying a black guy named Jefferson found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time when two of his friends and a store clerk were all shot by one another and Jefferson was found surrounded by bodies with a drink in his hand and some cash from the register. In making a murderer, a man was wrongly accused of rape and put in prison for 18 years until they finally discover the evidence that proves it wasn’t him but then after not being out long he finds himself behind bars once more because someone killed a woman and framed him. Both stories show how awful our justice system can

In a case there are three sides, the defendants, the plaintiffs and the truth. Often times the truth may be hard to find but when it is available, justice should be served. That is where the justice system comes in and their job is suppose to allow justice to be served. Over the years, the criminal justice system has lacked in that area according to almost half of the United States citizens. Many may ask the question, "why?", but there is no definite answer for why the justice system has lacked in its area of justice. The real question is, "how?" How can this be changed? That is the question many American Citizens are asking. The American justice system is lacking in the area of justice in many ways. The United States has a Constitution that protects its citizens from abuse in the criminal justice system. The right to a trial, to fair treatment by law enforcement are enshrined. Importantly, the Eighth Amendment also protects those convicted from cruel and unusual punishment. In spite of all this, the American penal system is broken in many ways. Examples of this happening throughout the United States are unfair punishments, prison health care and sentencing young children life in prison without parole.

The case of Michael Dunn murdering Jordan Davis showed injustice in our nation’s court system because of the ultimate denial of the truth. Although Dunn was eventually charged, the time frame of rebuttal due to racial profiling is unacceptable. The injustice was a result of the Stand Your Ground Law which gave Michael Dunn a slight chance of walking away free. This nation must start making progress on racial injustice instead of letting it reach such epidemic

The first reason that many see as proof of how the justice system has failed is because of racial profiling. For example, Trayvon Martin, a black 17 year old with a pack of Skittles and Arizona tea was shot by a white male. Nadra Kareem Nittle from About.com states that “On Feb. 26, 2012, a neighborhood watchman named George Zimmerman gunned down the 17-year-old shortly after telling police that he’d spotted a suspicious youth in his gated community in Sanford, Fla. Because the 911 call suggested that Zimmerman had followed the youth around before shooting him and that the teen had done nothing suspicious other than to wear a hoodie, the public loudly protested when Sanford Police declined to arrest Zimmerman, 28, after he claimed to have shot Trayvon Martin in self-defense. An overview of the Trayvon Martin shooting, quotes and reactions from public figures about the tragedy and biographical information about the slain youth and his killer help to put the case into perspective.” This

Asian people are assumed to be good at math, yellow color, intelligent, and short. People assuming you are Asian by the size of your eyes, that white Americans are obese, lazy, and dim witted, Arabs and Muslims are terrorists. People are killed off of these assumptions such as Trayvon Martin. Trayvon Martin was a 17 year old teenage boy who is from Miami, Florida. He was a football player at his school. On February 26th, George Zimmerman saw Trayvon and assumed he was dangerous only because he was young black man who had a hood on. Zimmerman felt threatened so it led to him eventually shooting Trayvon. Zimmerman explained to the police that it was self-defense. Attorney General Eric Holder called the case "a devastating tragedy," in a press release. "It shook an entire community, drew the attention of millions across the nation, and sparked a painful but necessary dialogue throughout the country," Holder said. "Though a comprehensive investigation found that the high standard for a federal hate crime prosecution cannot be met under the circumstances here, this young man's premature death necessitates that we continue the dialogue and be unafraid of confronting the issues and tensions his passing brought to the surface. We, as a nation, must take concrete steps to ensure that such incidents do not occur in the

Many of the current events that are circulating in the media and throughout the country spawn from the justice system. Whether it is police brutality against minorities, laws passed on the decriminalization of marijuana in some states but not others, or the apparent blurring of lines in the separation of church and state when it comes to topics like abortion and gay marriage, it is clear

During the period of the Trayvon Martin case after he was murdered George Zimmerman was found not guilty. In lines 41-46 it states as part of the incident, “Troubled Man stepped on the singing Boy’s heels who yelled in surprise. His yell so scared Troubled Man who sunk his hands around the throat of Singing Boy and squeezed out the song with all his might.” These lines show that the George Zimmerman murdered Trayvon Martin because of his presence and his appearance. Now a rational society would think that George Zimmerman would be found guilty considering it was manslaughter, but unfortunately the judicial system provides two different standards in America: one for Caucasians and the other for blacks.

Another incident happened to a 17 year old boy named Trayvon Martin an African American. On February 2012, Martin was shot by a 28 year old Hispanic neighborhood watch coordinator named George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman shot Martin, who was unarmed, during an argument between both of them. Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin because he was a black walking through a neighborhood where he didn’t belong. Instead of taking a non violent approach Zimmerman quickly concluded after the argument that his life was in danger and felt justified to use deadly force to kill an unarmed man who was black. It is possible if Trayvon Martin had been white Zimmerman would have taken a softer approach to get rid of him from the neighborhood. Trayvon died because he was black and walking in a wealthy neighborhood where he did not live at

Jimmy Carter once said, “I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over”. If only this was the case. African Americans are still wrongfully racially profiled based just on their skin color. After researching this topic with the help of many trustworthy sources, the Zimmerman Trial began to seem more like an act of racial profiling rather than self-defense. This was determined by considering what Trayvon Martin was doing at the time and if Zimmerman’s actions were correct. Although racial profiling still occurs today, African American lives should matter as much as any other Americans.

The justice system of the United States has held a complicated history of racism, greed, tragedy and corruption. Though less than three centuries old, the United States has grown to be one of the largest and most powerful of nations in the world. With a population of 323 million people, the nation is expected to be capable of keeping up with the crime and justice of the people. However, when the law is constantly changed and ratified to fit the needs of the time, control over how much power one body of the justice system has, is never constant. What defines a criminal is not strict, and the treatment does not have to necessarily be humane.

The Scottsboro Boys case that occurred in the 1930s, generated local, national, and international interest in the treatment of African Americans in the American south. Never had a crime produced so many trials and convictions as the Scottsboro Boys case in all of American history. The cases created celebrities out of anonymities and wasted innocent young lives. On one fateful day in April 1931, 9 African American boys, ages 12-19, were riding a freight train from Chattanooga to Memphis. A series of events occurred, resulting in a group of white males being forced off the train. They immediately went to the county sheriff who then formulated a posse comitatus to search the train and arrest the African Americans. Upon arriving in Paint Rock, Alabama the boys were surrounded and arrested for assault of the white males, however when two white females walked off of the train, they accused the nine boys of rape. The boys were quickly whisked away to be verbally abused in front of an all-white jury. Little did the boys know that the next six years of their lives would be wasted in isolation. This controversial circumstance of the 1930’s brought many social and legal issues to light. It showed the barbarous treatment of African Americans. While the Scottsboro Boys were seen as a threat to the Alabaman white culture, racial tensions in 1930’s Alabama affected them, due to the fact that the plaintiff were white females, there was a lack of evidence against the Scottsboro Boys yet