J.K. Rowling’s novel, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, shows several attempts on how the justice system is flawed much like Ernest Gaines’s A Lesson Before Dying. 

In Gaines’s novel, Jefferson was accused of killing the shopkeeper and was sent to jail. Jefferson and many people knew he was innocent, but they couldn’t do anything about it because the man who had died was white. Jefferson was blamed for the crime simply for “being at the wrong place at the wrong time” and not because he actually killed the person (Gaines 1). From this, we can see the justice system is controlled by the superior.

Similarly in Rowling’s novel, Buckbeat was executed for scratching Draco Malfoy. Draco disrespected Buckbeat by calling him a “ugly brute” (Rowling 148). Buckbeat slashed Draco on the arm for the disrespect. Draco exaggerates his injury and boasts to his friends that he could get his father to fire Hagrid. Buckbeat was put onto trial and failed to win the case, leading to his execution. Buckbeat’s case is another example of how the legal system is controlled by the superior. Another case in the novel was Sirius Black being blamed for killing 12 innocent citizens, Peter Pettigrew, and betraying James and Lily Potter. Dumbledore, the headmaster of the school, believes thats Black is innocent, “but i have no power to make other men see the truth, or to overrule the Minister of Magic” (Rowling 393). No one is willing to listen or believe the words of Harry and Hermione proving Black’s innocence. The Minister of Magic just wants to kill Black to prove that their department is capable of capturing a loose criminal and punishing them. Black’s escape had put a very bad image on the Minister of Magic and to restore his status Black must be convicted whether he is innocent or not. In both cases, it shows how the legal system just makes the easiest choices whether it’s fair or not.