Why Is Ruby Adams Trial Wrong

One thing that stands out to me is the Emmett Till case that occurred in Mississippi, 1955. Emmett Till was fourteen year old when two white men murdered him. He was going to a candy store to buy some candy and said "Bye Baby" to a white woman. Three days later Emmett Till was kidnapped by two white men and never returned. His dead body was discovered in Tallahatchie River.

In 1987 an African-American male, Timothy Foster, was convicted of murdering a Caucasian female in Georgia and was sentenced to death (Vogue 2016). The prisoner’s appeal process worked its way up to the United States Supreme Court, arguing that he was convicted because of racial prejudice (Vogue 2016). Notes obtained from the prosecutors of the case revealed that they did not select certain jurors because they were black and that the jury was all white (Vogue 2016). The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Timothy, which was in accordance with the already established anti-discrimination precedents set by the 14th amendment and the 1986 Supreme Court decision in Batson v. Kentucky (Vogue 2016). This case is important for several reasons.

Quickly after Pollard was found dead authorities had arrested three African American women and one African American male. All of the suspects would maintain their innocence throughout the trials and book. This book displays many ways in which whites and blacks go against each other but also how they work together. With this book the reader will learn about more than just a murder in Virginia, they will also learn a lesson about race.

Keep in mind that I'm going to tell you about an incident that happened in 1989, when racism was still prevalent. The so-called "Exonerated Five"—Korey Wise, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, and Yusef Salaam—served time in jail in this case before being found not guilty in 2002. The real serial rapist, Matias Reyes, confessed to his acts of violence over ten years after he had begun them.    .    Most of Matias Reyes' early years were spent with his father in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, where

(Wikipedia) According to the Washington post, “Researchers said they determined that 3,959 black people were killed in “racial terror lynchings” in a dozen Southern states between 1877 and 1950.”(Bernman) According to the National Park Service Wells "By documenting lynchings across the country, she raised awareness and challenged alleged white "superiority."(National Park

Through the 1940s-1960s Decatur, Mississippi regularly had new about African Americans being murdered, lynched, hung, or beaten. Usually for showing interest in a white woman, talking back to white men, or even simple things like not giving up your bus seat or voting. So the case of Medgar Evers wasn’t very surprising to the majority of the community except the black community. This also didn’t bring much of a surprise to the state government. Byron DeLa Beckwith wasn’t convicted on his first two trials even though there was enough evidence against him.

The time following the civil war was one of raising racial tension in the south. It was a time when southern whites could not truly accept the change that had came and did not want to give African Americans the chance to be equal. This often could lead to false accusations of rape which would then lead to the lynching’s of innocent African Americans. The lynching’s were in part to try and install fear and redact any new power African American’s could have had, but also centered around false rape accusations that were partially used to try and protect white women’s purity; instead of allowing the possibility that there could have been consensual relations between people of two separate races.

[…] She was what was termed as a ‘race woman’ meaning her concerns lied with happiness and progress for African Americans rather than with integration” (p.314). This was opposing to the prevailing opinion of why lynching was acceptable as white elite males claimed that African American men preyed on White women and that in order to honor these women lynching would suffice. While her investigation into the lynching of Moss got her kicked out of Memphis, the accounts had a great impact on the African American women in the North- “who went on to form the National Association of Colored women and to join in the work of exposing the true nature, extent, and causes of southern lynchings”

In 1908, a violent 2-day race riot in Springfield, Illinois drove thousands of African-Americans from the city. There was news in Springfield, Illinois about a white woman being assaulted by a black man. Soon after, a similar incident happened. These incidents happened one after another with just hours in between. An angry mob of whites soon formed in response.

Injustice The Scottsboro Case shed light on the racial practices expressed in law that made a great impact on the legal system today. The actual victims of the Case did not receive a fair trial due to the color of their skin. The ones who played the victims planned the crime, and their stories made no sense. But like many of the trials during the time it wasn’t based on the actual evidence that was found,or even the defendants ' stories.

Dick Rowland (African American) was being tried for attack and attempted rape of a white woman named Sarah page. On the day of May 31, of 1921, Ms. Page opened the elevator and Mr. Rowland went to enter the elevator. He tripped because the elevator did not stop moving the way it should have, and so he grabbed what there was so he did not fall; and that happened to be Ms. Page’s arm. She let out a sharp scream and a clerk from not too far away Saw Mr. Rowland run out of the building and Later he was tried and as some white believe he did try to rape her as on the other hand African Americans did not believe in what was said what so ever.

“Racism is man’s gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason” (Abraham Joshua Heschel). During the Jim Crow Era, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, African Americans never actually had fair trials because of the strong brutality and discrimination used against them. One specific example of a trial was the Plessy v. Ferguson case. Plessy refused to get off the train and broke the Separate Car Act which claimed that both black and white races needed to sit in their designated area on the train. Denying Ferguson’s wishes, Plessy was arrested and convicted to where he had to testify in court against Ferguson.

She decided to have a sit-in with her friend Rose and did not care about the reactions that the white people had. She did what she wanted to do and went on with her business until things seemed to be getting out of hand and they were forced to

"I prefer to characterize rape simply as a form of torture. Like the torturer, the rapist is motivated by the urge to dominate, humiliate, and destroy his victim. Like a torturer, he does so by using the most intimate acts available to humans -- sexual ones," Helen Benedict, an American novelist and journalist best known for writing about social injusticr, said (911 rape). The rapist, Knight, took advantage of her by sexually assaulting her and was “motivated by the urge to dominate, humiliate and destroy his victim.” Lena Baker was that victim.

Injustice in the U.S. Court System Everyone would like to think that each individual that goes into court is considered fair and equal under the law. Growing up you’re taught that the decisions made in the U.S. courts are determined by the wisdom of the Constitution, and guided by equal and fair minded judges and juries of our peers (Swanson, Anna). Unfortunately, this is often not true. Movie depictions, like A Time to Kill (Schumacher), demonstrate how unjust the American court system actually is.