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Tainted Justice System: The Case Against Hannah Overton

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Tainted Justice System MINNEAPOLIS- In the case against Hannah Overton, who was wrongfully accused of killing her foster child by forcing salt down the child’s throat. Overton spent 17 years of her life sentence in prison, missing her 5 other kids grow up. She fell victim to a justice system that did not take the time for a fair prosecution process. This is just one case that represents a multitude of wrongfully prosecuted court cases. The criminal justice system can easily be biased to reflect and support their own self interest. The criminal justice system is the only organization that is able to remove criminals from the streets. Even though it takes many officers to make a difference in a community, there is no assurance that each officer …show more content…

According to the Huffington Post, “in 2014, 139 people were exonerated in 2014. The number has risen most years since 2005, when 61 people were cleared of crimes they didn’t commit” (Ferner 1). Another case that pulled the heartstrings is the wrongful conviction of Adrian Thomas. His 4 month old son was brought into the ER for having severe head trauma, which he later died from in the hospital. Thomas was taken to court with the only evidence being his confession. It later came out the confession only occurred from coercion. He later received a retrial after serving 6 of his 25 years in prison and then to be later found not guilty. Police were only able to make their arrest after interrogating him for 10 hours and forcing him to confess. The Troy police department comment, “that they do not believe they lead him to confess and only question him for the amount of time they did because he was sos emotional it took him time to gather his thoughts” (Mauve 13). The law rushes to find answers and do not take enough time to catch the real criminals. Even though 6 years of Thomas’s life was lost to prison, he is one of the lucky few who received a retrial and can now try to put it behind him. As for others in prison it is unknown how many countless prisoners fell victim to the faulty justice system. It is estimated that 1 out of 5 convicts in prison are in fact

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