Lately I've been surfing around on the internet for something else to write about-- but nothing of interest has come to me in the news... snow storms really aren't the bane of our exsistance and politics, I'm pretty sure everyone is like 'No more politics' I couldn't happen to agree more.
But then, I remembered my sociology class and knew if anything good was going to come out of blogging this morning-- I was going to choose a topic from there and write on it.
I decided finally to write about the way America is ran.
4-10% percent of people currently in prison are actually innocent
United States has the highest death rates by handguns per year
One of those doesn't surprise me. One of those is a shock.
4-10% percent of people currently in prison are actually innocent scares me, America has the supposed belief that everyone is 'innocent until proven guilty' someone lied.
Back during the 1600's, America went through the salem witch trials and during the red scare, a period in the 1950's-- which clearly 'innocent until proven guilty' didn't really mean anything.
I do understand the term 'Innocent until proven guilty' was a term coined after the salem witch trials.
While the innocent sit behind bars, the real killer is out on the streets having a grand old ball.
As for the death row inmates, not many are innocent but some are-- those some; sometimes are saved in time-- many are not.
Oh, what a twisted world we live in-- innocent people behind bars, murderers walking around freely... don't you just feel safe in America?
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I feel ya- I have distrust for the legal system from personal experience. Innocent until proven guilty is a concept only affordable to those with a good attorney. Unless you have the resources to defend your right to this protection, consider yourself guilty. Our law enforcement personnel is trained to find the guilty, and at times this means finding the guilty whether or not they are actually there.
So which is it? Are innocent people behind bars? Or are guilty people walking the streets? If the United States' judicial system is indeed operating on "innocent until proven guilty" then perhaps there may be guilty people walking the streets (OJ Simpson, anyone?) but you'd really have to have the evidence majorly stacked against you to go to prison. If we're operating on "guilty until proven innocent" then there are a lot of innocent people in prison, but as many guilty people on the street? I don't think so.
Of course, we could argue the merits and cons of either way of thinking, but that's not my point. Rather, you can't have it both ways, it doesn't work that way. Interesting topic though.