The Breakdown of Justice
The podcast that I listened to was Episode 5 of Broken Justice. This covered the major failings of the criminal justice system and more specifically the lack of good public defenders. Ricky Kidd was convicted due to a lack of effort on the behalf of his public lawyer. He told his defender that he knew who committed the murder and had multiple people claiming that he was nowhere near the crime scene. When he finally managed to get a retrial with a judge that would admit the older evidence, even more new information came to light. There was information that pointed towards the other three suspects that was kept from his initial lawyer by the prosecution and the only witness to place Ricky at the scene recanted his statement. Eventually, after weeks of waiting, Ricky was released as a free man with the judge ruling that the prosecution illegally withheld evidence and that he was innocent the entire time. Because Ricky and his family were so poor, they were unable to afford a good lawyer the first time around and it was only by luck that he managed to get the attention of a good lawyer that would help him fight to be free.
In Ricky’s case, I feel as though there was a combined fault between his defender, the prosecution, and the judge at his initial trial for how he was first sentenced. As we have gone over in class, public defenders typically are not able to do their job as well as hired lawyers can simply because there are too many cases for them to be working with, they are not paid enough, and they are unable to gather the most accurate data since they tend to be working on a time crunch (Edelman, 2017). With regards to Ricky’s defender, she was working on the assumption that he was innocent, and she believed him. If she had more time before the trial to get access to other evidence for his case, he most likely would have stood a better chance at going free. The prosecution’s withholding of evidence is another story, however as that was done deliberately and with the knowledge that they could potentially be sending an innocent man to jail. While the defense lawyer’s failings could be excused due to lack of knowledge and ability to help, the prosecution subverted the justice system. This subversion of the justice system to me is comparable to holding innocents in Ricker’s Island because they refused to plead guilty to charges when they were innocent (Edelman, 2017). The judge is one that honestly confuses me. If Ricky already had so much information admissible in court that would prove his innocence, then why was he convicted in the first place? Charging him with murder solely because a singular witness placed him at the crime scene does not seem like a valid reason to lock them up. The justice in that case was a matter of whose words held more weight and the old man who claimed he saw Ricky had words that held more weight than the two separate people Ricky got to testify for him.
This podcast gave me a greater insight into the problems that can occur with the criminal justice system, especially with the lawyers and court trials. Even with what we have been discussing in class I still considered all of this to be more of an abstract concept to me. However, listening to Ricky’s story as well as the documentary Defending Gideon, I feel as though I am getting a better understanding of just how badly someone’s life can go if they do not have a good lawyer to help them when they are accused of a crime. Edelman’s (2017) description of everything that occurred in Kalief Browder’s case proves it further as Kalief was trapped in Rikers Prison when he did not actually commit the crime for which he was accused. All of these cases really opened my eyes as these people never truly committed the crimes and all were unlawfully jailed. It is always said that so long as you keep out of trouble there is no need to worry about being arrested or going to jail, but these cases made me realize that is not true. What happened to one person could happen to anyone even if there is slight stigmas or biases attached to one group over another. All it takes is one instance where you are in the wrong place at the wrong time for you to be arrested or convicted for something you never even knew about.
Edelman, P. (2017). Not a Crime to Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America. New York, NY: The New Press.
October 26, 2020 @ 3:14 am
If you really look at it, there are plenty of people that get sent to jail when they are innocent. But this case is another story, to be put into jail because supposedly someoen thinks they saw you at the scene of the crime is wrong. How is one winess enough to put someone in jail. Likes that is just awful and it doesn’t make sense to me how someone could be locked up just because someone thinks they saw you at the crime scene. There were people telling the court that they knew Ricky was no where eveen close to the scene of the crime when all of it had gone down so how does one person saying he was make him guilty of the crime. It’s just not right to me. I think it’s terrible because Rickys family was so poor to afford a lawyer and then to get sent to jail because it. It’s terrible because if only Ricky and his family had the money to hire a decent lawyer he would have been released but it’s just not fair for a poor person to be stuck in jail because they weren’t able to afford soemone to help them defend there case. You did a great job on this and I believe you stated very many good points to get your thoughts out on how you feel about what happened in this case.
December 8, 2020 @ 4:00 am
This was interesting to read and to learn more stories similar to Gideons case. Its also sad to hear because cases given to those who cannot afford lawyers instead some may have to teach themselves. The comment you made I agree with you that people say theres no need to worry about being arrested or going to jail . Its hard to not worry because any moment just by the color of ones skin automatically can get arrested and be in jail at any moment.