Issue Of The Week III Fall 2011-2012: DNA Testing Frees Wrongfully Convicted Minorities

If you have ever watched television shows on crimes..most criminals shown are of a minority group. We automatically assume that a person of a minority group is more likely to commit a crime than a white person is. Due to their socio-economic status in comparison to the white population, we are brought up to assume blacks and hispanics are poor and commit more crimes. In reality, this is greatly untrue. Whites tend to commit white-collar crimes, while minorities are usually pinned for every other types of crime. We are wrongfully convicting minority groups because we need to solve cases and lock someone up. We are picking the people who seem the most guilty, which usually is a minority group member. We are finding now that with the help of DNA, we have wrongfully put people behind bars and accused them of crimes, most likely because they look suspicious due to their skin color more than due to the evidence. It still occurs today. We are more likely to look for a minority drug dealer than a white one, when really it could be any race. We need to examine evidence more and break the bias that minorities are more likely to commit crimes.

The media always portrays minority groups as the criminals, when in reality, anybody of any person of any race can commit a crime. The justice system is always quick to judge minorities as committing crimes against the white population. Discrimination even comes into play when children go missing. The media will place a missing white child on the cover of newspapers and magazines. Yet minority child do not get that same privilege. It's sad to see how discrimination is a major factor in putting criminals behind bars. I think in today's age, more scientific advances should be used to supply probable cause for conviction.

Because we live in a racist society, people of color have been wrongfully convicted of crimes time and time again by the system. Because the people in the courtroom often times have predisposed thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about certain people of color, it is easier for them to use those beliefs, feelings, and thoughts to help them decide whether or not a person is innocent or guilty. For example, a black person might be the suspect in a crime and the jury will conclude that they are guilty. The reason why this happens is because they will think society and media has taught me that black people are usually the guilty ones, so I am going to go with with society has taught me and say that they are guilty of a crime, even if there isn't enough evidence to actually convicted them. The best way to overcome these wrongful convictions is to provide proper evidence during the trial, and to get jurors to use their logic and reasoning skills to accurately convict someone of a crime. They should not use their racists ideas that was taught to them by society and media.

Nothing in this world is perfect and the legal system is not an exception. As portrayed by the video, exonerations have been made to people who were wrongfully convicted of a crime. This has been possible by DNA testing and the Innocent Project. It is clear to see that people from all races have been wrongfully convicted. But we can clearly see that most of them have been people of color or minorities in the United States. It shows that people believe that crimes are only or mainly committed by people of color. Racism and stereotypes remain predominant in our society and are the reason why innocent people pay for a crime that they did not commit. Even though technology has evolved our system of values and norms have not. The impression that only people of color are capable of committing crimes remains entrenched in our daily lives. This is unjust, and only contributes to the ignorance that surrounds our culture. Until this day we see people being unlawfully convicted, in its entirety the judicial system is not very efficient and it has to do a lot with the history of race in this country. I believe that this will be a constant problem until this society accepts people as equal and racial stereotypes are dismantled.

It is necessary to put a stop to this issue of convicting people of color or minorities improperly. DNA testing should be mandatory in any case that it applies too and the jurors should be impartial to race. Education about what a stereotype is and how detrimental they are for societies need to be implemented in schools and in the media. Uneducated people only hinderer our system and prevents us from growing as a society, accepting each other.

I believe this video to be swayed by showing only black men that were wrongfully accused of crimes. If someone just saw the video on Facebook and didn't have a chance to read the little tid-bit in the beginning of this page, they would be misled to believe our criminal justice system is racist which is not true. Crimes have to do with demographics. My aunt is a retired New York City homicide detective and the strong majority of cases she dealt with were ones involving black men. There were not only black men as victims and the accused, there were whites as well. Facts are facts though and just because the majority of black men were wrongfully accused does not mean that our legal system is racist. I think it's terrible for anyone to be wrongfully accused of a crime and has had to spend years of their life in prison. Years they will never get back. Technology has a lot to do with that. In the past most people were convicted by what others said instead of using cold hard facts and data to prove they are guilty. Not all blacks are criminals, just like not all whites are rich and well off. There are different types of crimes that are committed. I work in a retail job and see people from all ages and every ethnicity stealing. What we are talking about here though seems to be more violent and serious crimes. The advancement of DNA technology has led to cases being re-opened and people finally being let free. If our system was so racist, such a thing would not be permitted. From here on out, there are no more excuses for people, black, white, Indian, Hispanic, Latino, etc. to be wrongfully convicted of crimes.

The video was very moving and showed plenty of individuals whose lives have been greatly affected. I believe that race is strongly apparent in this issue as well as problems with the legal system. A large majority of the people wrongly convicted have lawyers provided by the state or possible someone providing services for no cost. Now if someone has a lot of money to spend on a lawyer then that representative will do research, read through the law, construct an air tight alibi, and make sure they person is acquitted. A lawyer provided by the state is most likely juggling lots of cases and feeling underpaid. It is wrong I believe for anyone to be convicted no matter race or skin color, if they did not commit the crime. DNA was proposed to try and avoid this but mistakes still slip up. I do support certain medias such as the TV show Law and Order, Law and Order SVU, and Law and Order Criminal Intent; because a vast majority of actors play criminals. The show makes it a point to have plenty of white criminals and I believe reflects a good demographic to show society and any person can commit a crime.

The caption on the video states that African Americans are only 12% of U.S. population. For all the exonerations that have been given, 60% of them were to African Americans. One of the major problems with the racial inequality in our judicial system today deals with the 6th Amendment. This amendment states that defendants will be appointed counsel for their defense if he can’t afford one. So how does this lead to inequality among different races? Minorities may not be able to afford to get their own attorney, while some Whites are able to afford their own attorney. The attorneys that the Whites are able to afford will most likely have fewer cases to handle compared to the attorneys that the court will appoint to a minority. This already leads to minorities being discriminated against in the courtroom since the public defender has a higher amount of cases that they have been appointed to. They are not able to spend as much time on each case compared to the attorneys that the Whites are able to afford. The public defenders don’t have as much time to plan against the counter argument from the prosecuting attorney.

So how do we get equal representation of the law to minorities since 60% of the exonerations have been African Americans? If the judge utilizes all available resources to him or her, such as DNA testing, then this percentage could go down. If public defenders didn’t have such a huge caseload, then they would be able to view all the available resources to them to get their defendant disposed as “not guilty”. There’s no right or wrong to fix our legal system. It has always been like this, but if there are more lawyers that are willing to work as public defenders, then possibly the case load for each public defender could be reduced just a little and this possibly could lead to less false imprisonments throughout our nation.

People of color in the United States have definitely been wrongly convicted of crimes in a systematic manner and still continue to be to this day. The creation of the 'black rapist' is evidence that systemic white privilege has lead to the villainization of an entire race for the purpose of maintaining the 'balance' and power structure of this country. How many times have false crime reports been filed and the perpetrator of the crime is described as a black male. It is a sad fact that our society is so willing and able to accept the word of a white person while condemning a person of color at the same time.

The main way to address this situation is to begin understanding the role of whatever race you may be in this country. All races have internal struggles to realize and address, and I believe that it is not until all people understand their race and the relationship of other races that we can begin to undo the centuries of racial prejudice and discrimination that plague the history of the U.S.

This DNA testing is really an amazing thing, I cant imagine how it must feel like to tell everyone you are innocent and have no one believe you, then after 20 plus years in jail there is a way to prove you were innocent all along. I would imagine that there must be a lot of anger for minority’s that such a shocking percent of all these DNA proving innocents cases we hear about are in predominantly minorities. It’s really hard to not think about why that is. I don’t believe people are really going to believe that it’s just that fact that minorities or blacks are really creating more crimes, that may be true but there are many other aspects of this. In my opinion it really points to the fact that minorities are getting unfairly sentenced. Going in front of a judge they are right away at a disadvantage because they are not white. These wrongful convictions absolutely occur today, all you have to do is watch the news and notice the difference between minorities who are convicted of crimes verses non minorities. The only way to start to right these wrongs is by making issues like this more talked about and recognized in society. If these cases are proving that is inequality is going on by making more people aware of it we can help prevent it. Awareness and acceptance of important social issues like this are always key to a better future.

Minorities have been systematically oppressed by the racial injustice of the criminal "justice" system. The statistic presented states that 70% of the population is white while 70% of those exonerated by DNA testing are of a minority group. That exoneration rate in and of itself points toward an unjust system. The ones being proven innocent are primarily minorities which means the ones wrongfully convicted are primarily minorities. Although it may be quite obvious, the logical conclusion is that minorities are being wrongfully convicted more than any other group. This is an injustice. Less than one month ago, Troy Davis, a black man was executed for a murder that I, and many others, do not believe he committed. There was no murder weapon, no physical evidence, and 7 of the 9 convicting witnesses recanted. Davis maintained his innocence through the execution. Although this case does not deal with DNA exonerations, I believe it does speak to the racial injustice that is very prevalent in the American criminal justice system.

Sure, DNA testing is a great new tool we have in our toolkit of dis/proving someone's innocence in a criminal case, but in America's legal system today most people are eagerly imprisoned more so for their perceived lower social value than for the actual crime they commit and that's not something DNA testing will ever be able to solve. For example: why is a Black male drug dealer sent to jail for 6 years if he gets caught, but a wealthy white teen who does the same is sentenced to 6 months parole (maybe!)? How is that fair?

1. If we're going to enforce laws for certain crimes, our society needs to be aware of what the consequences are (punishment should be a public deterrent, not just a bunch of written laws only lawyers know). For instance: what's the best way to discipline a misbehaving student? Take him out of class when no one is looking and privately have a word with him? Or call him out in front of everyone and set an example that registers for him and all the other kids? That's what I call laying down the law.

2. Consequences can not ONLY be applied when a defendant isn't able to BUY self-defense. That's a complete mockery of any justice system! Money shouldn't have the power to excuse what society agrees is wrong.

Also, what happened to 'beyond a reasonable doubt'? If a person is on death row because 'a reliable source' testified against him...that's not proof enough against a White man in America, so why is it proof enough against a Black man?

Our justice system doesn't aim to punish/reform wrongdoers, instead it's become just another tool to oppress people with.

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I absolutely think that individuals of color have been marginalized within the justice system. I'm not sure of the exact statistic, but the significant majority of prison populations are men of color. This begins to touch on a much larger issue regarding systemic racism and its correlation to the false imprisonment of minorities.

As much as we'd like to think we have moved beyond these mistakes, statistics imply we have not. Our society is still riddled with misconceptions and prejudices that affect the lives of others. Our society as a whole tends to think people of color are more prone to committing crimes than white individuals. This bias is then relayed into the courts where we are more likely to believe a man of color committed a crime than a white man.

I think it’s clear that people of color have been wrongfully convicted in a systematic manner. For example, the existence of the 100:1 crack cocaine ratio demonstrates the idea that lower class and minority individuals are specifically targeted by federal drug policies. According to the ACLU, the 100:1 ratio “relates to the amount of crack versus powder cocaine necessary to trigger mandatory minimum prison sentences—meaning that possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine would mandate the same minimum sentence as 500 grams of powder cocaine.” Trends in sentencing show that the 100:1 ratio is a form of institutionalized racism due to the fact that “African Americans constituted more than 80 percent of those sentenced to federal prison for crack cocaine offenses, even though two-thirds of crack cocaine users are white or Hispanic” (ACLU). Furthermore, while African Americans only comprised 13% of regular drug users in 1998, they comprised 35% of drug arrests, 55% of convictions, and 74% of people sent to prison for drug related crimes (HRW).

The other day I was at my usual hair stylist and on the news there was a story about a guy that had stolen a car and ran a muck..etc...my hair stylist and I looked in suspense as they said who it was...an African American male, she sighed and said "well, at least it was not one of us" (us meaning, another Hispanic person) -- this leads me to think that we are constantly thinking in that mode of "hope it's the other guys! not us!" -- yet, we are all thinking the same thing...we have been so conditioned to believe that black is standard for deviance, ugly, and anything bad -- even in cartoons, or movies the mean or evil characters have darker features -- so, under a very low radar, subconscious thoughts are fed to us that anything "dark" is bad -- this has just spilled over to the human race. I would like to see if there are any white males that have been in the same boat as the black males in the videos...or women...I think that is just a sample of some cases -- is there ONLY black males that this has happened to? I'm very curious. I do not want to think that this was only a race thing without a bigger sampling of our prison system. Also, what about in other countries...? in some European or Asian countries, anyone assumed American is a spy - and jailed....so, we seem to wrongly accuse under many different ways and try to "justify" it depending on what country we are in or what side of the fence we are on.

I think that we are forgetting to take into consideration socioeconomic status - this plays an integral part of who is "more likely" to commit a crime and this is what sets them apart for automatically being "guilty" - if a man, any man, obtains an education, does NOT come form an awfully impoverished background where gangs are prevalent and drugs affluent, he will be less likely to commit any sort of crime - "less" likely only. So, if we start with that, we can begin to balance out the race to crime ratio. People commit crimes for so many reasons but I do think a major one is socioeconomic status - this is a gateway for anyone to get involved with the wrong crowd and when so many people live within those impoverished areas, even if they do not commit a crime, they are assume part of the bad apples and assumed guilty by association.

This video and the discssion has brought up an interesting line of questions regarding the current United States legal system. The one that stood out to me the most was "Have people of color been wrongly convicted in a systematic manner?" The asnwer to that, sadly, is a resounding yes. The numbers we have been shown here speak for themselves; if minorities make up 70% of all DNA-related exonerations, then clearly there is a flaw in the modern justice. Sure, the system cannot be perfect, but this far exceeds the normal margins of error, especially when we're talking about lives that are essentially being destroyed. Obviously, there are still racial biases at work, making it easier for minorities to be put in prison for crimes that they didn't even commit.

I think this might have a lot to do with LAST week's Issue of the Week, wherein we discussed the idea of post racialism and the dangers of familiarity vs. foreignness. When we're constantly told that we've all moved beyond race - and, even more dangerously, when we grow used to seeing things around us as good and things seperate from us as "bad" - problems that we think we're avoiding are actually still simmering quietly under the surface. White people who live in the "post-racial" world and live in mostly white areas 1)don't have a lot of conversations about the nature of race and 2) don't come into a lot of contact with other races. So what they know (or think they know) about minorities is what they have heard from others or what society has institutionalized.

For many whites, one of the idea that comes along with the word "minority" is "increased tendency for crime." Or, even worse, "increased liklihood of guilt." Both of these things have been ingrained in our minds, and we even see that statistics that there are more minorities in jail than whites. But is that because they truly commit more crimes? Or is it becaues we ASSUME they commit more crimes, and so jail them falsely because of our own fears and prejudices? Or persecute them unfairly because of the color of their skin? After all, those same studies that show us that there are more minorities in jail than whites also show that blacks were commonly sent to prison at higher rates and for longer prison terms than whites for the same crimes. Is it because white people find it hard to believe that other whites can be "bad"? And, by the same token, why is it so easy for so many whites to assume that minorities automatically can't be "good"?

These are a lot of heavy questions, and I don't know exactly how to answer them. But it is apparent that these convictions have occured and are STILL occuring. How do we begin to right these wrongs? Again, I think the first step is communication. Only after getting the reality of these issues out into the open can we start to make any genuine progress.

It was really heart-wrenching to watch a video of these news clips. My heart goes out to these men that have served time for a crime they didn't commit. I can't imagine how they felt while serving jail time for no fault of their own. Furthermore, I can't even begin to fathom how different their lives were when they were released! The justice system owes these people more than money can buy; I don't even know how they could even being to compensate these innocent people.