Johnson, L. (2016, March 3). Stolen Lives: Oppressed, Exploited, and Innocent in Prison. Retrieved April 11, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lorenzo-johnson/stolen-lives-oppressed-ex_b_9570150.html
Monday, April 11, 2016
Innocent While in Prison: Guilty Have a Better Chance
Through the advent of social media, more stories are being brought to light than ever before. Honesty takes courage and is often suppressed as the truth is covered up. Even so, such mistakes causes individuals to doubt the judicial system. It has been unanimously agree upon the reform is in order, and the topic is typically left out of political debate. More often than not, people of color are individuals that have been wrongfully convicted. Prosecutors hide behind guidelines and laws and appeal procedures to justify the cause. For these individuals, their lives have been stolen from them, and it will continue to do so until it is critically evaluated.
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There is definitely a disproportionate number of African-Americans convicted for crimes as a result of institutional and systemic racism, but the number of those exonerated nationwide shocked me. As stated in the article, there were 149 cases that were exonerated in 2015. Since African-Americans are more likely to be convicted than Caucasians, it is no surprise that this group makes up the majority of the wrongly convicted. As mentioned by the author, I feel that there needs to be a change in the court system because there is too much focus on convicting and increasing arrest record numbers. How do you think we should go about changing this?
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