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Essay On The Dollree Mapp Decision

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The 1960s period in time was a huge time in society for minorities in the American justice system. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the National Voting Rights of 1965 made some new changes that help protect the injustices of racial discrimination. A number of criminal cases lead up to the major changes of the new Civil Rights Act (Schwartz, 1996). For example, the Supreme Court was deciding on the case Mapp v. Ohio (1961). The Mapp decision is important in concerns to the problem of race and the criminal justice system. Dollree Mapp was an African American woman whose house was illegally searched without a warrant. The Mapp decision was the first concerning decision of a constitutional rule of criminal procedure involving a racial minority (Long, 2006).
Also in the 1960s, the Supreme Court also saw the case Miranda v. Arizona in 1966. Ernesto Miranda was arrested for kidnapping and rape. After the police interrogated Miranda, he signed a confession that led to him being guilty. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Miranda that the police did not advise Miranda of his rights or counsel before interrogation. The Miranda decision reinforced the rule that even the lowest people are entitled to the rights of criminal procedure. The Constitution states …show more content…

The term “race” has been defined differently throughout history. Race has been not only defined as skin color but also defined as social class, national origin, religion, and language have all been used in history to separate different groups in society. Leibniz in the 17th century defined race religiously, dividing groups in two groups Christian v. Non-Christian. It wasn’t until 1735 when Linnaeus distinguished groups by skin color and geographic origin. He had four separate groups: Europeaus (white), Africanus (black), Americanus (red), and Asiatic (yellow) (Uppsala Universitet,

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