In the movie “Marshall” we take a look at one of Thurgood Marshall early cases. In “Marshall”, Thurgood starts off at a train station getting ready to board and some bad cats walk up to him and started screaming obscene things at Thurgood. We see Thurgood going into the NAACP office and someone is waiting for him to tell him he will be taking a rape case in New York. Thurgood tells his wife that he will have to leave again for another court case. So he goes to New York and enlists the help of local lawyer Samuel Friedman. Marshall needed a co-counselor based in Connecticut to help him argue the case, someone more familiar with the laws and politics particular to the state. Sam’s response wasn’t to welcoming. He felt like this was a case that could possible ruin his career. He wanted nothing to do with it. After a few movie minutes we go to see the man accused of rape. It’s an African American male named Joseph Spell. Spell is accused of raping his former boss Eleanor Strubing. Mrs.Strubing had come home from dinner with friends. She was fresh from the shower and wearing only a robe when Spell knocked on her bedroom door and asked if he could borrow some money. She claims Spell raped her made her get dressed took her downstairs, bound her hands and feet, and raped her again. After forcing her to write a ransom note, he put her in the car, cut off the bottom of her dress and gagged her with the remnant, and drove until a policeman stopped the car. The officer did not
Duane Buck, a death row inmate, has served more than twenty one years for murdering his ex-girlfriend Debra Gardner and Kenneth Butler. He accused Kenneth for sleeping with Debra and also shot his stepsister in the chest, who survived. After shooting Kenneth, Gardner ran to the street and was chased until she was gunned down while her children watched. Even though the crime should be punished, bucks attorneys argue Mr. Buck was denied a fair trial. Walter Quijano, a psychologist, gave his testimony during the trial stating that Buck was more likely to be a future danger because of his racial color. What surprises everyone is that Buck’s defense lawyer was the one who called Quijano and evoke the testimony. Even though the racial testimony had no place in the trial it still didn’t justify whether they should throw out the death sentence. No racial testimony appeared to be in his early appeals due to his counsel’s impotence for introducing it. Still it was very believable because this was not the first case Quijano made a similar testimony that had violated an inmate’s constitutional rights. Bucks lawyers tried to use this information to fight for Buck but they were not successful because the courts ruled Buck had waited too long to raise the issue. The argument here is if Buck is
In the Campbell v. Jones and Derrick case, a constable (Campbell) sued the parents of two girls for their comments and how they suggested that she was a racist after she conducted a strip search on two 12-year-old girls after a small theft occurred at an inner-city school. The parents pointed out that both the officer and the constable were white, and that they devalued the two girls’ constitutional rights because of their skin colour and low social status. They also suggested that this never would have happened to white children.
The classic book “To Kill a Mockingbird” and the movie “Remember the Titans” deals with the concept of social injustice in terms of racial prejudice through the setting and characters. Both stories took place in a time where in Southern areas, people were treated very poorly based on their race. In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, one of the main characters, Atticus Finch, was a white lawyer who was fighting to acquit a black man, Tom Robinson. Tom was being accused of sexually assaulting a white woman named Mayella Ewell, even though a lot of evidence in the case indicated that he was innocent. The jury declared Tom was guilty because of the racial prejudice against him.
In 1930’s Maycomb Alabama, a young woman is stirring up a sleepy town by accusing an African American man of rape. Mayella Ewell, a poor white woman has wrongly accused Tom Robinson of sexually assaulting her in her own home. Her testimony, as well as her fathers’, have gaping holes in them. Their stories do not coincide, and it is even implied that Mayella’s father may have been sexually abusing her.(DBQ Mayella page 15 Chapters 18 and 20) The lack of sufficient evidence and Tom Robinson’s claim that Mayella had made advances toward him should have been enough for the jury to find Tom not guilty, but unfortunately, that was not the case. Instead, the jury believed Mayella’s deceitful testimony, and Tom was sent to jail, which ultimately led to his death. Mayella used her position in society to manipulate the court, and dispose of the only evidence of her mistake. Mayella Ewell is powerful as defined by class, gender, and especially race.
This was Furman’s attorney’s argument. They felt that the decision of the Georgia court was unconstitutional and was discriminating Furman, an African-American. Furman’s attorney, Clarence Mayfield, prepared
During the early nineteen hundreds many people especially in the south were often convicted of crimes for no other reason than their skin color and contrary to many ideas about our court system, we have not always been the most honest and unbiased people. One prime example of this is the case of the Scottsboro Boys and how they were accused of rape and had to go to court numerous times, almost everytime ending in the death sentence. The evidence in the case clearly points towards the innocence of the Scottsboro boys, evidence such as unclear stories from the girls, lack of bruises and marks indicating assault as well as a previous history of prostitution from both of the girls. This evidence helps to prove that Charles Weems and the Scottsboro boys were innocent and wrongly accused and convicted.
Rosenburg, Friedman, Altman, Rossum and Tarr all illustrate societies past history and race within the court system. Race has always played a big factor in American history since the very beginning of the colonial time period. The United States has had a long history of oppressing minorities such as the enslavement of Africans, harassment of those who immigrated to the states, and
This piece of evidence is explaining how the writer compares himself drowning underwater in the game to him drowning with his own problems that he has in his life. Marshall lives in the south side of Chicago and suffers of poverty and people becoming a homicide. Marshall “drowning” and is worry on not having money and one day waking up and one of his close friends or family being dead by the police or because of a gang. This shows how Marshall's life is difficult like the game the Oregon Trail.
First of all, there is always a right way to treat someone and the way you treat someone shouldn’t be depended on what color of skin they have. “It couldn’t be worse, Jack. The only thing we’ve got is a black man’s word against the Ewells‘. The evidence boils down to you-did—I-didn’t. The jury couldn’t possibly be expected to take Tom Robinson’s word against the Ewells’—are you acquainted with the Ewells?” (48). This shows that Tom Robinson has no chance at winning the case because of his color. Even though, the one place that should respect any color and treat everyone fair is the courtroom, but judges carry their feelings right into there. Since the Ewells are white they are going to get respected more and treated better and more trustworthy, so when they say Tom Robinson is guilty, they all believe them over Tom’s word. Tom wasn’t being cruel
According to American history, prejudice is shown through the courtroom’s jury when making decisions to send the alleged African Americans to jail. On March 24, 1931, nine African American lives were jeopardized with the false accusations of rape that further scrutinizes the nation’s controversial look upon justice. Referring to Abigail Thernson and Henry Fetter when talking about The Scottsboro Trials it states, “Represented by unprepared out of date counsel who had no more than a half an hour consult
To what extent was William Marshall’s life as a knight different from other knights of the time? Invariably it was not that much different than those of his peers until his later life. The one thing that set him apart from other knights was his fierce dedication to loyalty.
The racial bias against McMillian is shown in his interactions with the law enforcement, who would often yell racial slurs at McMillian (Stevenson, 2014, p. 48, 55). Another example of racial bias against McMillian is the exclusion of African-American jurors from his trial, although there were few black jurors to begin with because the case was moved to a county with a negligible African-American population (Stevenson, 2014, p. 60, 62). These two examples show the mistreatment of African-Americans in the American justice system and the manipulation courts perform to convict accused African-Americans – even when they are innocent.
“As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it—whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash” ― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird. The theory Bryan Stevenson has applied to the justice system is extremely useful since it sheds insight on the difficult problem of poverty and racism towards many African Americans. The justice system focuses on the people with more power. The more power you have, they more advantages you get to get away with. The Ewells may not have any social power but since their white, it gives them more capability over others. Considering racism and poverty have become a monumental issue, the chances of someone believing a black person is diminishingly low.
The intersection of racial dynamics with the criminal justice system is one of longstanding duration. In earlier times, courtrooms in many jurisdictions were comprised of all white decision-makers. Today, there is more diversity of leadership in the court system, but race still plays a critical role in many
the prisoners were lucky enough to escape the being lynched when they were moved into Scottsboro. In this trial, nine young, black boys were charged with the rape of two white girls while on a train. This case was a major source of controversy in the 1930’s. “Despite testimony by doctors who had examined the women that no rape had occurred, the all- white jury convicted the nine, and all but the youngest, who was 12 years old were sentenced to death” (“Scottsboro”). The boys’ lawyer, Samuel Leibowitz, did not even get assigned to the case until the first day of the trial. “If he could show a jury that these nine boys were innocent, as the record indicated, the jury would surely free them. To Leibowitz, that was simple!” (Chalmers 35). However, it was not that simple. Many white citizens would not change their minds about