What is Corrupt in the Justice System?

            Corruption within the system is high; it goes from all ends of the spectrum. Corruption can start within bad policing techniques, which then throws off the whole judicial process because corruption has already occurred. Bad policing techniques can mean a few things from planting evidence, to coercing confessions, or even knowingly going after an innocent person. Police are one of the first people to interact with someone after a crime has occurred, putting more emphasis on them not to be corrupt. Not all police officers’ are bad by any means; however, those that are mess up the legitimacy of the system and shine an unflattering light on the rest.

                The next level is, lawyer competency and what that actually means can be difficult. Some defense attorneys are not deemed competent from the way they proceed with death row inmates. There have been cases where the lawyer doesn’t even talk with the inmate before representing him/her. Plea agreements have been rejected without the inmate’s knowledge and some crappy defense work includes the lawyer taking a nap during a capital trial. I think this is personally the most unacceptable form of corruption. The inmate has a right to competent counsel and having someone who is not competent loses them a case that they could have won. Producing innocent people in prison or even on death row, which could benefit from another form of sentencing.

                The last is a corrupt court, not necessarily the judge, but jury could play a larger role; after all they have an inmate’s life in their hands. Jury is selected through the voir dire process. Questions are asked to all of those pulled for jury duty and slowly dwindled down through questions to see if they have any conflicts of interest. Jurors will be asked not to serve if they have harsh opinions one way or another with the death penalty, the crime, or the defendant. Sometimes this does not necessarily protect the defendant all the way. Jury could be selected in opposition to the defendant by the prosecution. Jurors are also not supposed to know anything about the case at hand (often does not completely happen). Some things must be excluded from the trial and the jury should not be aware of those facts. This happened in the West Memphis Three trial in Jason and Damien’s trial. Jessie MissKelley’s confession could not be used in the other’s trials, although it ended up being written on a juror’s notepad. It goes to show that our system does a great deal to try and discourage corruption but in all honesty it still occurs quite regularly within courts, corrections, and policing.