Equal Protection:
Equal protection is a fundamental constitutional protection, that in modern times, guarantees the equal effect of law to all persons. In that regard, the Supreme Court has established specific suspect classes of individuals, such as membership in a minority race, whose rights to equal protection must be guarded most scrupulously, primarily because the need to do so has been more than adequately demonstrated by aspects of relatively recent American history.
According to criminologists and researchers who have conducted studies of the impact of criminal laws in general, and of capital punishment in particular, criminal defendants who are members of minority races (as well as those who are poor) are statistically much more likely to receive the death penalty in comparison with non- minority (and wealthier) criminals convicted of identical death-penalty-eligible offenses (Schmalleger, 2007; Zalman, 2008). This discrepancy suggests that capital punishment in the U.S. still violates one of the most basic constitutional principles, and therefore, constitutes a significant problem in contemporary American criminal justice administration. Wrongful Conviction:
The other major problem arising in connection with capital punishment as it is currently implemented within the American criminal justice system has come to light more recently, as a function of advances in definitive evidence analysis and identification techniques developed through applications of DNA-based science. Specifically, now that current technologies are being used to test evidence preserved from trials in which criminal defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment and death, dozens of inmates have been proven to have been wrongfully convicted on the basis of faulty evidence such as police error, erroneous witness testimony, and prosecutorial misconduct (Lancet, 2008; Zalman, 2008).
To date, there are no known instances where an innocent subject has been put to death after erroneous conviction, but that it only attributable to the fact that several states have abolished the death penalty since their conviction and because the procedural mechanisms of the...
Criminal Justice The problem of how to treat and processing juvenile offenders through the court system has been an issue before the establishment of the first juvenile court in 1899. Before it was recognized that minors needed their own court system, they were processed through the adult court and often received harsh punishment. Separate juvenile courts became evident within all states by 1945. However, the juvenile court system was based upon
Corrections/Police - Criminal Justice Contemporary problems within the U.S. correctional system The rate of lock ups has greatly increased in America at a rate that is higher than most developed nations around the world. According to the human rights watch article, privately run services spiked up in the year 2000 due to the fact that federal prison systems were extremely overcrowded housing more prisoners than any other country in the world. The
Criminal Justice Trends The trends of the past, present and future that outline the borders connecting the criminal justice system components and their links adjoining the society is, beyond doubt, an authentic relationship that the law and society have established. Criminal justice has been affected by various trends in the times gone by. This is because trends keep changing with the passage of time. Therefore, it is exceedingly important for the
Criminal justice system normally refers to the compilation of the prevailing federal; state accompanied by the local public agencies those pacts with the crime problem. These corresponding agencies procedure suspects, defendants accompanied by the convicted offenders and are normally mutually dependent insofar as the prevailing decisions of the single agency influence other supplementary agencies (Cole & Smith, 2009). The fundamental framework of the underlying system is normally granted through the
Other Implications If the issue of pant sagging is not addressed, it will lead to public dissatisfaction, especially from people who have raised concerns. It will also continue the implications on black men as being disrespectful gangsters, or as Cosby says (middle class blacks who are disrespected and despised gangsters, whose egregious behavior is sagging pants). It will also continue the implication that the black represent some unified community which is
Criminal Justice IT It is becoming very clear how much of an impact the newest technological advances have on the world. For example, consider how quickly the information spread via the social media about Osama bin Laden's death. Technology innovations are also greatly impacting the criminal justice system in the U.S. By providing significant improvements in the way that agencies find, process, share and utilize information. With the present speed of
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