Trayvon Martin, Michael Dunn, Oscar Grant and Marisa Alexander are all victims of a failed justice system. The verdicts in these cases have been less than acceptable, and this has caused people to ask more questions about our "justice " system. These cases and the dwindling faith in our justice system have people asking if race plays a key role in the sentencing of defendants. The role of judges also has people asking if they are making the right decision when they hand out verdicts. My research questions are if the justice system is supposed to be equal for everybody who does it really protect and is the US criminal justice system operated to abuse and control African- Americans? With the research questions I stated before, I want to get different aspect about the criminal justice system. In this paper, I am aiming to get a better understanding of how the criminal justice system is operated. .
History.
Court Cases.
On January 1, 2009, Oscar Grant was shot and killed at Oakland train platform by Officer Johannes Mehserle. Officer Johannes Mehserle served 11 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter. The Court of Appeals reviewed the evidence and said that there was not enough legal jurisdiction for Officer Anthony Pirone to force Grant and his friends off the train and onto the platform. Prior to this fatal altercation, Oscar Grant and his friend were involved in a fight on a train. Pirone and Mehserle pulled Grant and his friends off the train. After that Pirone slugged Grant in the head because he saw Grant put his hands on another officer. After that Mehserle and Pirone pinned Grant face down on the platform. This tragic event was recently turned into a movie called Fruitvale Station. .
On August 1, 2010, Marissa Alexander was in her house with her husband. Marissa got a message from her ex-husband and her husband got angry about it. She and her husband got into a verbal altercation about the message.
