After taken to trial, the prosecutor's case “consisted solely of his confession” to obtain a conviction. The Maricopa County Superior Court convicted Miranda of both rape and kidnapping and was then sentenced to 20 to 30 years in prison. Miranda appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court, claiming that “the police had unconstitutionally obtained his confession” as well as the absence of an attorney during the interrogation and should have been excluded from trial. The police officers involved admitted that they had not given Miranda any explanation of his rights. They argued, however, that because Miranda had been convicted of a crime in the past, he must have been aware of his rights.
For example, there was a “man [who was] sentenced to prison for 25 years to life under the law for stealing a bottle of vitamins” (Murphy). In March 1999, when the Three Strikes law was challenged by this case, the Supreme Court “refused to hear” (Murphy) a word that was said by the people. By putting them in prison for an excessive amount of years, housing for serious offenders is being made unavailable which will lead to an increase “to an already overcrowded and expensive prison system” (Messerli). Some of the people may have committed the innocuous crime to help their spouse and children. When used, the Three Strikes law treats all crimes the exact same way, which makes the law unjust.
WHY SHOULD WE LET COMPANIES PRIVATIZE PRISONS IN AMERICA? The prison industrial complex is an ever growing topic of discussion in the United States as the use of private prisons is becoming more prevalent for housing inmates. This is because as Richard Harbison states, “Private operators can design, build and operate a prison cheaper than the government, be it state or the federal government.” (Cohn) However this idea of saving money is a point of debate, because the United States currently has more inmates than any other country in the world, "perhaps half a million more than China" (Schlosser), we are constantly in need to continue to house more an more inmates and ways to pay for them. Over the last half century the rate of incarcerated individuals has gone from 110 per 100,000 people to a rate of 445 per 100,000 to even 1,100 per 100,000 among adult men (Schlosser). This large increase in the rate of incarceration is the biggest dertermining factor for the rise of private prisons in the US and because the United States has setup a system in which we are putting people in prison at a much faster rate than anywhere else in the world private prisons have become more and more acceptable.
It causes overcrowding which is a one of growth in the state prison system. Overcrowding is best defined as housing Along with overcrowding; the war on drugs has tripled our prison population. Once the population exceeds the capacity, it becomes more difficult
In most states it was and still is a felony to posses any marijuana or paraphernalia. A felony means mandatory jail time, huge fees, you can’t poses guns, and many businesses will not hire, not to mention all the other strict stipulations surrounding a conviction of a felony. Does it not seem extreme that a teacher would go to jail for smoking a joint, while rapists, thieves, and even worse criminals get off with probation. The current marijuana policies are in no way effective, menacing at best, ruining the lives of good citizens throughout our community. Prohibition has never helped, in any country, to solve or aid in the effort of cutting down marijuana use.
The subject was brought about by the case of Willie Francis, a 17-year-old convict in Louisiana who was sentenced to death in the electric chair after he was found guilty of murdering Andrew Thomas in 1944. Thomas was a druggist in St. Martinville, LA who had once been Francis’ employer. Francis was tried and convicted of first-degree murder, despite a confession that was illegally obtained, since Francis had not been informed of his right to counsel and didn’t have a parent or guardian present. On the day that Francis was supposed to be executed, the electric chair didn’t provide the needed volts to kill Francis, who instead moaned in agony as he was delivered a
He was found guilty of the murder and was convicted of killing Peggy. However on January 22, 2008 Timothy Masters was exonerated of the charges which were filed against him. The dismissal of the charges against him was after he had served several years behind bars. In this case, it is clear that these law professionals relied on inconclusive information. Timothy Masters’ arrest was only because he had failed to report that he had found a dead body while he was heading to school.
In cases handled by the federal government if you have no information to provide to authorities, you are given harsher sentences, because you didn’t cooperate with the government. How is it possible to provide information when you have none to give? There are a lot of girlfriends, wives, mothers, grandmothers, and sisters who are implicated in indictments due to a family member, spouse, or boyfriend being involved with the selling or preparation of drugs; when in reality they reaped no benefits from the drug activity. This problem has been around since the federal government mandated mandatory minimums over fifteen years ago. The Mandatory Minimum sentencing laws were put into place for major and habitual drug offenders to be behind bars for years, but in essence we have been faced with unintended consequences of mandatory minimum sentences.
Since 2008 Arizona cut 65 million from budget for mental health services. Had they not, would Jared Loughner, the Tucson shooter, been able to receive mental health assistance and listed on the FBI data base as a potential threat to society? In 2009 Emily Friedman of ABC news reported that Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech Shooter, had seen or talked to the VT school counselor numerous times, been admitted into a physic ward in 2005. He was not listed on any data base to prevent him from purchasing guns in Wisconsin and in Virginia at a local pawn shop. These guns were used in the worse school massacres in the United States
(USA;Military Rape) Politicians and high ranking military officials set forth a zero tolerance policy for the crime of rape and sexual assault. With this in mind people ask why sexual predators are still in every branch of the military or, once they get out, are walking our streets. Of 3,223 perpetrators who were actually investigated, only 175 ended up serving jail time, according to Susan Burke, an attorney who grew up on military bases. (Vlahos;2013) The main problem is that unit commanders have full discretion to refuse to move forward with a case. Approximately 33 percent of servicewomen and men don't report their assault because the person to report to is a friend of the rapist; 25 per cent don't report because the person to report to is the rapist.