Rodney King had reached a settlement worth 4 million dollars and later on two of the four officers were sent to prison and the other two were acquitted. In TKAM Tom Robinson was sentenced to prison for alleged rape and was sentenced for death. Tom Robinson’s trial wasn’t really a fair one because the whole jury was twelve white men which were biased toward the victim. Tom Robinson was sent to a local prison house to be detained until he goes to the federal prison but he escaped that night and was shot by one of the officers in charge there while he was running. Tom Robinson’s case was an example of injustice due to the fact that the jurors had not gathered any evidence that proved Tom Robinsons guilt, Atticus had proved the court wrong but that was not enough for a racist and biased group of jurors to allow Tom Robinson to leave freely.
After a two day trial the Michigan jury found Kevorkian guilty to second-degree murder and was charged with 10 to 25 years in prison. Kevorkian was later released from prison and died June, 3 2011 at the age of 83. Should we allow people to end their lives and “die with dignity?” I believe that the United States should legalize assisted
I did a little extra research over the movie just to get some of the other facts maybe they couldn’t put in the movie because of length. Clarence Brandley is an African-American who, in 1981, while a janitor at a high school in Conroe, Texas, was wrongly convicted of the rape and murder of Cheryl Dee Ferguson, a 16 year-old student. Brandley was held for nine years on death row. After lengthy legal proceedings that ended in the Supreme Court of the United States, Clarence Brandley was freed in 1990. Suspicion immediately fell on two of the custodians, Brandley and Henry (Icky) Peace, who had found the body.
Nine boys set out to look for jobs, which wasn't easy due to the Great Depression. Several people were hoboing on a freight train traveling between Chattanooga and Memphis, Tennessee. White boys jumped off the train and reported to the sheriff they had been attacked by a group of black boys. The sheriff deputized a posse, stopped and searched the train at Paint Rock, Alabama, arrested the black boys, and found two white girls, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, who accused the boys of rape. They were nine african american teens arrested for crimes they didn't commit.
Another famous case of obeying unlawful orders would be the case of “First Lieutenant William Calley for his part in the My Lai Massacre on March 16, 1968. The military court rejected Calley's argument of obeying the order of his superiors. On March 29, 1971, Calley was sentenced to life in prison. However, the public outcry in the United States following this very publicized and controversial trial was such that President Nixon granted him clemency. Calley wound up spending three and a half years under house arrest at Fort Benning Georgia, where a federal judge ultimately ordered his release.” (Powers, 2013).
In 1967 Newton, one of the parties most influential members, was convicted of manslaughter for the shooting of Oakland Police officer John Frey, when Frey attempted to disarm and put down the Panthers Patrol. Shots were fired when backup arrived to assist the police officers. Officer Frey was shot four times and died within the hour, while three others were seriously wounded. However, in May of 1970, the California Appellate court overturned the conviction and demanded a new trial. After two mistrials the California Supreme Court released the case.
Those convicted of rape were also subject to the death penalty until January 1, 1976, prior to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Coker v. Georgia that a death sentence for rape of an adult woman was disproportionate to the crime and violated the Eighth Amendment. The first Arkansas penitentiary was authorized in 1838. Shortly thereafter, the state purchased ninety-two acres for $12 per acre and authorized $80,500 to construct
Rodney King, a black construction worker in Los Angeles, California, was on probation for previous charges of robbery when he was involved in a high-speed chase with the Los Angeles police department. King was eventually apprehended by the police officers and then beating by at least 3 of the 5 officers to near- death, while the other two officers did nothing to stop or prevent the racially motivated police brutality. The beating was recorded by a near-by onlooker on his balcony and viewed nationwide by millions of American’s. Public outraged ensued and the notorious LA Riots soon followed the horrific beating of Rodney King. Eventually, during the trial of Rodney King against the officers who beat him, the federal Judge, John Davies, harshly criticized King for provoking the officers to commit such brutality and further said that the police men were right in the actions that they took.
In a series of trials the youths were found guilty and sentenced to death or to prison terms of 75 to 99 years. But before implementing the judgment the U.S. Supreme Court reversed such convictions twice on procedural drawbacks/grounds (that the youths' right to counsel had been infringed and that no blacks had served on the grand or trial jury). At the second trial one of the women recanted her previous testimony. The Alabama trial judge set aside the guilty verdict as contrary to the weight of the evidence and ordered a new trial. In 1937 charges against five were dropped and the state agreed to consider parole for the others.
Racial Disparities in the Application of the Death Penalty CJA/344 Racial Disparities in the Application of the Death Penalty In 1995, while visiting family in Mississippi, 14-year-old Emmett Till was kidnapped and heartlessly murdered by two adult White males. The two males, J.W. Millam and Roy Bryant were charged with kidnapping and murder; however, even though the evidence clearly and irrefutably pointed to their guilt, the jury acquitted them. Later, the two men admitted their guilt by openly discussing the murder. Sadly and unbelievably, these twisted, cold-blooded murderers were never brought to justice.