In class the movie “Witch Hunt” was shown which demonstrated how a group of parents were falsely accused as child molesters. After years of imprisonment they were found innocent and had to start a new life. Some move to a different state because they couldn’t get a job in Bakersfield after all accusations. The children of the parents and the kids from the neighborhood who were pressured what to say carried a sense of guilt throught out the years. Those children now question the righteousness of the authority. As citizens we are suppose to trust and depend on the legal system right? Unfortunately many citizens doubt the jurisdiction of America. Some members of the jurisdiction are not lead to the innocence of a person but rather to their own interest. Prosecutors for their own benefit look for convictions as a way to self-promote. When concurrent crimes happen like it did in Bakerfield, innocent people are declared guilty. In the aricle “5 jailed in ’95 killing of cabby didn’t do it, federal inquiry says” five people were arrested for the murder of cab driver Baithe Diop. According to the article Baithe Diop was murder in 1995, “a time when cabdrivers were being attacked regularly in the city with nearly 70 drivers killed in 1993 and 1994”. It just so happened that five people who declare themselves innocent were convicted, now years later after two trials due to evidence are found to be innocent. During the first trial, the police and prosecutors believed the four men ( one was release of charges) plotted Diop murder to distract the authority from the $50,000 worth of cocaine taken from Diop’s passenger. The jurors of the trial believed the conclusion of the police and prosecutors. In the second trial two more people were convicted for Diop’s murder, Eric Glisson who was one of them wrote a letter to a prosecutor but landed on the hands of the investigator, John O’Malley. In the letter Glisson states that he overheard Diop’s murder was done by two gang members from the Bronx. In both the Bakersfield and Diop case, defendents were given a long sentences. This puts in question the power of the prosecutors, which is only being questioned by the citizens and not the authorities. In both cases ( Bakersfield and Diop), no prosecutors were held accountable for their actions. If the government is watching the citizens who is watching the government (authorities)?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48484764/ns/us_news-the_new_york_times/
