ipl-logo

Troy Davis: Mass Incarceration In The Criminal Justice System

323 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The problem of mass incarceration

The story of Troy Davis and his conviction can be seen as an example of how the criminal justice system has been manipulated into a system of racial segregation. In this situation, Davis was convicted as the shooter when evidence of his innocence was provided. In addition, a lack of evidence against Davis, including the lack of a murder weapon, one of the most crucial pieces of evidence in a murder case, generates further curiosity as to how Davis was found guilty of the shooting. The fact that the officer killed in this situation was white almost certainly increases the significance of the case. A white officer, serving his country, shot and killed by a black man, made the headlines and further portrayed the image that all black men are criminals. …show more content…

In this situation, it almost does not matter whether or not the person convicted was guilty of the crime or not. The only reasonable reason that Davis was convicted was that he was born a black male in a society that was determined to portray his race as criminals in order to limit the progression of African Americans. Alexander (2010) states that “mass incarceration has been normalized, and all of the racial stereotypes and assumptions that gave rise to the system are now embraced” (pp. 181). The case of Troy Davis is just one example of how our criminal justice system has worked to create mass incarcerations of African American men and how by today's standards, it seems to be a common occurrence. Through Davis’ conviction and all the way up to his execution, he was exploited by a system that resembles the Jim Crow Laws, completely stripping him of his rights and freedoms based on actions he may not have convicted, supported purely on the color of his

Show More
Related
252 Words | 2 Pages

He spent nineteen years on death row and, after three set execution dates, was executed in 2011. Given that almost all of the witnesses who testified against Troy Davis at his trial withdrew or contradicted their testimony, there were serious questions surrounding

Read More
736 Words | 3 Pages

CASE STUDY #3: TROY DAVIS On September 21st of 2011, Troy Davis; a black man from Savannah, Georgia was executed for a crime he did not commit. Troy Davis was charged with the murder of Savannah police officer in 1989. On August 19, 1989, officer Mark Macphail, was going home when he tried to break up a fight between Sylvester “Redd” Coles (a neighborhood thug), and a homeless man. Officer Mark Macphail was shot twice and was found dead at the same scene.

Read More
400 Words | 2 Pages

In the article, Unwinding Mass Incarceration by Stefan Lobuglio and Anne Piehl, they argue that unwinding the mass incarceration “well neither be cheap nor easy, and to be done responsibly will require a new infrastructure of coordinated community-based facilities and services that can meet evidence-based incarceration needs while also ensuring public safety.” Hence, their argument is clean-cut with evidence in the article to back up their argument of unwinding the mass incarceration. Similarly, a solid fill of a concluding statement upon the unwinding of the mass incarceration as stated in the article, “requires much more than stopping current practices or reversing course by mass commutations and early release programs.” Subsequently, from this article, there are numerous interesting key points, and perspective of unwinding the mass incarceration.

Read More
319 Words | 2 Pages

On February 26, 2012, a 17 year old boy named Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a man named George Zimmerman. George was found not guilty in July of 2013. President Obama spoke upon the ruling of this case. “It could have been me 35 years ago” stated Obama. Most African Americans went through being followed in the stores, hearing the doors on the car lock as they passed by, or had a woman move her purse closer to her as they walked in the elevator.

Read More
534 Words | 3 Pages

There are many that are calling the shooting racially motivated and unjustified because of the racial mix of the officer and victim and the unarmed nature of Robinson at the time of the shooting. Ismael Ozanne, Dane Country District Attorney issued the following statement after the investigating task force released their findings, "I conclude that this tragic and unfortunate death was the result of a lawful use of deadly police force and that no charges should be brought against Officer Kenny in the death of Tony Robinson Jr.” Ozanne reminded people that he, too, was a person of color and recognized that there were injustices that took place. This just was not one of them. Per CNN, “My decision will not bring Tony Robinson Jr. back," Ozanne told reporters.

Read More
1081 Words | 5 Pages

A. Life in prison is not the path any average person wanders down, or perhaps even plan for. Also, it is safe to assume that any person who has been to prison would let the outsiders know that is not fun, nor is it a life anyone devotes to living. In Michael G. Santos’s book, Inside: Life Behind Bars in America, Santos explains what living behind bars in America is like. Unlike most of the population in prison for violent offenses, Santos was in prison for the opposite reasons: a major drug bust. Santos was also sentenced to federal prison, instead of a state/local prison, for forty-five years which stemmed from a high-profile cocaine bust that occurred in Miami, Florida.

Read More
343 Words | 2 Pages

Is it fair that an African American man is sentenced up to life in prison for possession of drugs when Brock Turner is sentenced to only 14 years, later to be reduced to six months for sexually assaulting an unconscious women. The judiciary system are believed to have a high african american incarceration rate as a result of discrimination. At a presidential debate on Martin Luther King Day, President Barack Obama said that “Blacks and whites are arrested at very different rates, are convicted at very different rates, and receive very different sentences… for the same crime.” Hillary Clinton said the “disgrace of a criminal-justice system that incarcerates so many more african americans proportionately than whites.”

Read More
443 Words | 2 Pages

People rebel when no justice being served. It is understandable why people act a certain way. Have you ever loved someone more than yourself? A person is your biggest pride and joy to be safe? Can you imagine how it feels to no longer have your pride and joy with in a split second, due to the way they look?

Read More
1728 Words | 7 Pages

The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for several reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. This literature review will discuss the ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system and how mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism has become a problem.

Read More
940 Words | 4 Pages

Transcendentalists were Americans that believed everyone should be treated equally, so they began six major reform movements. There were many Transcendentalist movements, but the six most important reforms were the prison movement, women’s rights, anti-slavery, temperance, insane and education movement. The prison reform movement was started by the Transcendentalists because they felt that the system was wrong unfair and cruel. All prisoners suffered the same consequences regardless of his or her crime.

Read More
643 Words | 3 Pages

Over the decades, mass incarceration has become an important topic that people want to discuss due to the increasing number of mass incarceration. However, most of the people who are incarceration are people of color. This eventually leads to scholars concluding that there is a relationship between mass incarceration and the legacy of slavery. The reason is that people of color are the individuals who are overrepresented in prison compared to whites. If you think about it, slavery is over and African Americans are no longer mistreated; however, that is not the case as African Americans continue to face oppression from the government and police force.

Read More
717 Words | 3 Pages

Nowadays society thinks that everyone is being equal by the way they treat each other. They think that racism is no longer around, and that people are getting better at it. Yes, Racism has improved, however, there are many different types of racism that are going on till this day. Also, there is a high amount of racism in the USA, that has been claimed to not exist anymore. There are many ways it is shown, however both ways are similar in each country.

Read More
1278 Words | 6 Pages

In his defence of the use of the death penalty in terms of deterrence, he claims that it is the distributive process, also known as the trial, in which injustice is present. However, he also believes that trials are more likely to be fair since life is at stake. This does not apply to Davis’ case. It seems as if the jury did not really look into his situation more carefully, but instead acted upon fear and instinct that Davis is indeed guilty. Despite the fact that there were no evidence to prove that he was indeed the murder, there were no murder weapons found, no DNA samples, or blood evidence, the jury still found him guilty and sentenced him to death row.

Read More
721 Words | 3 Pages

There are three components that make up the criminal justice system – the police, courts, and correctional facilities – they all work together in order to protect individuals and their rights as a citizen of society to live without the fear of becoming the victim of a crime. Crime, simply put is when a person violates criminal law; the criminal justice system is society’s way of implementing social control. When all three components of the criminal justice work together, it functions almost perfectly. For a person to enter the criminal justice system, the process must begin with the law enforcement.

Read More
622 Words | 3 Pages

If it wasn’t a cop maybe the murder would’ve been charged right away and have went to jail, but just because you have a badge doesn’t mean the same rules aren’t applied to you. For those who do get justice it’s sometimes not enough. As if the judge is doing so little for the justice of that person just because the person was african american. People don’t get justice because of the color of their skin but if it was a caucasian person there would be so much more done versus the fact that a person of color was murdered by a police officer.

Read More

More about Troy Davis: Mass Incarceration In The Criminal Justice System

Related Topics

Open Document