Tainted Justice

Justice is symbolized by Themis, 

the divine law Titan goddess, 

which, according to the Greek mythology, 

was the one who first introduced the ancient

laws of justice and morality to mankind.

Criminal justice has three goals: (1) doing justice, which is the groundwork of the institutions, procedures and rules comprising the criminal justice system of the United States. Experts on lawmaking emphasize the essentiality of fairness among those who have been convicted for their crimes and those people who have been victims thereof.
The observance of justice represents the values of the American people as reflected on the United States Constitution, and thus, doing justice symbolizes the following beliefs: 

• The assurance that those who have committed crimes shall be held fully responsible for their actions; 
• The rights of people who have contact with the system shall have protection; 
• Similar offenses shall be treated with the same gravity and officials shall ensure that every significant distinction among both offenses and offenders. 

It is therefore agreed upon by lawmakers and authorities that doing justice is a legitimate key goal which allows them to take up other goals that concern with controlling and preventing the occurrences of crimes. (2) Controlling crime is another goal of criminal justice which is a process wherein criminal justice system implements in order to maintain peace and order through the following steps: 

(a) arresting the suspect, 

(b) prosecution, 

(c) conviction, 

(d) punishment. 

(3) Preventing crime is a lawful practice wherein law violators are punished and at the same time serves as example in which future offenders will think twice before committing a crime. 

The principle of equal treatment is one significant feature of American values that we are trying to observe at all times. Notable and essential national documents contain the said principle as a reminder to every American of the values handed down from generation to generation: 

“…that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…” [The Declaration of Independence, par.2]. 

Abraham Lincoln, in his Gettysburg Address stated that: 

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” [Lincoln, par.1] 

Similarly, the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution states that: 

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State […]shall […] deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. [14th Amendment, Section 1]. 

Contrary to what these prominent national documents repeatedly emphasize, it is evident that racial disparities exist in the criminal justice system. In the case of McCleskey v. Kemp, for instance, wherein the offender happened to be a man of color, it was normally a court decision leading to death penalty. According to one article on the said case, there were other similar cases in the 1970’s wherein the color of both the victim and the convict played a significant role in court decisions: 

“The study is based on over 2,000 murder cases that occurred in Georgia during the 1970's, and involves data relating to the victim's race, the defendant's race, and the various combinations of such persons' races. The study indicates that black defendants who killed white victims have the greatest likelihood of receiving the death penalty.” [Capital Punishment in Context] 

Another example was the case of Troy Davis, another African-American convict who was sentenced to death for the murder of a white police officer in 1989. Despite the retraction of several witnesses who testified against him during his trial, and their admission of being compelled by other police officers to fabricate lies about witnessing Davis commit the crime, and despite the fact that there was actually no murder weapon found on the crime scene that would connect Davis to the murder, the said convict continued to remain on death row because Georgia Supreme Court outvoted those who favored Davis’ request for retrial. 

Relatively, certain studies, particularly the one conducted in Connecticut last November 2007 show that racial discrimination and disparities among defendants and victims were more of an issue than the gravity of the crimes committed by the offenders. 

Colored people are usually the ones who are experiencing poverty. They are the minority and their status in the society is not established the same way as the white’s status is. These alone are factors that contribute to their demoralization and pessimistic outlook in life, of themselves and of their environment; not to mention the undeniable fact that the impression that they have been creating of themselves is not the type to boost their morale. Being considered by some to belong to the “criminal class”, it will not help them to experience being confined into prison for crimes that they did not commit; that simply because they belong to the colored race, that also means that they are violators of the law. 

Racism therefore still exists in the criminal justice system and will continue to do so for as long as there are people who pretend to abide by the law yet fail to practice equality 

Works Cited 

14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. http://www.14thamendment.us/ Retrieved on July 7, 2011. 

Capital Punishment in Context. http://www.capitalpunishmentincontext.org/resources/casesummaries/mccleskey. Retrieved on July 7, 2011. 

Cole, George F. & Christopher E. Smith. The Criminal Justice System. In The American System of Criminal Justice. Wadsworth/Thomson Learning: California, USA. 2004. Part 2.Chapter 3. pp. 61 – 91. 

Dakwar, Jamil & Christopher Hill. Capital Punishment in the United States. In American Civil Liberties Union. (2003). pp 2-7. www.aclu.org/pdfs/capital/cap_pun_in_the_us.pdf. Retrieved July 7, 2011

Lincoln, Abraham. Gettysburg Address. November 19, 1863. http://americancivilwar.com/north/lincoln.html. Retrieved on July 7, 2011. 

The Declaration of Independence. July 4, 1776. http://thedeclarationofindependence.org/doitext/. Retrieved on July 7, 2011.