Everyone experiences their own specific type of oppression. We can recognize this because of our knowledge of intersectionality, which is taking into consideration of race, gender, class, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, etc. that oppression and power rest upon. This does not change when we look closely at the Criminal Justice System and its capital punishment. Although it is supposed to be a neutral and objective entity, it is not. I’ve discovered that the criminal justice system is very biased and the oppression of these people is more visible than others. And as stated early in my paper, African Americans are the people who are suffering from this issue.
Since the Criminal Justice system is very biased, we can ask ourselves some questions that may need answers: Is the Law Enforcement truly capable to work with diverse populations and effectively serve and protect all races and ethnicities in society? Or whose concerns does law enforcement serve? These are questions that we should think about when dealing with one’s safety and justice, especially when dealing with major circumstances like capital punishment.
Capital punishment, also none as the death penalty, is a legal process done by the state, which punishes people of capital crimes and offences by putting them to death. This is a process that needs to be done the right way since it is dealing with someone’s life being taken away. The people making decisions should be blind to the three-dimensional mechanism of intersectionality. Everything should be fair. Sadly to say, it is not. Judges have been known to be the biggest oppressors of the system. It is safe to say that they are seen to be the top of the food chain, since they get the final say so in the prosecution. Judges have reputations in society. They are viewed as being the big dogs. But, they can also be society pleasers as well. Whatever society thinks, judges take that into consideration when making decisions.
In society, blacks and also Latinos are seen as being more dangerous than whites; therefore the criminal justice system is harsher on them, especially when facing sentencing and being put on death row. Sometimes judges hold this stereotype against all blacks, making it their duty to protect the white population by putting blacks away for long exaggerated periods of time. Studies have also shown that if the victims were white, blacks and Latinos faced even harsher