FREE ESSAY ON WRONGLY ACCUSSED

WRONGLY ACCUSSED

I chose the Radlet reading for the purpose of doing my reaction paper. It was so dramatic
that you almost wanted to call it a story, as in a fictional book. The sad fact is that
it was true. Even sadder is the fact that many of these true stories have played out
through our countries history without the happy ending that Clarence Bradley finally
received. What was so shocking to me was when my eyes crossed the dates in which the
Clarence Bradley case took place. If those dates weren't listed, and I was asked to guess
what time-period the case took place in, I would probably guess something in between the
30's and 50's. Now that it has been brought to my attention, I realize that this type of
injustice can still happen today. All you need is a city comprised of a racist majority
from which officials will be elected and jurors will be selected. Apparently cities like
these are not too awful hard to find. Probability will then tell you it want be long
before you get an ignorant but deadly combination of people with closed minds and
selective hearing, trying to play God. The first question that comes to my mind is do
these people really think that the African-American suspect is always guilty, or do they
just hate African-Americans so much that they don't care? Those people that assume guilt
based on race are the truly ignorant ones. Those who don't care about guilt or innocence
must not only hate African-Americans, but white women as well, otherwise they would want
to find the real culprit. I would say that this group of people is truly evil. How else
would you describe someone who protects the murderer, could care less about the victim,
and ultimately kills some random person because he has more pigment in his skin? This
would have to be the category that the judges and prosecutors, in cases such as this, fit
into. These people are obviously educated, but they must have been absent on the day
morals and ethics were taught. The next question that comes to mind, is where do the
parents of the victim come into the picture? Do they sit back and take one of the two
above-mentioned roles, or do they press for the apprehension of the truly guilty party?
It is also disturbing to know that when a decent person finds him or herself sitting on
these racist juries he or she may not have an option on the verdict due to fear from
threats. Even if they do vote not guilty, the jury will be hung, and the suspect will be
tried again and again until a guilty verdict is reached. For the African-American suspect
almost always in the past, and still in some cases today, being accused is the same as
being guilty. The evidence presented in the first trial seemed to be nothing more than
circumstantial, and the evidence presented during the appeals seemed to clearly show that
Clarence Bradley had nothing to do with the murder. It was obvious that the other
janitors knew this, and also at least knew who was involved. I would think that after
they kept changing their stories suspicion would fall on them, especially when they
started accusing each other and the other witnesses came forward. The fact is all of this
information was ignored to my disbelief. Before I got to the end of the reading, I was
far from certain what the outcome would finally be for Bradley. It was lucky for him that
the case drew some public attention and the unbiased Judge Picket. Still the outcome was
uncertain. I could not believe that after Judge Pickets ruling it would be two years
before the Court of Criminal Appeals would finally pick up the case. This case did
finally have a happy ending, but this was not the case in the last two short trials
discussed at the end of the reading. These cases showed how sure even the suspect was
that he would be found guilty. It is certainly a tragedy when someone feels that they
have to plead guilty even though they were innocent, or when someone simply gives up
hope, deciding to spend the rest of their life in prison instead of continuing to
appeal.
Reference
Radlet, M., Hugo, B., & Putmam, C. (1992). Since You're the Nigger, You're Elected. In
Spite of Innocence: Erroneous Convictions in Capital Punishment Cases. Boston, MA:
Northeastern University Press.