Gabrielle Brooks
Sophomore Thesis
March 17, 2013
Period 6 For many years the criminal justice system has been responsible for prosecuting and sentencing many of America’s citizens. Often times those who are prosecuted do not get a fair trial. The jury system is often biased and prejudiced depending on the accused and this is one of the causes for the many flaws and disputes in our system. The outcomes of the prosecuted can turn for the better and other times, for the worse. People often misjudge based on one’s color or background and automatically form negative opinions. In the play 12 Angry Men, written by Reginald Rose and other sources it shows that the justice system is flawed due to racial discrimination. Racial discrimination is described as the stereo typing of a certain race based on ones thoughts and actions. This plays a huge role when dealing with the sentencing of an accused. In the play of “12 angry men”, there are many cases in which the jurors discriminated against the accused based on his racial background and where he was from. In the play juror # 10 displays several examples of just how cruel jurors can be during deliberations. Juror # 10 is described as an angry bitter man who antagonized almost at sight (Rose, 5). He used many stereo types to judge the boy, the accused was considered guilty again, based on where he was from. In the play juror 10 states that the “element” was the reason the kid committed his crime. “Well it’s the element they let the kids run wild, maybe it serves em right”, stated juror number 10 with rage (Rose, 13). In many scenarios people’s outcome of justice is not what it deserves to be. There are many cases in which the color of ones skin determined the outcome of their justice. Trayvon Martin is a perfect example. Trayvon Martin was a 17 year old boy who was murdered by George Zimmerman while on his way home from buying an Arizona drink and a packet of skittles. The accused George Zimmerman shot and killed the victim. George Zimmerman is a predominantly Caucasian male. The fact of Trayvon Martins death caused a huge controversy about to white to black or black to white discrimination. Trayvon Martin isn’t the only case where innocent people lose their lives to racial hatred and discrimination. In the article “Black mood” another case of racial hatred is displayed, a local teenager was accused for allegedly murdering a black man while on a nocturnal expedition by soughing out indigent black people as prey (Brown, Tina nap). In this case James Anderson, who was beaten, ran over by a truck and left to die in the poverty stricken part of West Jackson (Brown, Tina). In the article, Tina Brown was outraged due to the fact that the accused teenagers responsible for this crime of hatred not once considered himself racist. “Its heritage not hate”, quoted the Caucasian teenage when describing his reason for this act of crime (Brown, Tina). In the article “Black Mood” it states that both whites and blacks agree that racial stereotyping still occurs in America today. Also many whites and blacks agreed that there is discrimination with a 53 percent of whites and another 88 percent of blacks stating that American society discriminates on the basis of race or ethnicity. In the criminal justice system the outcome of an accused makes huge controversy come abroad. Orenthal James Simpson an African American male was accused of the murder of his wife a Caucasian female named Nicole Brown Simpson. Now many of the jurors on this case were of the African American and Hispanic race. There was many questions that were not answered and a lot of evidence that were too narrow to solve the case so therefore the outcome of his trial came about as not guilty. According to the article “Whites