Wild justice - Term Paper Example

? The Death Penalty Abolition Movement in the United s The Death Penalty Abolition Movement in the United s The first Justice of the United States’ Supreme Court to suggest that capital punishment was unconstitutional was Justice Arthur Goldberg. The then President, John Kennedy, appointed him the Justice of the Supreme Court on 1963 May. Goldberg considered capital punishment a bad public policy as it could never prevent criminal crimes. He asserted that death penalty levied mainly on specific groups of the society such as the poor, the politically powerless and to some extent, the innocent by misjudgments. Another issue that arose was the fact that most of those affected by the death penalty, were the blacks leading to a racial prejudice. He resolved to end capital punishment starting from the courts as a Supreme Court Justice. According to A Wild Justice (28), the Justice Arthur Goldberg dissected from a decision from the Supreme Court not to hear the death penalty appeal involving Frank Lee Rudolph verses a white woman from Alabama. Rudolph was a black man who had a death penalty for raping a white woman from Alabama. This issue clearly heightened, given the fact that it regarded racism. The then Chief Justice, Earl Warren, feared taking on the issue as Justice Goldberg and his clerk Dershowitz had already written an extensive memorandum that detailed all the cases of racial discrimination in capital punishments. Goldberg knew it would become very necessary to get as much support as possible for his decent. While keeping a low profile, Goldberg used his clerk, Deshowtz to send his memo about his dissect to various organizations including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (A Wild Justice, 30). The news about Goldberg’s dissection from the Supreme Court’s decision circulated to a suite of offices on the twentieth floor of 10 Columbus Circle in Midtown Manhattan in early November. This was a home to the most important law firm in America, and simply implied that the information was to be in the reach of public consumption. The New York Times wrote about his dissect immediately and praised him terming the move as raising “a potential far reaching idea” (A Wild Justice, 34). The National Association for the Advancement of the Colored People Legal Defense Fund was a very successful organization since its formation. It had several legal victories that clearly meant that the Goldberg’s dissect issue could get a serious back up. LDF was a supportive organization about issues that affected the social linings of American Citizens. Lawyers of LDF had won several cases in various social issues. In 1944, LDF lawyers won the Smith vs. Allwright case, in which a decision was made requiring Texas to allow the African Americans to vote in primary elections (A Wild Justice, 32). The support that LDF gave to these social classes was in conjunction with the core role of the organization, that is, to give equal rights to all Americans regardless of race or social status The role of LDF was also manifested in the Morgan verses Virginia case. This 1946 case involved desegregation of interstate buses and the LDF lawyers won. Most Africans had commonly been discriminated in terms of service in state offices. Several movements to avert these social issues had already sprung up and LDF played a major role in the support for this movements. LDF managed to secure victory in a case protecting the African Americans to serve on juries and allowed African Americans to be involved in real estate business and property ownership. The LDF’s lawyers also help in the more serious case involving Martin Luther King, Jr, in which charges of contempt followed his protest of Birmingham segregation. The arguments raised by the LDF’s lawyers enabled the Supreme Court to drop all the charges that stemmed from all the civil rights sit-ins. All of this success made people to believe the power of LDF to be limitless (A Wild Justice, 32). The issue of Goldberg dissection arrived at the LDF and they immediately knew that this way a clear indication of racism. LDF believed that they could only involve themselves with the death penalty abolition by finding a means to end racism. Hefflon, an LDF lawyer, could not in particular understand why the memorandum printed by Goldberg and the court officials were sent to them. One thing that LDF could not trust about the American court system was its complexity as to fathom what their actions at times intended. The abolishment and end of racism was not what the memo from Goldberg addressed but Hefflon was convinced that the Justice clearly had it in mind. Several blacks were sending requests to LDF lawyers about racial discrimination in the courts. However, at no time did LDF find it easy to decline these case requests. They generally accepted the requests even though they knew taking cases on capital issues were very much expensive. LDF played in all ways to end death penalty after it became much evident that it mainly affected blacks (A Wild Justice, 36) The LDF worked hand in hand with other organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union that were active members of the NAACP. The 1962 case of William Maxwell, a black sentenced to death on accusation of raping a white woman, was the one that clearly proved the blacks’ judgments were discriminative. Maxwell had presented all evidence he could gather to the Supreme Court to prove that his sentence had a racial discrimination lining. However, the Court turned down all his evidences claiming the judgment was justified. LDF joined in the vase but unfortunately, all the evidences they presented seemed incomplete. LDF then went ahead to prove these facts of racism further. With the help of Marvin, a sociologist from the University of Pennsylvania, they sent students to carry out research on all the cases involving death penalty. The result was shocking in that of all the cases of death penalty, a black had the highest possibility of getting the death penalty (50% probability) compared to a white with the same crime level ( 14 % probability). (A Wild Justice, 39-40). The roles that played by the LDF to fight death penalty were to some extent hampered by the nature of the Justices in the Supreme Court. Racism revealed itself almost in every case regarding death penalty. As the lawyers of the LDF tried as much as possible to end the vice using various organizations, it became apparent that the legal method was also to be checked. The courts were also justified not to accept all the claims of racial discrimination in refusing punishments. This could mean a prejudice in the operations of the courts as the serious crimes by blacks will then need no punishment. LDF also believed that if systematic evidence were available, it would then need no death penalty but rather a parole or a short jail term (A Wild Justice, 40). LDF managed their responsibility as in most cases; they were winning the cases they presented in the courts. The challenge of resources was also an issue to tackle but the large base of support they got from other organizations made them to succeed in their operations. The wisdom of pursuing social change through the courts rather than the people is thus worth keeping. The Courts stand as government institutions and thus operate with the laws of a particular country. Legal organizations can address certain societal group issues but the change may last a short period. Changes should best be made in countries constitution and thus the courts will deliver based on these constitutional laws. The Woman Suffrage Movement was also another civil rights movement in the late 19th century that is comparable to the Legal Defense Fund’s struggle to end death penalty in the United States. The movement involved women who wanted some social rights like participating in primary elections. Just like any other organization, the group split up due to some differences on the views of their mandate. The issue started when eight women delegates, at a World Anti-Slavery Convention, never sat in the meeting by order of the committee. This furiously aroused these women delegates and they sort to fight for their rights. The women vowed to for m an organization to protect them from sexism as was evident in this meeting (Davidson, 2002). Married Woman’s Property Act in the New York that made them these women to realize the value of the vote inspired the women, after some years from the convention. They changed the original title of their movement from “women rights” to “women suffrage.” Their man agenda was to be able to vote in primary elections and it coincided with a current movement of “black suffrage.” This made it for the women to seek a merger for the two organizations and make them to have a common mandate. They sort to get support from the then, ruling party, the Republican. The Republican Party, however, was on the opinion of completing the process of “black suffrage,” before considering the women issue. This followed from a hostile and anti-feminist response from the party. Because of the Republican opinion, the women activists differed on opinion. Some remained with the Republican’s opinion while the rest went on with the movement (Davidson, 2002). The group that never shared the opinion of the Republican Party went ahead to campaign against “black suffrage.” They cited that the plight of millions of American women who will be left in suffering at the atrocities coming from men’s superiority. As a result, neither of the groups won the aim of their movements. The circumstances in the whole of this woman suffrage issue compare much with the LDF’s death penalty case. The women sort for support from a political body, the Republican Party, with the hope of succeeding from its support. All of the things turn out that when they were almost securing their goal, the division amongst them leads them to a loss. These happenings all lead to the fact historical injustices to secure certain rights in the society have been not been achievable because of several both self-interest and personal interest. Apart from these discouraging events in mid 19th century, the path to women suffrage never stopped. In the late 19th century, the women continued with their quest for their right to vote. They did this by forming organizations such as the National Women’s Party (NWP) in 1906.this party was very straightforward in its agenda and pressed for their agenda in a very serious manner compared to the previous party in the 1870s. The NWP managed to become the first party lead by women to present their pleas and demands to the White House. Because of this action, several women activists were arrested and their meetings disrupted by governments order. Those who were opposing their move came up with several explanations to their takes on the issue. The reason for opposing the woman suffrage was that the women would abandon their roles as mothers and wives. This was on the reasoning that allowing the women to vote would paint a wrong image on the status of the United States of America (Donald 297) The woman suffrage thus also suffered from state opposition just as the case with the death penalty abolition quest. The women were had different opinions even within themselves and this division, led to enlarging the gap between achieving the NWP’s agenda and failure. The legal justice in the United States viewed the women’s organizations as an anti-development movement and thus it tended to oppose it with all the means. This is not a new thing in any government or justice system, as was with the death penalty case, since they always tend to react negatively to external pressures and movements. The National Woman Party never backed down on their quest just as before, and despite all the threats and arrests that the party’s members had to endure, it was apparent that they were close to achieving their desire. It is important to note that the Media is a very sentimental player in the success and failure of any organization. The capital punishment abolition move, a proposal by Justice Goldberg of the Supreme Court, the public knew about it by the help of the media. When Justice Goldberg openly dissected from the Supreme Court’s decision of not listening to a death penalty case appeal, the media brought the move to the light. The New York Times immediately published its own opinion on the issue describing as an open and courageous move by the Justice (Donald 156). This happened immediately the Justice’s clerk, Dershowitz, send copies to organizations like the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, after the Justice’s order. This move by the media can then be determined to be a positive one. On the other hand, when the media takes sides on certain issues, it becomes detrimental on the Country’s development. This was evident in the late 19th century after the members of the NWP suffered arrest after their quest for suffrage. The opponents to the move used the media like magazines and newspapers to print annoying articles and political cartoons denouncing the move. Moreover, the NWP members never had the support of the media at their disposal to support their move and press their issues (Donald 217). This forced these women to rely on the locally available form of information like posters, pamphlets and other printed media to support their cause of action. This bold and courageous move made it very clear that no matter what the outcome would be, the women were ready to take any action for their achieve their rights. It is also worth noting that even though the efforts of the women in the NWP was not representing all the women in the United States of America, it portrayed a very clear image of the women in history at that time. The history of civil rights’ success is on the formation of civil rights suffrage media and/or publishing companies. The black suffrage movement of the 1870s managed to succeed by a strong supportive body and a back up from the Republican Party. The women of the 19th century tried all their best to succeed in their quest by forming, as well, a suffrage media that served as an alternative mode of relaying their issues instead of the biased and discriminative state media houses. The success of any civil rights movement is thus, evidently based on the ability to let their ideas be known to the public. Even though it took time achieve their goal, the qualities portrayed by these women suffrage were fundamental in building the current American values of freedom and patriotism. This move was very crucial in building the feminine character and in showing to the United States of America that anti-suffrage movements led by men are not to the development of the country. In conclusion, it is right to assert, from the issue of death penalty abolition quest and woman suffrage movements that the path to achieving a particular civil right is through the reliance on brevity and boldness. The move that Goldberg took to dissect from certain opinions of the Supreme Court on death penalty, enable him to spur up energy for the abolition of the rule. Civil rights movements like NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund had been receiving constant request from blacks concerning death penalty sentences. The death penalty sentences had a certain level of racial discrimination, mostly on blacks, and the LDF organization had been waiting for an opportune time to start the war officially. Through Goldberg’s memo that he sent bravely to LDF concerning his dissect from the Supreme Court’s opinion, the group gathered energy and enthusiasm to deal with the issue. Even though, the death penalty was abolished for a short in 1972, a great move that encouraged many Americans to fight for their rights about certain pressing social issues. References Mender, Evan. A Wild Justice. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2013. Print. Davidson, Rachel. "The Split in the 19th Century: Woman Suffrage Movement." The Concord Review, Inc. 88.4 (2002): 121-312. Print. Read More