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The American Judiciary System, the frontend of democracy in the United States, is admired by many as a fair system that guarantees freedom to the innocent and conviction to the guilty, yet throughout the years many have shown the deeply rooted issue with the American judiciary system.
During the 3rd Unit on justice, we studied a number of issues associated with the American justice system, such as racism in the system, how lawyers can exploit the system to win cases and the flawed system that is jury duty.

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Is the judiciary system a flawed system?
Is Racism deeply rooted in the United States Judiciary System?

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How did mass incarceration become as a mechanism of racialized social control in the United States ?

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The O.J. Simpson trial, was a criminal case in which famous American football player O.J. Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. It was one of the most notorious criminal trials in American history. During the trial, which lasted more than eight months, some 150 witnesses testified, though Simpson did not take the stand. Yet when the jury finally began deliberating and reached a verdict in less than four hours, Simpson was found not guilty of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. After the verdict, polls of public opinion continued to break down along racial lines. Whites were largely dismayed by the jury’s decision, whereas the majority of African Americans supported it, seeing Simpson’s acquittal as a victory in a legal system that systematically discriminated against blacks.

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This once again brought up the issue of jury bias into the public. Many questioned the legitimacy of jury duty, and how such a system is so easily exploited. Although in this case it was a black individual who got away scot free from any conviction, if the system itself wasn't flawed or dare I say rigged, this wouldn't have happened. This document helps illustrate how easily such a system, where lawyers can select members of a jury with prejudice and empathy or disdain towards the accused, can be exploited.

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12 Angry Men is a 1957 American courtroom drama film directed by Sidney Lumet. The film tells the story of a jury of 12 men as they deliberate the conviction or acquittal of an 18-year old defendant on the basis of reasonable doubt, forcing the jurors to question their morals and values.

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This Document is very relevant to the topic of mass incarceration due to the trial revolving around the murder of the father of a Hispanic boy, due to the boy being a "foreigner", Prejudice is very much present in the jury, as some base their entire opinion on the boy's conviction for having a criminal background. The presence of prejudice in a jury can wildly influence the verdict of a trial and seeing how easy it is for individuals with prejudice to slip into a jury, due to lawyers exploiting the system of voir-dire and so enabling harsher verdicts to be given.

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This document is relevant to the subject of mass incarceration due to it showing how the black community in the united states is a consistently targeted group. The juxtaposition between Bryan Stevenson and the fictional lawyer "Atticus Finch" from TKAMB shows how reality and fiction aren't so far from each other.

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This document is extracted from the novel "Just Mercy". This scene takes place in a courtroom during the trial of Walter McMillian after he had been convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. Bryan Stevenson is making his opening statement to discredit the witness Myers in the hope of clearing the innocent black man of all the charges brought against him. Although not mentioned here, Black people were once on the wrong side of law when Jim crow laws were put in place especially in the south.

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This document is relevant to the subject of mass incarceration due to it showing how race does affect how likely it is for an individual to be incarcerated. Although the Hispanic and black community only represent 29% of the US population, they have a significantly higher percentage of incarcerations compared to whites.

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Interview with civil rights advocate Michelle Alexander:

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Interview with civil rights advocate Michelle Alexander:

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All in all, there is countless evidence to support the fact that there is a major disparity between the races when it comes to incarceration and the American justice system. The united states has always had a history filled with racism and even though it has improved for the better, racism still creeps up in its judiciary system.
I quite enjoyed this chapter if not for 12 angry men alone, but what truly interested me is how formal such a system is, there are so many factors that go into this system, and its all in the name of the united state's Democratic values, other judiciary systems around the world don't have as much on the line. Seeing how important law is in the united states and how an entire system of monetary gain was built around it was quite interesting to say the least.

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In this interview from 2010 Michelle Alexander talks about how U.S. law enforcement targets people of color, and why it's difficult to prove racial discrimination and what it will take to end racial bias in our criminal justice system. She largely blames the war on drugs for the systematic targeting of African-Americans in the US, and proving that this exists is very difficult due having to offer evidence of conscious racial bias of some kind for admission in order to even get in the courthouse door, even though white individuals are just as likely to own and sell drugs, yet black communities are the most targeted.