We in the United States like to think of ourselves as a good and JUST people. Like all humans, though, sometimes we fall short. Some examples of the latter, primarily from our JUSTICE system, in recent weeks:
Item: “A recent Department of Justice lawsuit that called the criminalization of school disciplinary offenses as minor as dress code violations so arbitrary and severe as to ‘shock the conscience’ publicized some of the most egregious punishment at Meridian, Mississippi’s schools. But the perpetuation of what is known as the school-to-prison pipeline is not limited to that one city or county, and it’s nothing new, according to a new report by several civil rights organizations. Stories highlighted by the report reveal that school punishment in other Mississippi counties is as bad, if not worse, and exemplify the severity and scope of the problem.
Item: “Why would anyone confess to a crime they did not commit? It happens so often in Chicago, defense attorneys call the city the false confession capital of the United States. Chicago has twice as many documented false confession cases as any city in the country. One reason may be the way police go about questioning suspects. And 60 Minutes has learned the Chicago Police Department is now the subject of a Justice Department investigation into its interrogation practices.”
Item: From this call to repeal the death penalty in the state of Maryland: “Race and class decide which defendants are sentenced to death. Maryland prosecutors pursue death sentences ‘significantly and substantially’ more often for Black defendants accused of killing white victims than for any other offenders. Despite the fact that 76.4% of the state’s homicide victims are Black, every person Maryland has executed since 1978 — and everyone currently on Maryland’s death row — was prosecuted for the death of a white victim.” There is no reason to believe that Maryland is particularly dissimilar from other states in this regard. Glad to see that the death penalty will be abolished in the state.
But the “justice gone wrong” story that I found most surprising is from a few years back. The less I explain, the more effective it will be. Please watch this 60 Minutes Special: Picking Cotton, about Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton’s best-selling story of truth, injustice, and redemption. Here is author John Grisham explaining why he supports innocence projects.
I’m reminded by a still-relevant verse in a song by Tom Paxton from the early 1960s, What Did You Learn In School Today, made popular by Pete Seeger; LISTEN HERE or HERE. The lyrics, appropriate to this post:
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned that policemen are my friends.
I learned that justice never ends.
I learned that murderers die for their crimes.
Even if we make a mistake sometimes.
That’s what I learned in school today.
That’s what I learned in school.
