Potential Risks

If we don't change the way select our jury and fail to understand the behavioral aspects that race plays in courts, it could bring about outrage citizens to commit occurrences as the L.A. riots after the Rodney King case. Exacerbating racial tensions in the country would allow cases to vary across different states. A minority defendant in Louisiana should not be tried any differently from one in California. The way justice is administered in one region of the United States should be uniformly applied elsewhere, while reserving states rights and local representation. Now I realize it’s impossible to create this uniform system where justice isn’t subject to the jury’s personal interests, but we should set a new standard that eliminates the risk of unfair trials; this would help convicts that serve time and punishments that aren’t reasonable. Take the case of Genarlow Wilson and Marvin Anderson. Gernarlow faced a conviction of child molestation, even though there was consent, and sentenced to 11-years in prison. Georgia then passed a law that stated that “no teen prosecuted for consensual oral sex could receive more than a 12 months sentence”. The punishment was far too severe for what he committed; the Supreme Court later ruled his sentence was cruel and unusual punishment. This case is exemplifies the problem with how juries tend to violate the 8^th amendment due to their actions. Now, a more extreme example is that of Marvin Anderson who was set free after DNA cleared him. He served 19 years in prison and was convicted of rape by an all white jury in Virginia back in 1982. Now suppose that Marvin was sentenced to death, how can we be so sure that a jury have not killed someone solely based on the color of their skin? Today, 53% of Death Row is made up of minorities. If we know from studies that juries do vote based on race, we should make sure that convicts are tried with fair representation and reduce the percentage of inmates in prisons for unfair reasons.