The Is Flawed And Does Not Promote Truth Finding

Today, in the United States, most citizens are able to appreciate the fair, balanced legal system that is in place. The country suffered many failures before establishing the United States Constitution, and later the Bill of Rights, which became the foundation of the country’s legal system and protection of the citizens’ rights (American Sentinel University). Citizens may take their right to trial or their right to due process for granted, without realizing how life was before these rights were recognized and established. Until the Constitution in 1787, the justice system was not permanent and not quite clear, causing unfair and unjust treatment. Of course, no system can be perfect, but it is possible to discover options that suit the wants

Forcelli explains his displeasure of our broken criminal justice system when he states, “The sad part is that getting an innocent man out of jail is way, way, way harder than putting a guilty man in jail.” When detectives are constantly pressured to close cases and produce high conviction rates it can cause in accuracies in convictions. Garry’s case is a perfect example of how a case with minimal evidence can result in an innocent getting placed in prison. Garry has sat in prison for over 20 years waiting to appeal his case and plead his innocence. The ease of convicting an innocent man should be consistent with difficulty of exonerating an innocent man. In Garry’s case he awaits a decision from a judge where the judge has three options, to exonerate him, grant a retrial, or

Introduction: While most people consider the system as an adversarial process, many cases are settled in an informal pattern of cooperation between the major actors in the justice process. (The prosecutor, defense attorney, judge, and other court personnel.)

The book Ordinary Injustice: How America Holds Court written by Amy Bach reflects upon “ordinary injustice” that members of society fall victim to by the American criminal justice system. In short, the phrase “ordinary injustice” comes from the improper acts that have become second nature to court officials but has yet to be explained and resolved by other actors in the court. It is noted in the text that “ordinary injustice results when a community of legal professionals becomes so accustomed to a pattern of lapses that they can no longer see their role in them” (Bach 2). This recurring pattern has been easy to identify by outsiders but difficult to handle by insiders of the court. Bach supports this idea by making clear that, “proving mistakes, both visible and invisible, [is] very difficult in the criminal justice system, even for those who are insiders” (258).

Jimmy Santiago Baca is a winner of the International Prize for his work in, A Place to Stand. The making of a poet. He writes, “I had no money. There is no way I’m going to make bail” (Baca, 187). In some cases, prisoners are only locked up because they had to get appointed a defense attorney who convinced them to plead to the charges so they would not have to go to trial and risk getting an extended amount of time. District attorneys are elected by the citizens and those people want someone who is tough on crime. If the district attorney is not tough on crime, the people will not reelect him. This can lead to many innocent lives being wasted; For instance, some criminals will sit in a cell for decades for the smallest offense. However, if a prisoner attempts to plead not guilty and the case goes to a trial by jury and they do find him or her guilty, they will be sentenced to an even longer term. It is obvious that our justice system is unfair and against human morals and ethics. They are somehow “innocent until proven guilty” yet they cannot afford to prove themselves innocent. Not only is poverty a reason for the rising increase in the population of inmates, many lack the education needed to understand the law or what they are being accused of.

It is important for anyone convicted of a criminal case, especially those who are innocent, to have an adequate attorney, in order to atleast have a chance in proving their innocence, Therefore, instead of continuing to put most of our money in the prison system, we should use at least some of that money towards public attorneys. According to a 2008 estimate by the American Bar Association, state and county governments spent 200 billion dollars on criminal justice every year but only spent 5.3 billion dollars on public defence systems (Laughland, 2016). In addition, many public defenders are overworked. About 73 percent of county public defender offices exceeded the maximum recommended limit of case (150 felonies or 400 misdemeanors), according to the United States Department of Justice (Brunt, 2015). Therefore, it is necessary to limit the amount of work provided to the county public defender offices which would allow the defenders to provide the time necessary to each of their cases in order to have a fair trial for the

One hundred and sixty-six exonerations took place in 2016, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, setting a new record (“Exonerations 2016” 3). Indeed, misconvictions are now seen as part of the normal judicial process(“Exonerations 2016” 17). However, why are there so many mistakes in convicting individuals? One of the largest causes may be biases within the courts. Implicit bias in the American judicial system may seriously impact the underprivileged in receiving impartial verdicts in the legal system and access to quality lawyers.

The United States legal system uses the adversarial process and lawyers are needed to this process. In order to obtain solid evidence and legal arguments to face the court, lawyers are held responsible to represent their client’s accordingly to the evidence presented. Parties are responsible for obtaining and introducing evidence to the court. The adversarial system is characterized by law of evidence. Strick rules have been develop over time with the attention to the admissibility and excluding of evidence have developed.

In the United States, the adversarial system of justice relies on ensuring a criminal defendant receives a fair trial. The sixth amendment gives defendants the right to legal representation in criminal trials even if they cannot afford one themselves. Each city and county in the United States ensures a defendant the right to counsel. There are different ways cities and counties across the United States provide representation for indigent defendants. One such approach to indigent defense is public defender programs and is a popular system used by many states today. Public defender programs have been around since the 1900’s but gained popularity throughout the years due to the many indigent defense cases.

Two contributing factors to the wrongful conviction of Anthony Smith are eyewitness identification and the adversarial process. The adversarial process relies on the skills and resources of the defense and prosecution. Eyewitness identification includes evidence from a witness who has seen the event and can pick out a perpetrator. In this case, some reasons Smith was wrongfully convicted was because of the adversarial process, he hired a private lawyer Akim Gurdy, but could only pay $3,000 of the $10,000 they were originally supposed to. Gurdy then stopped investigating the case for this reason, and Smith was given an appointed attorney who lacked the capacity to help him with his case. Another reason to Smith’s wrongful conviction was due to eyewitness identification errors.

Injustice within the American judicial system is a topic that many citizens, who are unfamiliar with it, typically avoid. In March of 2012, a well educated criminal defense lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, appeared on TED Talks to address the matter in his speech entitled “We Need to Talk About an Injustice.” Stevenson attempts to persuade his audience through a variety of strategies. He uses facts, along with emotional, ethical, and logical appeals to make his case. After listening to the speech, Stevenson wants his audience to sympathize with the members of society that have encountered this crooked system first hand such as young children, minorities and more.

In the New York Times article, “A Mockery of Justice for the Poor,” the author discusses how the poor are cheated in the criminal justice system. By law, it is mandatory that the government provides an attorney to any defendant facing possible prison time, even if he or she cannot afford one. However, there are underlying fees that must be paid despite these people being poor. John Pfaff mentions how 43 states are now requiring indigent defendants to pay at least a portion of their lawyers’ fees, even though they had to be appointed one in the first place. Those who do qualify as indignant may be able to be acquitted, however, they could be convicted for failing to pay for the legal services the Constitution requires the states to provide for the defendants. Not to mention, spending money on attorneys for the poor amounts to only $2.3 billion – barely even 1% of the $200 billion the government spends annually on the criminal justice system (Pfaff 2016). Not surprisingly, public defenders who are appointed to these cases are often stripped of resources while tackling multiple other assignments at the same time.

Although the criminal justice system prides itself on keeping criminals locked up, approximately 10,000 innocent people are convicted each year (Kyle and Pippa’s presentation). There are several factors that enable an innocent person to be wrongfully convicted of a crime, including mistaken witness identity, false accusations, false evidence, and official misconduct. For example, in Mario’s Story, one witness incorrectly identified Mario as being one of the shooters and there was no further evidence against his case. Furthermore, his attorney did not conduct a proper investigation and Mario did not get his right to adequate legal counsel. Additionally, aggravating factors such as low socioeconomic status, unemployment, being argumentative in

Many death row inmates were convicted while being defended by a court appointed lawyer who are often the worst paid and most inexperienced and least skillful lawyers. The Bar Association published guidelines for a good defense in a death penalty case”. Anti-death Penalty ( 2010)

The system would lead to grave injustice particularly in case where the parties to the litigation are not balanced in economic strength. The litigants belonging to un privileged segment of the society are bound to be at a disadvantage as against an economically strong opponent under the adversarial system because difficulty in securing a competent legal representation also due to inability to produce relevant pieces of evidence before the courts.