The Role Of Prejudice In Strickland

Wainwright was unanimous. The right to a fair trial was fundamental under the United States Constitution and the guarantee of counsel was a vital part of it. In his concurring opinion, Justice Clark affirms that there is no distinction between capital and non-capital cases in the Sixth Amendment so counsel should be provided in every

I have never seen the movie Pleasantville, which is what we watched this past week. Since I have never watched it before it was hard for me to have any prejudices towards the film. I do like the actors that were cast in this movie but that didn’t make me prejudice towards anything regarding the movie. I really didn’t know what to expect with this movie. The black and white made me wonder if it was going to be good because I have not seen very many black and white films. Nonetheless, having no prejudices and not really knowing what to expect this movie was pleasing to watch.

In today’s society the criminal justice system that we live in is flawed in so many ways. Some say that it works while others go to prison or jail for crimes that they didn’t commit. In this paper I will be covering specific examples from the book, The Innocent Man, where the defendant’s rights were violated. John Grisham talks about innocent men being innocent and convicted for murder and sent to unlawful court proceedings. In this paper I will be focusing mainly on the violations of his 6th amendment. The 6th amendment is the right to effective assistance of counsel.

In this paper I will provide an analysis of a jury trial; my analysis will focus on the right of the defendant. I will articulate how a defendant 's rights at trial can be assured when it comes to The defendant’s right to a speedy trial, the defendant’s right to an impartial judge and the defendant’s right to an impartial jury.

Ohio has a rare history, for not being prejudice. It was a state where people’s color of their skin did not matter, and had many interracial marriages. In Longtown Ohio, there was no difference between white, black, and Native American. The only thing that mattered was the way they acted. The man which caused this was James Clemens. He was a freed slave, who became a wealthy farmer. According to article “Ohio town holds rare history: Races mix freely for nearly 200 years”, by Washington Post, a man named Connor Keiser, the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson of James Clemens explains how he wants the state to stay the same when everyone was treated equally. Although the population of Longtown Ohio is now 98 percent white,

According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him”(UN General Assembly, 1948). But history has demonstrated that even though as human you are entitled to a fair trial, you are not entitled to justice. Throughout history, many reforms and movements have forged our judicial system, the judicial system currently is undeniably more foolproof than it was before the 1900s. Even though the system has improved in numerous ways by laws and amendments such as the 6th amendment in 1791, but history repeats itself. The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and the Scottsboro Boys Trials are embodiments of this saying, they may have happened 240 years apart but have many things in common. Some things these trials have in common are insufficient evidence, unfair chances, and long term effects on the victims and community.

The prejudice seen in the fictional novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee corresponds with the real narrow-mindedness during this time period. A fair trial would be unlikely during this time period between a white and a black man. Tom Robinson was presumed guilty because of his race.

The problem with the Sixth Amendment under the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence regarding waiver of counsel needs to be refurbished. The initial stance that was introduced in Godinez v. Moran was too low for a defendant to conduct his/her defense. Issues were raised because defendants are supposed to adopt the right of self-representation knowing and intelligently that he/she can in fact represent himself effectively in a court of law. With that being said, before a defendant accept a waiver of the right to counsel, the judge must first and foremost ensure that the defendant is mentally competent to make such a decision to represent himself and that such decision has been knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily (Slogan, 2008). The Constitution does not allow trial to be conducted of defendants who lack mental competence process (Indiana v. Edwards). The next topic that will be highlighted on is how the United States Supreme Court took steps to correct such a

Prejudice and discrimination is looked down upon, yet people still continue to be judgmental and have preconceived assumptions about others. It is a common thing that still happens in today’s society. To be particular, racial discrimination is one example of prejudice and is based solely on the color of one’s skin. In the story To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson is a caring individual who tries his hardest to treat everyone he meets with appreciation and respect. However, he is African American, which influences him and the other characters' lives in different ways. All he wants to do is help out another character, Mayella, which inevitably costs him his life in the end. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the character of Tom Robinson to illustrate the fact that innocent people are sometimes victimized to a racist society.

The U.S. Constitution provides equal protection to all citizens, regardless of race, color, or state of residence. As such, cases of Fourth Amendment violations should yield consistent verdicts across jurisdictions. The objective reasonableness standard adopted in Heien, however, fails to ensure uniform application of the Forth Amendment. In contrast, a categorical exclusion of evidence obtained through a mistake of law would have ensured equal application of the law and excluded inconsistency in criminal verdicts.

When the author states that The Forrest Hills uses the color blind mentality as a way to try to discourage discrimination and racism, she is speaking to the fact that race and the stereotypes associated with race are not discussed at the school. Furthermore, despite there efforts to decrease stigma and underperformance the Forrest Hills School was very much segregated. Rather than acknowledging that race impacts the children,and try to talk through the feelings and beliefs associated with race, they choose to ignore the issue of racism and stereotypes, as well as racial identity. Additionally, Colorblindness is the racial ideology that argues how the best way to end discrimination, without acknowledgment or discussions of race, culture, and

It is the right of every citizen in this nation to have his or her case decided by a fair and impartial jury. The selection of the jury panel is one of great importance and one that can have a great effect on the outcome of the case. Therefore, it is obvious that the attorneys have a

In this modern world, prejudice is still a universal problem we still have yet to overcome. Although it is true that our society is much less prejudiced than it was 40-50 years ago, we are still struggling to create racial harmony in a world that is so diverse in terms of racial group, sexual orientations, ethnicity, nationality, religions, and so on. I think the core of prejudice comes from stereotyping, which is the generalization of motives, characteristics, or behavior to an entire group of people. In the world where media propaganda is ubiquitous, often times most stereotypes are not formed on valid experiences, instead they are based on images publicized by the mass media, or even created within our heads after seeing and hearing examples from many different sources, like movies, or even hearsay. Stereotyping is more powerful than we think, because it allows those false pictures to control our thinking that leads us to assign uniform characteristics to any person in a group, without consideration of the actual difference between members of that particular group.

Prejudices are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.

The majority of cases today, over 90 percent of all cases, are plea-bargained (source). In the process of plea bargaining, the defendant most often ends up pleading guilty to a lesser offense in return for a lesser sentence determined by the prosecutor; not by the judge. The process of plea bargaining ironically undermines the original principles of the Founding Fathers, as Thomas Jefferson famously said, “I consider [trial by jury] as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.” The Sixth Amendment also guarantees that “in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury.” By avoiding the process of a jury trial,