Abstract:
Before submitting the Final Submission of the essay, the class was assigned to complete a draft for the assignment. Down below is the draft for the Critical Analysis Essay The Fight to End Criminal Injustice and Overturning Wrongful Convictions where one can see the multiple mistakes made when writing the draft — questions in the thesis instead of a firm argument, questions throughout the essay, grammatical errors, confusing structure, and more. By completing drafts, it allows students to structure their work, write all of their ideas down, research, change main ideas, or completely switch topics. With that said, once the rough draft is completed, peer reviews are done allowing classmates to help revise each other’s work in hopes of successfully perfecting their Final Submission.
On the final rough draft of the assignment, after writing the draft and reading peer edits, I revised and edited my piece multiple times ultimately fixing and changing my entire thesis statement, re-writing all body paragraphs and reflection, as well as fixed the structure of my Critical Analysis essay — one can view the final draft on the “Critical Analysis” section.
The Fight to End Criminal Injustice and Overturning Wrongful Convictions
As cases of wrongfully convicted Latino and African-American men continue to rise, the United States legal system continues to be viewed as an unfair system more than a justice system. With the U.S. built on white beliefs, the lives of Latino and African-American men are at great risk as they are the first to be accused of any crime — murder, rape, robbery, sexual assault, etc — because of the racism and stereotypes that play a huge role in the U.S. With that said, what is being done to prevent false accusations from happening again? Why are cases of wrongfully convicted Latino and African-American men a common feature in our legal system? Will the innocent lives of those who served jail-time have a normal life again outside of prison? A proposal to help combat these issues is explained in How the Central Park Five Expose the Fundamental Injustice in Our Legal System where the author Adam Suddler examines past cases of wrongful convictions and proposes that social justice activists overturn wrongful convictions in hopes of achieving an overhaul on America’s legal system. By using a direct approach, Suddler criticizes America’s corrupt legal system in which tampering and incarcerating innocent African-Americans and Latinos is accepted and allowed. Ultimately, as this issue is still going on to this day, it is important to give this issue the recognition it deserves in order to help bring innocent convicts the freedom and life they deserve to win back.
As false accusations are still being done on Latino and African-American men, what measures are being done to decrease or eliminate the number of innocent minority men from going to prison? Beginning with the article, How the Central Park Five Expose the Fundamental Injustice in Our Legal System, the author Adam Suddler structures his article in a way where he appeals to logos to help explain and expose the wrongdoings of the legal system. Suddler does this by including a variety of tragic cases — The Central Park Five, The Trenton Six, and The Harlem Six — each occurring around the early to late 1900s in which each case all share a common factor, the Latino and African-American men were “…charged or convicted of violent crimes against white victims, but eventually overturned”. For instance, in The Central Park Five case, a group of five teenagers spent the majority, 5 to 15 years, of their teenage and adult lives in prison after being forced by authorities to confess to a rape they did not commit. By including these cases in his article, Suddler proves that because of their race and class, Latino and African-American men will always be targeted and viewed as a criminal in the eyes of the law even if they didn’t commit the crime. With President Donald Trump as our leader of the U.S., it’s as though Americans find racism to be accepted and allowed. For example, in Views of Race in America 2019 written by Anna Brown, she states that “Most Americans (65%) — including majorities across racial and ethnic groups — say it has become more common for people to express racist or racially insensitive views since Trump was elected president”. Therefore, with a lot more Americans expressing their racist views, they easily falsely accuse the minority of any crime. With our unfair legal system and our nation built on white beliefs, it is quite clear on who authorities will accuse first. Moreover, to decrease and eliminate the number of innocent Latino and African-American men from going to prison, Suddler mentions a non-profit organization called the Innocence Project in which they help exonerate the innocent through “DNA testing and reform the criminal justice to prevent future injustice”. In total, they have been able to exonerate 367 people, including 21 people who were on the death row. According to data, each of these innocent people had served an average of 14 years in prison. Overall, The Innocence Project is an amazing non-profit organization that is doing nothing but spread awareness and is advocating for the lives of the innocent. With their help, they are gradually working their way to decreasing and eliminating the number of innocent people in prison.
Why are cases of wrongfully convicted Latino and African-American men a common feature in our legal system? In addition to providing cases of wrongful convictions, Suddler also provides why cases of wrongfully convicted Latino and African-American men continue to occur by using past cases as examples. When the story broke out of a 28-year-old white woman who was raped and brutally attacked while jogging in Central Park, fear struck out everywhere especially in the white community. With authorities left empty-handed with no suspects and the white community left in fear, it can lead to “… brutal arrests and hysterical trial [of] multiple black defendants accused of a crime so monstrous that the whole apparatus of the state-backed by a totally terrorized and convinced public opinion can be brought into a direct onslaught against them”. With Latino and African-American men being the weakest link, it’s easy for authorities to pinpoint them as the suspects because it will nonetheless help calm the fear of the white community. Furthermore, the media also plays a huge role in incarcerating innocent people. According to the article, African American Men as “Criminal and Dangerous”: Implications of Media Portrayals of Crime on the “Criminalization” of African American Men” written by Mary Beth Oliver, argues that the way the media (mainly the news media) illustrates race and crime plays a huge role in the stereotyping of black men as being dangerous and violent. For instance, Oliver mentions there have been studies that show that when one is outside or working in a shop, they are extremely keen and cautious when an African-American passes by or enters the store in fear that they might get robbed or killed. This is a common stereotype that African-Americans have to deal with on a daily basis and what makes it worse is with whatever they do or say, it can lead them to a great deal of danger — prison or killed. Furthermore, the article provides studies on the media’s portrayal of race and crime, the effects it has on the viewers, and the viewer’s interpretation of the media portrayals. With this said, this article supports the topic of my piece because it provides the audience with common stereotypes that affects the lives of African-Americans, the way the media plays a role in our everyday lives, — how it can change our views, our perspective, etc– and it also informs the audience that stereotypes can easily accuse minorities of anything and everything.
Will the innocent lives of those who served jail-time have a normal life again outside of prison? As Suddler perfectly examines and explains the past cases of the wrongfully convicted and why this issue continues to happen, he fails to mention what the lives of those freed from prison look like. What Suddler did mention was after The Central Park Five were exonerated,
“In 2014, the city paid them $41 million to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit”. Furthermore, an article that does include what the lives of innocent convicts looks like after freed from prison is an article called “A Hispanic man freed from prison after a wrongful conviction, but his nightmare is not over” written by Tamoa Calzadilla, who talks about the life of innocent people after being wrongfully convicted and serving time for a crime they did not commit. Calzadilla gives recognition to a man named Mario Victoria Vasquez who was falsely accused of rape and spent nearly 17 years in prison. However once freed, one assumes that life will go back to normal but it is the complete opposite. Unfortunately, his life was to completely change once out of prison. Vasquez had lost his wife, wasn’t able to see his son or nieces, and nephews grow up. The unfortunate part is he had been left with scars and was left with trauma from all the damage that he experienced in prison. Moreover, when asked what he needs in order to rebuild his life, he stated that he would like, “To be born-again. To be reborn and that none of this had happened”. As the years have passed, the life he once knew was completely different once he came out of prison. Furthermore, when a falsely convicted person is freed from prison they are given nothing, “ no financial compensation, housing plan, savings, or health insurance”. However, some states like Washington give $200,000 per year, New Jersey gives $50,000 per year, and other states do provide financial aid every year to wrongfully convicted ex-prisoners. Depending on the state, if they were to give money back to innocent ex-convicts, it still wouldn’t be enough for all the damage and pain they were put through for years. For instance, in Wisconsin, an ex-convict is given $5,000 every year for necessities. Lastly, while encountering with people who were innocent, Vasquez has made a commitment and promised that once he is given the money from the state, he will build the life he had always wanted and help out the Wisconsin Innocence Project any way he can, to free all those who are innocent.
Reflection
Throughout my research journey, after writing my proposal and annotated bibliography, I found that I had to fix my thesis and include more citations. After looking through so many articles, I realized that I needed to change my entire thesis statement. After reading articles, I found that there were so many things I could talk about and include in my thesis statement. For instance, when reading the article Hispanic man freed from prison after a wrongful conviction, but his nightmare is not over, I found that I could also include the life of innocent ex-convicts after serving multiple years in prison. As well as, including how media effects/doesn’t affect the lives of African-Americans and how it can easily persuade a viewer of anything and everything only because they are considered “credible sources”. With that said, my thesis statement needs a complete redo. Furthermore, I did not have trouble finding information on my topic when looking for 2 popular media articles however when it came to looking for scholarly articles it was difficult. I found that I was putting in keywords that weren’t giving me the articles I needed. What I did to overcome this issue was to look up articles online that led me to the scholarly articles that I needed. I found that JSTOR was the right place that had what I was looking for. Moreover, there weren’t any sources that I discarded mainly because they will be of future use and I will include them when I go back and work on my final draft for the critical analysis. To discuss the problems I faced when analyzing the text, what I found most a little difficult was trying not to summarize the articles but instead write them in my words. I kept on doubting my writing and changing how I phrased certain sentences to inform the audience what I understood from reading the articles. Lastly, now that I am going to redo my thesis statement, I feel like the articles that I have used will support and help contribute to my argument. Each article provides different kinds of information that all connect to each other. For instance, once I work on my final draft, I will restructure the articles so that they flow. The scholarly article, African American Men as “Criminal and Dangerous”: Implications of Media Portrayals of Crime on the “Criminalization” of African American Men”, will be the first article because it talks about stereotypes –how it affects the lives of African-Americans– and the portrayals of race and crime by the media. This will then lead to the second article, How the Central Park Five expose the fundamental injustice in our legal system, which will help prove that stereotypes can lead to the false imprisonment of black and Latino men. Then will lead to the third article, Hispanic man freed from prison after a wrongful conviction, but his nightmare is not over, to help give the audience a real-life tragic event that left an innocent ex-convict Hispanic man with nothing. There will also be the last two articles that will fit in perfectly with the structure of my piece.
Work Cited
Oliver, Mary Beth. “African American Men as ‘Criminal and Dangerous’: Implications of Media Portrayals of Crime on the ‘Criminalization’ of African American Men.” Journal of African American Studies, vol. 7, no. 2, 2003, pp. 3–18. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41819017. Accessed 19 Apr. 2020.
Suddler, Carl. “Perspective | How the Central Park Five Expose the Fundamental Injustice in Our Legal System.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 12 June 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/06/12/how-central-park-five-expose-fundamental-injustice-our-legal-system/.
Liendo, Olivia, and Mario Victoria. “Hispanic Man Freed from Prison after Wrongful Conviction, but His Nightmare Is Not Over.” Univision, 22 Oct. 2018, www.univision.com/univision-news/united-states/hispanic-man-freed-from-prison-after-wrongful-conviction-but-his-nightmare-is-not-over.
Horowitz, Juliana Menasce, et al. “Views on Race in America 2019.” Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project, 31 Dec. 2019, www.pewsocialtrends.org/2019/04/09/race-in-america-2019/.
“Help Us Put an End to Wrongful Convictions!” Innocence Project, www.innocenceproject.org/.
“They Didn’t Do It!” Savage Portrayals: Race, Media and the Central Park Jogger Story, by NATALIE P. BYFIELD, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 2014, pp. 182–198. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt14bt6kc.12. Accessed 29 Apr. 2020.
BISHOP, JEANNE, and MARK OSLER. “PROSECUTORS AND VICTIMS: WHY WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS MATTER.” The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), vol. 105, no. 4, 2015, pp. 1031–1047. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26402743. Accessed 29 Apr. 2020.
