After reading the Tim Masters article and watching the video on Crosley Green, please respond to the following questions: (1) Is our justice system fair? Explain. (2) What changes should be made to our justice system to prevent mistakes like these in the future?
Our justice system is far from perfect. Mistakes are made, like in the Tim Masters and Crosley Green case. I think we are working towards a more fair system because technology is becoming increasingly more advanced. Since DNA testing is being used, people like Tim Masters, will not be accused of crimes they did not commit. I am still surprised about how long the appeal process takes and how a person can be on death row for over ten years. In the case of Crosley Green, it was not fair that they accused him on the strength of one eyewitness who has changed her statement multiple times. He deserves to have another appeal because there is no physical evidence in this case and eyewitness testimony has proven to be faulty in a number of past cases. I think it would be justified to force her to make another statement. A change that should be made to the justice system is that an eyewitness of a case should be required to make as many statements as needed. I understand that it is violating the 5th amendment, but if it is a matter of life and death then that should be excused. Also, the rule of innocent until proven guilty should be applied more in the court system. Finally, physical evidence should be required to put a person on death row. It is not justified to determine a persons death if the court is not 100% sure that the suspect has committed the crime.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe that our justice system is fair. In both the Crosely Green and the Tim Masters case, these people were charged with barely any evidence and in Crosley Green's case had people wrongly accuse him of something so that they wouldn't go to jail. These cases prove that our justice system needs a ton of work and that it needs to enforce laws, like making witnesses have to testify a certain number of times, so that we know they aren't lying. Our justice system should be changed t o fix these mistakes. First off, when some one is suspected of murder, the police and detectives need to have good evidence and shouldn't just arrest him off of a hunch. Also, they need to put more effort into the investigations so the wrong person isn't convicted.
ReplyDeleteOf course our justice system is not perfect. Innocent people are charged with crimes they had nothing to do with while the guilty people walk off scot-free, save guilt. Tim Masters is an example of this mistreatment. The trouble is that justice is subjective, and so the line between justice, cruelty, and pity becomes blurred all too often. Ways to fix this? You got me beat. However, I believe that an end to the death penalty would help; it is cruel, hypocritical and, in the end, without true justification for the majority of people because it costs more than it's worth. Also, a decrease in bias in judges and juries would also be beneficial because the bias is always reflected onto the outcome of the situation.
ReplyDeleteI don’t believe there is such a thing as a perfect justice system, especially after looking at the cases of Tim Master and Crosley Green – and obviously, mistakes are made in both cases. These men have been accused for something they didn’t do, and it makes me speechless that Crosley Green is still in jail, on death row, accused for something he did not do, because of bias from the investigators and several “eyewitnesses” lying under oath, because of the fear of being sent to jail themselves. I also find it hard to believe that Tim Master was charged with barely any evidence at all, and ended up in jail for 10 years. 10 years he never will get back … On the other hand, there has been a rapidly advance in technology, so I think we can work our way to a more fair justice system, where technology play a big role. What changes can be made? I honestly don’t know. But, I do believe that I person is innocent into proven guilty – and then, people accused for a crime they didn’t do, will go free. I also think that the court should pay more attention to evidence, rather than the bias in the jury and the judges – it is important to remember that a case always has two sides.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely do not believe that our justice system is fair. Every person should have the equal right in a court room, no matter what the circumstances of the crime are, or any previous offenses. All Americans should be without a doubt, “innocent, until proven guilty.” It is wrong for our justice system to trick witness, or bribe them just to get the conviction they need for their career or want for their client. Crosley Green was wrongly accused and sentenced because, he ultimately did not match the description and there wasn’t enough evidence for the conviction. He is just a black guy, in a small community, being tried by lawyers, who have clients, who just want “justice”, along with an all white jury. Mistakes are made all the time and people will put all kinds of deals out there to get what they want. I don’t think our justice system will ever change, but I do believe that we should put a law or act in to protect people fully throughout their case, guilty or not. Even though both sides are set free, the guilty one will always come back, which proves their guilt of crime, but the innocent will be able to live their life normally.
ReplyDeleteA man commits a crime. The man gets away. Another man is blamed for the crime. The crime may get looked into again, it may not. this is basically our justice system and i do not believe that our justice system is fair.
ReplyDeleteWhen a person commits a crime, they may get away, they may get caught. One that is put away for a crime that they did not commit and there is no evidence pointing at them except some peoples words, should not be punished unless more evidence or scientific prof is presented. The police should act and try and find more evidence, or more than a few suspects.
1. I think that our justice system can be altered, or completely redone. Because the men and women that are currently in jail for things they did not do is just insane. If the innocent people on death row are executed, then we have not done justice. We have committed murder.
ReplyDelete2. I think we should have our detectives go through more training, that way they can make less mistakes, and find the real criminal. I would also change the jury system. The jury needs to be completely impartial or the case will not have done real justice.
I think that there are some obvious flaws in our justice system. Examples of this include plea bargains and the thousands of dollars spent on countless appeals. I was amazed that Crosley Green was still on death row even after the best evidence against him turned out to be false. I think that the death penalty should be used less frequently so people like Crosley Green are not put to death when there is little evidence. There should be numerous types of evidence that all lead to one concrete person who has killed more than once for a person to be put to death.
ReplyDeleteI agree with most people here. Our justice system just isn't fair in most ways. I think our system needs to be revamped or altered so that people like Tim Masters and Crosely Green aren't wrongly accused and waist a good portion of their lives in jail. With courts so backed up it seems like some cases are just rushed through with only little evidence and a verdict is reached. An appropriate amount of time should be spent on the severity of the crime. We need to find a way to clean up the court system so people aren't waiting years for their court date. We need to diversify our juries and have to have definitive evidence of the crimes committed.
ReplyDeleteI do beleive that our system of justice is not fair. Proof of this are the cases of Tim Masters and Crosley Green who were both wrongly accused of crimes that neither of them commited. Someone getting put away with hardly any evidence is just wrong. Both Tim and Crosley have spent many years in prison for things that they did not commit and Crosley is still waiting, on death row, to be put to death. Our death penalty should be relaxed a little bit so that innocent people like Tim or Crosley do no get wrongly executed. Our justice system would be a whole lot more efficient if they required more evidence to put someone on death row. Our court system definitely needs quite a bit of work.
ReplyDeleteI think that the goverment should put time limits on how long it shold take a cop to convict a certin person. If they would have had a little more time then mabye they could have looked over the case an seen that this poor man was innient. It was redicilous that they over looked all the things that could have been proof to him being innecent and when this girl who said it was him got him convicted. The wost part of all was that he still hasn't gotten a re-trial. It's so sad that they got his hopes up then just shattered them because all the work they did ment nothing in the long run. It's desterbing to me.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe that our justice system is fair, especially after looking at both Tim Master's and Crosley Green's case. There are obviously flaws. And these flaws mean taking a certain amount of life time away from these men. We do the best that we can but of course there is always another side to the story. I think it is unfair that Crosley Green is still in jail, on death row, because of people lying on the stands, under oath, just so they can prevent themselves from going to jail. I do not think that we need to change much of our justice system because technology is rapidly advancing and technology will determine whether a person is guilty or not. I think a lot less of the evidence should come from "eye" witness. They are not a trustworthy source and should not be used to find a person guilty or innocent.
ReplyDeleteI think after watching the movie and reading the article it is far to say that our justice system is not always perfect. I think after you are accused of something you are looked at as guilty until proven guilty. This is supposed to be the other way around in which you are innocent until proven guilty. Just like everything in the world the justice system is very bias, this goes all the way from the lawyers to the judge. For example if the judge has a problem with a certain race that can play a part or if the judge is harsh on something’s because he feels they are more important. Another thing is some people may feel that the death penalty is unfair, but the fact is that you have done a crime bad enough to deserve the death penalty. When it all comes down to it, it comes down to what the people who make the final decision think, and the fact that everyone is bias may show in an outcome.
ReplyDeleteOur justice system is good, but it will never be completely fair. Unfortunately for defendants not every jury is as deliberate as they should be in coming to a verdict. The problem is that our justice system has to ensure safety for our society, but only punish people who are guilty at the same time. The main aspect of our justice system that needs to change is to make it so that money isn't the deciding factor in a trial.
ReplyDeleteI do not think our justice system is fair.As we can clearly see there are some major flaws with it. For instance the stories we have just learned about, and the two suspects were innocent. Obviously the goverment is trying to close the gap between the system and perfection, but that wont ever happen if there are corrupt lawyers bribing people so they can convict the suspect. Also it doesnt help that we have a death penalty for crimes like these because people are coming out and saying they lied on the stand so they could obtain a plea bargain. I think we should put restrictions on plea bargains because trials like Crosley Green were not fair.
ReplyDeleteLike everyone else has said, our justice system is and will never be perfect but I think it's much better than other countries'. Obviously there is going to be bias in every story and every case whether that be one side is more closely looked at or only one side is told to the media. However, I feel that we do our very best to make everyone have a fair trial, but mistakes do happen. Crosley Green and Tim Masters are examples of mistakes. On the other hand, I do believe that some cases are more closely investigated over others. Just like Crosley Green, there was absolutely no evidence against him but he still got convicted. To fix this is very simple: people are innocent until proven guilty. I know that is the way our justice system works today, but we could enforce it stronger and be more consistent to every case. Life is not fair and I know it's terrible they got accused but what can you do today? Life goes on and they can be examples that will help change our justice system. In a way, I consider them heroes.
ReplyDeleteI do not think our justice system is fair, because innocent people are put on death row like Crosley Green and Tim Masters. In both of these cases the law enforcement did not have enough evidence, like in Tim Masters case they accused him of murder because he drew angry pictures and lived on the street the girl was found on. I also do not approve of criminals who are allowed to watch T.V. and earn degrees while they are in prison. Jail should not be easy where you get to relax and watch television. Life is not fair, and nothing will ever be perfect. However to make our justice system better we should make sure to diversify our juries, obtain DNA evidence, have more suspects instead of pining the crime on one guy and then he turns out to be innocent, and have observant dectectives. The problem is that people lie to protect themselves and when people are testifying and lying no one will know the truth.
ReplyDeleteI believe our justice does the best job it could possibly do, the way it is set up is to give the defending and the convicting side a chance in a fair trial to win its case. I don’t believe there is a better way to solve crime and serve justice.
ReplyDeleteIn the Crosley Green case I just think it was inconclusive and shouldn’t have ever been convicted. We all know that mistakes are made and there is nothing people can do about it. In Crosley Green's situation, he was just unfortunate. Still after watching the movie or show I still think the system is well put together and very fair.
Our justice system suffers from numerous imperfections. It is not fair, it never has been. Instances such as Tim Masters occur far to often for our justice system to be considered truly effective. However, it is in human nature to make mistakes. Until humans ourselves can be considered perfect, then our justice system certainly cannot be viewed as such. But the day when man is perfect is also the day that we no longer have use of the justice system. As forensics and science improve in the world of justice so will the system itself. However, that is a slow, painful process, and we will just have to continue to wait it out.
ReplyDeleteOur justice system is based on the idea of guilty until proven innocent. As a group, people are judgmental and stereotypical. We go with our gut before questioning why it says that guy did it. Our system is run by people so taking the sympathetic and humanity out of it would make the system into something worse; read the novels by Huxley and Orwell and you'll see how out of hand government can become. Our system is a broken one and not really able to be fixed without an attitude adjustment by the people selected to run it. There are the cases where this doesn't happen, the few people who can look past their stereotyping instincts. It is however a problem that cannot be fixed. Humanity is in every thing and our system is governed by humanity.
ReplyDeleteThe justice system in the United States is, contrary what most say, far from awful. It is not perfect as stated before, but I believe it tries to come close to fair. Jenna said that the system is based on the idea of guilty until proven innocent, but it is not. Though it may appear that a decision is already made, the judge and jury must read up on everything and listen to questioning before deciding. An innocent man cannot just be convicted without trials. Justice is a difficult system because humans have the ability to lie and it throws off all jury. I agree with Kelsey in that, the system will only improve from here as technology improves. The better the evidence the less we need to bring human flaws into the picture.
ReplyDeleteOur justice system is far from perfect, but it is not as bad as some people make it out to be. If our justice was as good as it should be there would be no cases like Tim Masters case. To think that this system could once be fair is insane; it just is not possible to have a system with no flaws. As humans we try to perfect things that cannot be perfected.
ReplyDeleteI think for the most part it is. No justice system is completely great. I believe if you kill someone you should be killed but there needs to proof you did it. If you're going to put someone on death row then the process needs to be faster and less money. I believe there was no real proof in that case and the law should have realized that earlier.
ReplyDelete