Wrongful Convictions

In school we had a speaker named Terrell Swift who was wrongfully sentenced to prison for the rape of a woman in 1994. While he was speaking, he was telling us about how things have changed in the 17 years that he has been away. He now has to learn all about the new technology that has come out and how to use it. Terrell Swift was convicted because he falsely confessed to the crime since the police took advantage of a frightened teenager who had nothing to do with the case. The police told Terrell that if he had signed a document then he would be let off and allowed to go home. Terrell, without reading the document, signed it and falsely confessed to the rape of a Chicago woman. He showed us the importance of reading everything we signed by having us sign in when we first entered, however no one knew that we all had signed a document stating that we cheated on our tests. If that had been anyone of us in Terrell’s position then we would be the ones doing the crime. Afterwards, Terrell asked if anyone had questions and one question that stuck with me was; how did it change his life? Terrell stated that he was not entirely sure what could have happened while out of prison, he said that he was not headed down the best path and how prison gave him time to think and change his ways with a new view on life. I greatly respect Terrell Swift, it takes a big man to accept the mistakes of the government like that and come out with no feelings of hate towards them.

"If I were a poor black kid"

An article titled “If I were a poor black kid” was written after President Obama gave a speech about how this is the time where people in the middle and lower classes to be able to make a living for themselves. The article addresses the problems that inner city black kids face and how there are other kids that have a greater advantage just because of where they were born and to who. He talks about what he would do if he were in that situation and how he would work hard to achieve his goals and succeed. After he talks about how hard achieving these goals are and states “Is this easy? No it’s not. It’s hard. It takes a special kind of kid to succeed. And to succeed even with these tools is much harder for a black kid from West Philadelphia than a white kid from the suburbs. But it’s not impossible. The tools are there. The technology is there. And the opportunities there”. He is showing that if you are determined and willing to work hard for what you want then you will still be able succeed. However, there are many things that he is not thinking about. For starters the author is a man named Gene Marks and is a white male who doesn’t live in the inner city. A question that kept going through my mind while reading this was, how do you know what you would do or how hard it is if you never went through it yourself? I agree with what he says about someone who works hard will achieve more than one who doesn’t, however there are many X factors that he is not thinking about that could stop someone who is determined enough to work hard for what they want. For example, someone who wants to learn more in school but the school doesn’t have good teachers who are willing to teach will affect the kid. Or if the kid is being bullied in school, that will have an impact on his grades. Someone who is black and gets the worst of everything just because of the color of his skin will affect how he looks at work. People in the suburbs or nice neighborhoods often overlook how lucky they are that they don’t have to go through many of the problems that others do and see it as something that doesn’t happen. Things like this do happen, but why should someone have a worse chance than another just because they were born 10 miles apart?

A response to this article was written by Jenée Desmond-Harris, a middle aged black man. He talks about how Marks only talks about what things he would do if he were poor with things that others that have no access to. In a response to what Marks would do if he were a poor black kid, Harris states “But also, there's no word in the piece on how Marks imagines that he would, as a poor child, suddenly be infused with the perspective and sophistication of a middle-class adult. In addition, he, perhaps unintentionally, admits that his advice is useless to all but a select few gifted, mature and lucky children.” He is showing that if you are not that special kind of kid then you will not be able to succeed. Also Marks only talks about things he would do if he were poor in the city and never states what he would do if he were black also or any of the things that make it harder. I agree with Harris that people who never went through being a poor black kid in the city won’t be able to understand why it was hard.

Hidden Bias

In class I took a hidden bias test, however I feel like the test does not accurately measure or test if you really have any hidden bias. I don’t believe that test was an accurate way to see if you are racist or not. The test consisted of pictures of both European Americans and African Americans and words that were either “good” or “bad” that would go along with a set of pictures. You had to go through at a fast pace or it wouldn’t have worked. During the test I felt as if I was more pressured to get the answers right rather than trying to just go through the test. In the end my results were that I had no bias towards one group over the other, but I feel as though this is not true. I know that I have slight preferences in people and saying that I don’t won’t make me not have those preferences. I believe that there is bias within everyone because people will always prefer one over the other, but trying to deny these ideas will not help at all. The first step to making everyone equal is to admit that as of right now they are not. You can’t determine if someone has a racial bias towards one group or the other just by mixing pictures and words together.

White like me

The description of Tim Wise's book, White Like Me states how while racism hurts people of color, it helps people who are “white like him” even if they are not racist. I was given the chapter of denial to read and based on this chapter I agree with Wise’s statements. Wise talks about how, white people deny racism and how dangerous that can be. Wise states “White denial has taken on new and more aggressive forms, as with the ubiquitous claims that it is we and not black and brown folks who are really being victimized. In other words, not only is white privilege a myth, but reverse racism or reverse discrimination, is the real problem.” Wise is showing how whites believe that there is nothing wrong with how the black community is being treated and how it is the whites that are being discriminated. They are oblivious to the fact that the black community are being discriminated against just because of the color of their skin while they are gaining the benefits. When people think about racism, they think about how African Americans and whites have an equal opportunity to be successful and they think about people like Opera Winfrey. However, why should an entire race be determined off of the few that became very successful? When replying to a critic about how there have been people who were able to succeed, Wise replied with “But so what? Did that mean that folks shouldn’t have been fighting for an end to racism, simply because a few individuals had been able to “make it?” In other words, what do individual success stories have to do with larger social realities?” I agree with this statement because although there have been many people of color who have “made it” there is an even greater number that aren’t able to succeed because they are constantly being looked over due to their race.

Death Penalty Final Response

The death penalty is the sentence of death to people by the state as a punishment for a crime. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. Due to this many people have been put to death as punishment of their crimes. However, because the process is not perfect there have been many innocent people put to death also. I believe that the abolishment of the death penalty in Illinois is just because it will save many innocent lives that could have possibly been killed because of the death penalty. The death penalty has proven that although it has released many innocent people, it has also killed many. During Gov. Ryan’s speech, he stated “Together they spared the lives and secured the freedom of 17 men - men who were wrongfully convicted and rotting in the condemned units of our state prisons. What you have achieved is of the highest calling - thank you!” This shows that there are many people who are wrongfully convicted people and it was because of the death penalty that they were even facing the possibility of death. I believe that the death penalty was abolished because too many innocent people were being killed. Gov. Ryan was saying how having to free seventeen people was too many and how they shouldn’t have been sent to death in the first place.

There are any people that argue over the death penalty and whether or not it should be legal or not. The death penalty has been killing people who are guilty and innocent, but even though this has been know, the debate for the death penalty has never gone far from the main topic of morals. The newspaper article stated “But for decades, the debate over capital punishment rarely strayed from whether it was right or wrong, a moral argument that was waged mostly by a narrow group of attorneys and abolition supporters that could be easily dismissed.” This shows that the innocent people being killed weren’t really taken into account when arguing if the death penalty should be legal or not. Due to this more innocent people continued to be killed and ignored. However now that more people are starting to realize this, as part of the reason more states are starting to ban the death penalty to save the innocent. I believe that to save lives of the possibly condemned innocent, the death penalty should be abolished so that they can be saved.

Death penalty Race and class

 In deadline, David Keaton was sentenced to death in Florida. Seven years later, he was proven innocent of the crime and was released from death row. His brother stated “Growing up black in this state, you know, you really didn’t have a chance when it came to a crime. You know, they say that justice is blind, but justice really isn’t blind.” I would agree to this statement because black people really do have a harder time because unfortunately racism still exists in this world. Justice is not blind and it is proven because there have been more black people convicted to death than white people. Growing up black must have been hard due to racism and knowing that they are being treated differently must have been hard. Race plays a role in capitol case because the color of your skin can play a role in what the sentence is. More than 80% of the people who have been executed, have been for the murder of white people. I believe that the conviction was because of the race. White people are treated better in court cases and other people are treated worse. This is shown because when white people are killed it is treated as a higher crime and sentence more people to death. People of color and low-income, are more likely to receive the death penalty. I believe that this is because they are seen as lesser people. Courts may see people of color and treat them differently and worse than they would white people, and low income people the court may see as not as high contributors to society and treat them differently than they would high income people. Vesiges of legal segregation and historic race-based policies impact the modern U.S. justice system because they treat people of color differently and may be more ready to convict them to death even if they haven’t committed the crime. Some steps that could be taken to ensure a fairer justice system could be making more black judges and that may eliminate some racism towards ethic people and create more fair trials that will give them a fair chance to get out of the death penalty. However the justice system is not perfect and people who are innocent will continue to be convicted until it is.

Additional background info

There are many steps that go into sentencing a person to death and carrying it out. However there are means of killing that seem to be unethical and can be considered cruel and unusual punishment. Stages that defend the rights of the accused are the; guilt phase trial, Penalty phase trial, and the post conviction review. These each give the defendant a fair chance to prove they are either innocent or not worthy of the death penalty. I do not believe that this is not able to guarantee that only the guilty are convicted because there have already been innocent people convicted. Also I don’t believe it because it does not seem like it is perfect in seeing if someone was either framed or not involved in it as much as the people would think. There are many different types of executions, but there are some that seem to be cruel and unusual punishment. Hanging is cruel because there is a chance that a person could be getting strangled for 45 minutes which no one should go through. Also firing squad is cruel because if the shooters miss the targets heart then he can die a slow and painful death. Also electrocution is cruel and unusual punishment because the person is electrocuted at thirty second intervals where if the person is still alive he is continued to be electrocuted. Also the gas chamber is cruel because it shows that the person is not immediately knocked unconscious and has signs that the person goes through extreme pain during the process. Injection can be considered cruel because if the doctor injects the needle into the muscle instead of the vain, then the person can suffer extreme pain while strapped to the gurney. The most humane method is injection because it is very unlikely that the professional will miss the vain and it causes a quick and painless death. This data shows that the death penalty is mostly enforced in the south. This may have to do with problems such as racism and segregation. Also people may be more ready to convict people to death in the south.  It also shows how there are many more people who support it in the south because that is the majority region that supports it. I think that the previous death penalty was fair because it only convicted those who killed many people, killed people trying to save others, or killed people while meaning to hurt them badly in the process. The removal of the death penalty is not specified but it is most likely because there were a lot of innocent people that were convicted to the death penalty and since there was no perfect plan send only the people who actually convicted the crime to jail, they wanted to save all the people that possibly could have been sent to death row. The chart showed that race does not have a big factor when sentencing people to death row because there were more white people convicted.