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Why do you think this book is called Just Mercy?  What impact did this book have on you?

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Why do you think this book is called Just Mercy?  What impact did this book have on you?

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I think the book is called “Just Mercy” is because Mr. Stevenson for the lives that were on death row for many years just for the system to have some sort of compassion for these people who are about to lose there life. This had an impact on me because, I never really thought about the people who are on death row because our state doesn’t have Deathrow. however reading this book may become more aware of it and how inhumane and extremely sad it is for these people. Even though these people did horrible crimes they are still human and it’s very inhumane to take one’s life.

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In chapter 8 of Just Mercy , the author gives three case study examples of people who were sentenced when they were juveniles as adults to life in prison without parole. How do you think the race of the juveniles impacted the decision to charge them as adults? How does this go against our understanding and discussions of what the criminal justice system should be achieving? 

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In chapter 8 of Just Mercy , the author gives three case study examples of people who were sentenced when they were juveniles as adults to life in prison without parole. How do you think the race of the juveniles impacted the decision to charge them as adults? How does this go against our understanding and discussions of what the criminal justice system should be achieving? 

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The cases Mr. Stevenson covered in Just Mercy about the three juveniles that were sentenced life in prison without parole impacted these children because of their race due to the racial issues in the south. These three children were sentenced to life in prison without parole because the south was still very segregated and still did not approve of the equal rights that African Americans were now allowed to have. These children had to unfortunately face that effects of this. The white individuals in power looked at African Americans as if they still did not have equal rights and when they had the opportunity to put a African American individual in prison, they did. By placing the children in prison and charging them as adults goes against the correctional system goals because they are not giving these children another chance at life. The human brain does not develop until age 25 and these children have to face the consequences of their actions they made at pre teen ages to 17. Teenagers cannot correctly handle a adult situation properly. This goes against our discussion in class about the criminal justice's correctional system because the sole purpose of it is to rehabilitate those ones who are committing these crimes and prepare them to go back into society successfully without the chance of recidivism. By placing more minority groups and charging children with life sentences without parole, we are going pushing these people back from the chance of being successful in society. We are ruining the relationship between society and Law Enforcement officials because of these issues.

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Given this sentiment, after the resolution of Walter's case, would you say that Justice was completely served? Why or why not? Make sure you use information/evidence from your reading in Just Mercy

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Given this sentiment, after the resolution of Walter's case, would you say that Justice was completely served? Why or why not? Make sure you use information/evidence from your reading in Just Mercy

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Regarding Walter's case I think justice was served. Walter finally gained his freedom back with the help from Mr. Stevenson which served Walter the justice he deserved. It was really discouraging when the system framed Walter and refused to let him out even with strong concrete evidence that Walter was not the man who killed the white woman. Ralph even confessed that he lied and they still did not want to free Walter. As the facebook post states, "Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outranged as those who are." is a direct correlation of the issue that Walter went through. Walter struggled to get his freedom until Mr. Stevenson got 60 Minutes to cover his case. The people were outranged and wanted Walter free. People fought to help Walter be released from prison after viewing the episode. Mr. Stevenson's plan worked perfectly because he was released. When people find out the injustice people undergo they will be outranged. This is just like what we are going through in our present day within our criminal justice system.

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While The 13th documentary focused mainly on the impact of mass incarceration and the disproportionate use of it against minority groups on society as a whole, the chapters from Just Mercy this week focused on the impact on the individual families/communities of those who have been incarcerated.What are the societal impacts resulting from mass incarceration, particularly on the black and brown communities from which people are disproportionately incarcerated? How do these impacts change our society as a whole?  Make sure you reference both The 13th and Just Mercy in your discussion.

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While The 13th documentary focused mainly on the impact of mass incarceration and the disproportionate use of it against minority groups on society as a whole, the chapters from Just Mercy this week focused on the impact on the individual families/communities of those who have been incarcerated.What are the societal impacts resulting from mass incarceration, particularly on the black and brown communities from which people are disproportionately incarcerated? How do these impacts change our society as a whole?  Make sure you reference both The 13th and Just Mercy in your discussion.

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The societal impacts on individuals who have been disproportionately incarcerated is the lack of rehabilitation in the correctional system during the time they are serving. The correctional system does no do a good job giving our inmates proper mental health services and job placement services to set them up for success when they leave the prisons. Another example on applications the box that asks if you hold any felons. This disproportionately sets people who have been released from prison because of the lack of opportunities they are aloud to have. We discussed in class ton Wednesday that these people have already served their time and it is unfair and wrong to have a box on application such as loans, apartments, jobs, insurance, etc. These are essentials that everyone needs in life and these people who have served time in prison are basically serving a life sentences because, of their background when in the correctional system is to rehabilitate them into a new person.   The Documentary "The 13" really highlights the poor treatment of black and brown communities when it comes to mass incarceration. these is due to the racial biases as well as during the War on drugs movement black individuals were targeted the most and thrown in Jail for the most minor drug offenses. The plea deal has been an issue because in The 13 they explain that it has been used on the black and brown community as a tool to incarcerate more minorities to just get them to confess to crimes they did not commit so they do not have to go more in debt from their defense. The book "Just Mercy". also talks about the issue of mass incarceration of black individuals because of the racial tentions in the south after Jim Crow laws are abolished. African American were placed on death row more than white people and targeted and charged for minor times and given outrageous sentences for the small crimes that were committed.

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Why is it important that investigators be held to the highest ethical standards? Use Walter McMillian’s case to support your response.  

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Why is it important that investigators be held to the highest ethical standards? Use Walter McMillian’s case to support your response.  

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Its important that all investigations are done without biases from the investigators because of racial and confirmation biases that can make the investigation turn the case in the wrong direction. In “Just Mercy”, Mr. Stevenson explains a case where Walter McMillian was a victim of bias shortly after the Jim Crow Laws were abolished. However, the investigators unfortunately still had the Jim Crow mentally still. Walter was wrongly convicted because he had a bad reputation because he was a African American involved with a white woman. He was accused of being in involved with the murder of a white female by the suspect of the murder which resulted in him being wrongly convicted. The investigators took the information from the suspect as a fact without checking and ensuring that it is indeed true because of their confirmation bias. It’s extremely important that all investigations are free from all biases because real people’s rights are being violated and taking away from them because of one person’s poor beliefs. It’s unethical and an integrity issue in my opinion to do such a thing. In class, we spoke about racial biases and how it is a threat to people because of investigators racially profiling people who are innocent. Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek or interpret and create information based on exiting beliefs. These biases are what prevent cases from being correctly solved due to opinions from the investigators being presented as “facts”.

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In the Central Park Five documentary, what outside factors (e.g., societal trends), including characterics about the accused themselves (e.g., demographics, prior history, etc.), might have been at play during the investigation of the case and how might they have influenced the case and the detectives’ investigation? Could these factors/bias have been prevented? How so?

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In the Central Park Five documentary, what outside factors (e.g., societal trends), including characterics about the accused themselves (e.g., demographics, prior history, etc.), might have been at play during the investigation of the case and how might they have influenced the case and the detectives’ investigation? Could these factors/bias have been prevented? How so?

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The outside factors that might have been at play during the investigation of the case was the era that New York was undergoing at the time this case occurred. Meaning in the beginning of the documentary, they opened with the racial violence that minorities were facing. I believed because the racial injustice that was going on in New York is what made the boys fall into this serotype that ended up placing them in this situation. Another thing was that the news papers were making the boys out to be thing bad delinquent children. They did this by the news paper titles saying that they were “wiling out”. These situations influenced the investigators actions against the boy because of the racial violence and stereotypes that they were experiencing fell into the investigation because it was a crime against a white woman. I don’t think these things could have been prevented because these biases were so strong at the time. As we learned in class these biases are sometime not really known. They are our personally opinions that are naturally hard for us too separate because humans are naturally biased. I   believe they should have not been involved in the case at all. The way the investigators acted was extremely unprofessional and unreasonable.

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What do you already know about the Criminal Justice System?

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What do you already know about the Criminal Justice System?

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What I already know about the criminal justice system is that our CJS is made up of Federal, State, and Local law enforcement agencies. Our Supreme court is the highest court of the land, and they taken in the cases that might of violated  someone's rights. My favorite part about the CJS is the investigative aspect of it. Meaning, Forensic science, which is the application of science in the criminal justice system to solve crimes. Forensic science can make or break a case and it's important to know what types of evidence can withhold trial.

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Are there things that you heard, read, or learned that you are not sure that are correct about the CJS? 

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Are there things that you heard, read, or learned that you are not sure that are correct about the CJS? 

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I am not sure that I have read anything recently that has me question the truth regarding the CJS. I try not to get my news/information off of social media sites such as instagram, twitter, and facebook. This is because these sites can sometimes have false information spreading around which can be dangerous in my opinion.

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How can what we know and what we've learned about those in the criminal justice system (e.g., our stereotypes of people who engage in crime) affect our ability to be unbiased in our knowledge? What impact does this have on the operations of and public beliefs in the CJS? 

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How can what we know and what we've learned about those in the criminal justice system (e.g., our stereotypes of people who engage in crime) affect our ability to be unbiased in our knowledge? What impact does this have on the operations of and public beliefs in the CJS? 

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What we know and what we have learned about individuals in the criminal justice system that commit crime affect the ability to be unbiased because some people at young ages were taught stereotypes of certain races. For example, there is this stereotype that African Americans are “thugs” and are always committing crime. Therefore, the whole demographic of African Americans falls into this terrible stereotype which makes them look bad. People tell these to their children and their children’s children pass them on. Therefore, when these individuals who have been taught these stereotypes go into the working world, they keep this bias in their head and bring it into the workplace. This effects them from getting jobs and being successful in the world. What we can do to stay unbiased is to teach these children in school the stereotypes and how its not okay and how to stay unbiased so we can help try to erase these terrible ideologies from our children. What we know is not just one skin color commits crime. We know that the criminal system has failed African Americans and other minorities and we need to continue to speak up for them in their favor. The impacts that this has on the operations of the public beliefs in the criminal justice system is that they will incarcerate more minorities based on these biased ideologies and stereotypes. Therefore our hope in the criminal justice system will continue to depreciate.

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How does the presence/likelihood of failed forensic evidence interact with the race and gender of the defendant? How can failed forensic evidence be prevented? Make sure you discuss failed forensic evidence and the race/gender of the defendant within the investigation and in the courtroom. 

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How does the presence/likelihood of failed forensic evidence interact with the race and gender of the defendant? How can failed forensic evidence be prevented? Make sure you discuss failed forensic evidence and the race/gender of the defendant within the investigation and in the courtroom. 

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The presence/likelihood of failed forensic evidence interacts negativity with the race and gender of the defendant because there have been claims of basis when evaluating evidence. Many investigators may have racial basis which places the defendant at risk of prosecution because the investigator will do whatever they can to make the defendant look guilty because os stereotypes that certain races commit more crimes than others. The prosecution could do this by bringing expert witnesses in to testify in favor of the evidence. They could testify saying the evidence is ground breaking and throw their years of experience at the juries faces. As a result, this would make the jury believe the expert witness because of white coat syndrome. Gender basis is an issues because sometimes the public views men as the more aggressive gender. For example, in sexual assault cases everyone automatically thinks the male is the perpetrator in the case and will do anything to make the male look bad even before his day in court to prove innocence. Many juries may side with the female in case like these even if she is not being truthful. Failed forensics can be prevented by more research. Like we discussed in class, fingerprinting, hair, and blood pattern analysis are a few types of forensic evidence that is used in investigations. However, these types of evidence have little to none research done to prove there validity to be used in investigations and court rooms. Also, the way investigators solve crimes. Like we saw in the Mayfield case, he was arrested for a bombing he never committed based on a partial finger print of another person that had the same characteristics as his. I think the investigators in his case were too busy just trying to solve this crime, that they did not put any work into really seeing if Mayfield committed it. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon. Many police officers and detectives just want to place a person to a crime just to say its solved and move on to the next case.

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Do you personally have the qualities necessary to be a good investigator? Why or why not? (Be honest.) What could potentially go wrong if an investigator relies on their knowledge from TV on how to conduct an investigation? What are the short-term and long-term effects of that?

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Do you personally have the qualities necessary to be a good investigator? Why or why not? (Be honest.) What could potentially go wrong if an investigator relies on their knowledge from TV on how to conduct an investigation? What are the short-term and long-term effects of that?

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I personally feel that I have the qualities necessary to be a good investigator because this is want I want to do when I graduate. I take forensics and the investigator process very serious. It’s important to me that I take this type of work very serious and that what I’m doing is correct and to the best of my ability. I took a death investigation class last semester. For our final we had to do an outdoor crime scene that required us to do an excavation of skeletal remains. I made sure I took my time and did everything correctly, step by step that I did not miss any evidence within the area. My professor told me I did an excellent job and I did everything properly. This gave me the confidence to be able to do this line of work. Like we learned in class the past few weeks, I know the class and the real job will be very different however, the methods are still the same unlike from television and the real world. It would be extremely bad if an investigator used the knowledge they learned from television because they are the opposite from how investigators really do things on the field. The short term effects of someone on the crime scene doing wrong methods would be the investigator use in general the incorrect methods they learned from television on their crime scene to collect, analysis, and photograph evidence. This can always be fixed by a supervisor telling them they are doing something wrong and the investigator will be retrained the proper way. However, the long term effects of the investigator doing incorrect methods would be the the victim and the family of the victims. Either regarding a murder, rape, or robbery, these people will be forever impacted by the investigators poor produces and lack of knowledge they had done on the crime scene. Another long term impact would be the perpetrator getting away and victimizing another person which continues the horrible cycle of events.

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According to the CSI theory, what is the end result that potential jurors are gaining from CSI and TV shows like it and why is that problematic? Are there other potential problems with TV shows inaccurately portraying the criminal justice system and its procedures/protocols?

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According to the CSI theory, what is the end result that potential jurors are gaining from CSI and TV shows like it and why is that problematic? Are there other potential problems with TV shows inaccurately portraying the criminal justice system and its procedures/protocols?

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The CSI theory stresses the problematic reasoning of these CSI shows is due to the fact these shows portray false practices of CSI's such as the collection of evidence, the role of investigators on a case, the environment of forensic labs, and the unlimited resources that these shows seem to have. The end result of this is when a viewer of one of these shows goes to serve jury duty. They will keep this standard of false produces and protocols in their mind not knowing they are being ignorant to the subject of forensics and criminal justice. When a jury brings these standards into the court room, they will be harshly critical of forensic evidence and judge the investigators on why some forensic testing or collection of some evidence was not done. These crime show watchers will be more likely to acquit the guilty over this which sparks another problem. As we discussed in class this week an last week, the wrongful acquittal of the guilty is a problem because it can place the public at risk depending on the crime which was committed, the offender could go out and commit another crime against someone else or to the victim again. These shows also inaccurately portray criminal justice procedures and protocols by having these "CSIs" investigate crimes that in real life, never be pursued by these investigators. Also, some shows have their investigators do investigations/search and seizures without warrants involved which is illegal and violates the 4th amendment. It is really common that many people in our country do not know their Bill of Rights. Therefore when they watch these shows, the viewers just think this is really how law enforcement does things. These crimes shows seem like an okay thing however, there is data that shows these shows pose a more negative impact than a positive one.

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Can you think of 3-4 things that you learned directly from non-news mass media sources that you’ve used in your life? When using those 3-4 things, did you find them to be accurate?

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Can you think of 3-4 things that you learned directly from non-news mass media sources that you’ve used in your life? When using those 3-4 things, did you find them to be accurate?

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Things I learned directly from non news media sources are things that I have been told or heard other people say in my life. The first one being from my mother; she always told me your friends are your friends but your friends will never take care of you. Meaning, you will always have to take care of yourself and get what you want/need because your friends will not provide for you. When I was younger, it never rang true to me. As I grew older and lost and gained friends, I realized this was accurate to me. I found this accurate because many friends I had never understood that I had work and that I had bills and responsibilities that I had to fulfill. Due to that, I lost many friends but I kept that memory of my mother telling me that friends will never take care of me and I found peace in that.

Another thing I learned was that if you want something, go work hard and go get it. When I was in high school, I thought since I did not come from a financially stable household that college and the “American Dream” would be impossible for me. I learned as I got a job at 16 that college could be an option for me since I worked hard and saved money and had the grades to receive scholarships. If you work hard, anything is possible. It was accurate for me that you can achieve so much with a good work ethic and a good head on your shoulders.

The third thing that I learned from non-news media sources was that growing in silence is best for your mentally health. Many people my age post their lives all over social media sites and everyone knows they're whole life and what they have done thus. As a result of this, there is this expectation that you have to go to college and you have to be rich and have all these nice materialistic things. I've learned as I grew older, that posting all these things and showing off what you are doing and seeing and watching what everyone else is doing and comparing yourself to these other people is not mentally healthy. This has been proven accurate for me because so many people are on different levels of their life and we aren't meant to have all these same experiences. We are meant to be unique in our own way. Growing in silence and working on yourself should only for yourself not for the approval of others. We really do not know what is going on behind closed doors in other people's lives. This is related to what we learned this week about the “tech effect” many people learn from television shows, movies, and social media things that could be untrue or not portrayed the way they are in real life. We must be careful with what we see online because many of us could be spreading false information that could impact another person and create a dominion effect of false information.

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How might our experiences from what we watch on television create demand characteristics that we would rely on in a real-life courtroom setting? How might those experiences also create cues for us to rely on in terms of determining witness believability and credibility?

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How might our experiences from what we watch on television create demand characteristics that we would rely on in a real-life courtroom setting? How might those experiences also create cues for us to rely on in terms of determining witness believability and credibility?

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Our experiences from what we watch on television creates a characteristic in our minds for how a courtroom setting would think how they are actually played out in real like because of the dramatic situations that Hollywood creates in order to bring in views and ratings. These could have a impact on witness believability and credibility because of the way the portray a witness in a certain television show. This could be in be both negative or positive. Many people do not have education on the criminal justice system. Therefore when they watch these overly drastic shows they assume that these events could occur in real life. They very much could occur in real life but not as they are seen on television.

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How might a person’s understanding of the roles of the players in the criminal justice systems (e.g. victim, defendant, judge, defense attorney, prosecutor, jury, law enforcement, etc.) and the stereotypes associated with those roles (e.g., race, gender, power, etc.) impact their ability to be an objective juror on a case? Give two examples of how the expectations might be beneficial and two examples of how the expectations might be detrimental.

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How might a person’s understanding of the roles of the players in the criminal justice systems (e.g. victim, defendant, judge, defense attorney, prosecutor, jury, law enforcement, etc.) and the stereotypes associated with those roles (e.g., race, gender, power, etc.) impact their ability to be an objective juror on a case? Give two examples of how the expectations might be beneficial and two examples of how the expectations might be detrimental.

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A persons understanding of the roles of the players in the criminal justice system and the stereotypes associated with race, gender, and power can impact a the ability to be a objective juror on a case because of the bias that one might have during a trial. Since jurors are regular people off the street, they may not know exactly how the criminal justice system works. They may know a surface level, however most do not know in-depth the way trials work. Therefore, while in the courtroom they may be confusion and/or not understand the terminology and the key points that go on in a trial such as the presentation of evidence, witness statements, and what may be expected of them during trial. This can be detrimental to how a trial plays out because if the juror is confused and not able to comprehend the information presented to them, it can end in unfairly. A personal bias may interfere with how the trial can be fairly carried out. This could very detrimental to a case of how it is carried out because justice will not be correctly and fairly served. Benefits of this can be if a juror does not know anything before the trial, he/she would learn how to trials are conducted and how the criminal justice system operates. Therefore they can be more educated on how the trial system works on either a criminal/civil level depending on the case. Another benefit could be when a juror who has a negative viewpoint on the criminal justice system has to serve Jury Duty, they could go in thinking that the court systems are racist from has happened before in the country. However, once they see for themselves how the evidence and witness testimony that can’t be denied proves that the accused is definitely guilty. This can help for the person serving as a juror understand that not all parts of the criminal justice system is corrupt.