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Jury Racial Injustice

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Jury Systems and Racial Injustice Juries are the way we make sure trials are fair, but when your jury is biased the result of the trial are often inequitable. Today we do our best to make sure trials have impartial jurors, but this was not always the case. In the 1930’s, and a lot of other decades too, the right for African Americans to have an unbiased jury was not fulfilled. This caused many African Americans to be sentenced to death when they otherwise would not have been. Over the years the death penalty has been used way more than it should, especially with African Americans. Not only were they treated unfairly in court but they were often killed by mobs of white men for ridiculous crimes. In the past juries were not unbiased. The sixth amendment gave little guidance, insisting only that the jury be “impartial.”(King 53) This gave people lots of leeway in choosing jurors. Up Until the Civil War all the federal courts followed the jury selection procedures of the state in which the court was located. All but one state limited the jury to white men who were property owners or taxpayers with intelligence or fair character. (King 54) Whether or not a potential juror had intelligence or fair character was all opinion and …show more content…

Strating around Colonial times an abolitionist movement started. In 1767 Cesare Beccaria wrote an essay called On crimes and punishment. This essay theorized that there was no justification for the state’s taking of a life. It had a major impact around the world, causing the abolition of the death penalty in Austria and Tuscany and the first attempted reforms in the U.S. by Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson introduced a bill to revise Virginia’s death penalty and proposed that capital punishment be used only for crimes of murder and treason.(“History of the Death

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In her book, The New Jim Crow, Alexander argues the discrimination of jury selections which is an unfair of treatment for people of color under the law (The Fourth Amendment). Moreover, she provides more information about the juries and juror race-based selection in the justice system. The statistical shows that there is approximately 30 percent of black man are automatically banned or rejected from the jury service and many cases all black jurors are eliminated with the irrational explanations, such as the physical appearance, clothing style, and even marital status (Alexander, 2012). She also reports the interesting case of the two black men who was convicted of second degree robbery in a Missouri court. In addition, she emphasizes that during

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Jurors should not know anything about a specific case and not follow public affairs and read the news (Doc F). When a person is selected to be part of a jury, they have to say an oath stating that they will not use their emotions to determine the verdict of a trial. If a juror is caught using their emotions, they will be fined for a crime called perjury. Since there are twelve people in a jury, there is a variation of opinions when the jury decides a verdict. But, a judge is more professional and knows how to only use the evidence provided and be less biased.

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This is all stated in Document B of the Jury System Mini-Q “But, you know, if we’d long had trial by Judge in criminal cases and I were now to suggest that his reasoned and professional judgment as to fact and inferences should be replaced by the blanket verdict of pretty well any twelve men and women placed in a cramped box holed up for days or even weeks at a time you would rightly think that I had taken leave of my senses.” This letter is saying that why should we be replacing someone professional at accusing someone and a professional in the judgment of law have his job replaced by twelve untrained people. Another counter is from Document E with the comics. These comics are showing that not everyone is focused on the topic at hand whereas if it were a single judge the case would move a lot smoothly. The comics also state that the jury could just look at the person and accuse him based on his looks and not the evidence that had been presented.

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1122 Words | 5 Pages

Over the years, a plethora of court cases have caused Americans to wonder: is our jury system indeed as wondrous as it is conceived to be? To explain, the jury system is the concept of giving the defendant in a trial the option of either having a bench trial, one where a judge alone reaches a verdict, or a trial by jury, one where a group of twelve ordinary citizens is chosen to reach a verdict on the case. One may wonder why a dozen everyday denizens are being endowed with the absolute power over a possibly life or death decision in the life of a neighbor that is unknown to them, but the framers of the United States Constitution believed that this was the most democratic option in making sure that justice is properly served. Explaining further,

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1151 Words | 5 Pages

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981 Words | 4 Pages

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1139 Words | 5 Pages

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866 Words | 4 Pages

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