I recently heard a story about a man that was wrongly convicted and served 27 years. Like many people who are convicted he would not admit to his charges. James Lee Woodard is his name and he is finally free thanks to a DNA test that proved is innocense. The first thing I wanted to know was what is the color of his skin. I know it is a sad fact of life but odds are that had something to do with it. The report from USA Today doesn't say anything about but if you type his name into google the first thing you see at the top is the picture of a black man with captions that read man acquitted of rape charges thanks to DNA tests.
I would like to know what everyone thinks about this story. I have always thought that the judicial system is not as just as it could be and hearing this story just reinforces my preconceived notions. Do you guys think people are in jail because of the color of their skin? Don't you think a black person is going to have a harder time getting a fair trial than a white man? I would like to know if any of you think that this country will ever treat people equally and not treat them differently because of how they look? I personally think that the judicial system will never be just. I would definatley say it has plently to do with the media. How people are portrayed in the media affects every part of our enviornment and people don't even know it. Black people are often portrayed as criminals. A perfect example of this would be the video games how people of color are quite often the people who are doing bad. Don't you guys think this is a direct correlation to how our judicial system is? Without a doubt it is a domino affect.
Take a look at the write up from USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-04-29-dallas-dna_N.htm and read it for yourself.
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