The U.S Justice System

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The U.S Justice System The U.S justice system has many different branches and entities within it that all have the same primary goal of keeping the nations criminal activity under control to the best of their extent. But, the question has been posed as to whether or not the U.S justice system is a viable or even just system. There have been several cases of police misconduct, racial profiling. Wrongful sentencing, and other incompetencies in the past and recently. Just how faulted is the U.S justice system? One could say that the police force has its fair share of flaws. As stated in Kenneth Jost’s “Policing the Police” article: Police departments around the country are on the defensive because of accusations of abuse of authority. Los Angeles is being rocked by a corruption scandal involving planted evidence and shooting unarmed suspects. New York City officers have been convicted of torturing a suspect and covering up the crime but acquitted in the shooting death of an unarmed civilian. (Jost) Cases of police misconduct, such as these, can occur quite frequently, which puts a huge dent in the credibility gap of the U.S justice system. The judicial system can be seen as another imperfection of the U.S justice system. One of the most criticized aspects of the judicial system is the jury system. In another one of Jost’s articles, “The Jury System,” he points out, “Public discontent with the jury system appears to be increasing. The O.J Simpson murder trial dramatized concerns about jury selection, trial procedures, and the possible influence of race on jury verdicts in criminal cases” (Jost). That being said, it is clear that prejudice can influence the outcome of a court case, thus wrongfully allowing a guilty man to walk free, or vice-versa, imprisoning an innocent man for a crime he did not commit. This example brings up another flaw in the judicial system:

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