ipl-logo

Ray Hinton's Reflective Essay: Alternative Spring Break

409 Words2 Pages

I am 21 and for as long as I can remember I have heard many stories about innocent people being accused of and being punished for crimes they did not commit. On Monday, March 20th of this year, I met Anthony Ray Hinton and learned about his story. Arrested on suspicion of two capital murders at age 29. He was convicted and sentenced to death despite having a reliable alibi and passing a polygraph test. It was only after repeated efforts by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) team that the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturned his conviction based on his attorney’s deficient representation and he was eventually exonerated after 30 years in solitary confinement on Friday, April 3rd, 2015. I had the opportunity to go on an Alternative Spring Break trip to Alabama. The trip to the EJI, an organization that advocates for marginalized communities, really the set a tone for my week of learning and service work in Alabama. On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of touring the Dexter Church Parsonage, learning about the pastoral beginnings of Dr. King, as well as the Southern Poverty Law Center museum where I was stunned to find a memorial for everyone who died during the struggle for Civil Rights. …show more content…

From the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute to the 16th Street Baptist Church (church where four young girls were killed in 1963). The next day (Thursday), I got to tour the Dexter Baptist Church seeing the old Dr. King office and stand in the exact place he once did. In a week filled with great experiences, the greatest were on Friday. I visited the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic site and Tuskegee University, an HBCU with such a great

Show More
Related

Cyntoia Brown Case

767 Words | 4 Pages

The case of Cyntoia Brown is about an innocent victim, who had been punished for finding the courage to fight against the ones who had hurt her. Ultimately, this case is the greatest injustice act against a person ever yet. Her whole life, she had been facing abuse and inequity. She was only 16 when she has murdered Johnny Allen in 2004, and is now serving a life sentence, with an eligible parole on her 69th birthday. What the jury hasn’t been told about is that Cyntoia has been repeatedly drugged and physically and sexually

Read More

Dennis Brown Dna Evidence

1097 Words | 5 Pages

An absurd amount of innocent people in the nation, have fallen victim to a disorganized legal system, and are suffering because of it. Dennis Brown, and James Harden, are two examples of this, and can relate because of it. They’ve been falsely convicted, without DNA evidence, but the truth of the case is finally revealed with their release. Dennis Brown, a black male from Louisiana, has been one of many people that have been wrongfully convicted without proper DNA evidence. First off, he’s been falsely convicted of rape and burglary.

Read More

Summary Of Horton Hears A Who Was A Turning Point For The Civil Rights Movement

341 Words | 2 Pages

Dr. Suess, in his book Horton Hears a Who, states, “A person’s a person, no matter how small” (6). This statement is true for people of different stature, status, and color. For centuries African Americans have been in a constant struggle for basic human rights, and rights that match those of european descent. In the 1960s, an African American man named Martin Luther King Jr. stood up for himself and his people. He was a man of great renown by the time the Civil Rights movement took flight.

Read More

Examples Of Injustice During The Scottsboro Trial

310 Words | 2 Pages

In both the past and the present, we have all gone through injustices. During our time watching Bryan Stevenson from TED Talk we heard about his experience with injustice. He talked about how he worked with these young boys and girls that are sentenced to life in prison. He even gave the statistic that 1 out of every 6 people sentenced to the death penalty are innocent. This is a statistic from now; imagine how much worse that specific statistic was in the 1930s.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of Halfway Houses

876 Words | 4 Pages

victim and the defendant may be influential without clear guidance about the deliberation rules. Black suspects and White victims; blacks were more likely to receive a death sentence vs White suspects and black victims “Not only did killing a White person rather than a Black person increase the likelihood of being sentenced to death, but also Black defendants were more likely than White defendants to be sentenced to death” (Eberhaedt, 2006). Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck founded The innocence Project, in 1992, their mission was to free those who were wrongly convicted of crimes through DNA. To date. there are approximately 350 people exonerated of crimes they didn’t commit through the Innocence project.

Read More

Guilty But Innocent: Wrongful Conviction And Public Policy

329 Words | 2 Pages

When one thinks about the court systems and the way justice is served they see a system that is fair and just. A system that correctly provides punishment to the guilty party, and one that can discover the truth within the innocent party. On the surface level this appears to be true. Hundreds of thousands of people are incarcerated each year in the United States, which in reality provides a false sense of safety to citizens. While a large percentage of incarcerations are of guilty parties, according to a study in C. Ronald Huff’s book, Convicted But Innocent: Wrongful Conviction and Public Policy, approximately 100,000 innocent people are convicted every year.

Read More

Personal Essay: My Thanksgiving Break

290 Words | 2 Pages

My weekend was as awesome as riding a lion. I went to my aunt and uncles for Thanksgiving. It was as fun as going to Michigan Adventure. I went with my mom, dad, brother, sister, her husband, and my niece. It was awesome.

Read More

Personal Narrative: Nola For A Mission Trip

285 Words | 2 Pages

So one day we had a day where we could go off into the French Quarters and explore and just had a good time. I believe the reason that they allowed us to do this is because if all the hard work we did the previous days. The food that they had was amazing, the city was in better shape than it was before Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. My group that I was with went into a little art store and pictures were

Read More

Harriet Tubman Colourphobia Analysis

677 Words | 3 Pages

I thought it was fascinating learning about Harriet Tubman and all she did to help people escape to freedom. It’s interesting learning about history of how Harriet Tubman resided in St.Catharines, Ontario. It is great that they are in the process of building a museum about Harriet Tubman commemorating all of Harriet Tubman

Read More

Reflection On The African Burial Ground

575 Words | 3 Pages

I visited the African American Burials Ground memorial site and

Read More

African American Museum Observation Report

649 Words | 3 Pages

The past I have encountered outside of a school setting was going to the African American Museum in Dallas, Texas. I have always wanted to go to an African American Museum to experience the setting of the atmosphere because my peers were talking about it so much I wanted to see what the hype was about. Inside the museum there are artistic, cultural and historical materials that are preserve and display of African American Culture. There is this one exhibit that catches my eyes and it is the African Amedia, this exhibit is and open letter that inspire people to look past the stereotypes that are related to each other base on character and not the race. Not every day you face any race conflict but being in a school setting is where it is majority are especially discrimination towards each other.

Read More

Personal Narrative: What It Mean To Be A Minority In America

339 Words | 2 Pages

For a long time, I knew nothing of the stories of a minority in America except what was taught in school, which was whitewashed. It did not help much with me wanting a better understanding of how black people got to where we are today. We would talk faintly about our history, maybe a week about slavery, another week on black history month, and then an entire school year about white America. Finding out that there is not absolute freedom for all, that opportunities are not given to everyone because of the way the American government was built upon, was a true eye opening experience for me. Being able to attend Telluride Association Sophomore Seminar (TASS) and be given the opportunity to gain insight about the people that actually built this country would be an actual honor.

Read More

Personal Narrative: Spring Break

553 Words | 3 Pages

Darting through the long, bright hallway, I laughed outrageously with my friends while trying to get to the noisy, yellow buses. It was April __ and the students at Southern Nash Middle were finally being released from all classes. Everyone was extremely ecstatic because we out for a week for spring break. As we loaded upon the bus, everyone jumped in their seats and began talking about their plans for the week. I talked to my friends who sat across from me and listened to them talk on and on.

Read More

Personal Narrative: My Experience At The California State Summer School

802 Words | 4 Pages

To my astonishment, tears filled my eyes as I packed the car and uttered my final goodbyes, leaving behind what felt like had become my home. I never imagined that I would miss attending the ten hour days of rigorous dance classes, eating mediocre cafeteria food, and constantly feeling on the brink of physical and mental exhaustion. As German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche cleverly stated, “That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.” This proved to be absolutely true throughout my four week experience at the California State Summer School for the Arts at CalArts where I learned the imperative life lesson of perseverance. The first week of the intensive was definitely one of the most physically and mentally exhausting weeks of my life.

Read More

Spring Break-Personal Narrative

1201 Words | 5 Pages

“Bye, mom! I’ll be back in two weeks don't miss me too much!” I yelled upstairs as I slipped out of the front door. It’s senior year and my best friend and I will be spending our spring break in Florida at a small beach house that I actually have never seen.

Read More

More about Ray Hinton's Reflective Essay: Alternative Spring Break

Open Document