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Mario Pereo
English 101
Dr. Elliott
November 16, 2021
Just or Unjust System
The Criminal justice system is something that could be seen on both sides as good, or as
evil. It is not unknown that trials can sometimes go from the truth, facts, and evidence. To
whoever has the more realistic story. Someone is put in jail for something they didn’t do although
not every trial, it is something that has happened multiple times. Many steps can be taken to
make sure that individuals have a fair and just trial, without bias, or fallacies intertwined within
it.
Every year there are thousands of prison hearings. Crimes are committed, and men and
women are sentenced to different lengths of time in prison. Whether or not they did the crime is
to be proven upon a hearing, being judged by a jury of their peers. “Every year, over 600,000
people enter prison gates, but people go to jail 10.6 million times each year…4 out of 5 people in
prison or jail are locked up for something other than a drug offense — either a more serious
offense or an even less serious one” (Wagner).
Many factors play into a wrongful conviction. You take the evidence being given, the
jury’s bias, and the overall profile of the case, and you can have a case that is being fed into by
the media and everyone’s preconceived thoughts going into it. “According to the 2019 annual
report by the National Registry of Exonerations, wrongful convictions statistics show that the
percentage of wrongful convictions is somewhere between 2% and 10%” (Moskovska). The
overall number of inmates is high enough, 2 to 10% of that are staggering numbers. “Keeping in
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mind that there are over 2.3 million incarcerated individuals in the United States…that’s
anywhere from 46,000 to 230,000” (Moskovska)
In the documentary Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four You can see
very clearly how a trial can go from facts and evidence to bias and prejudice to a group of
people. Which in turn caused four women to go to jail for a crime they did not commit. Some
steps should’ve been taken and questions that should’ve been asked before convicting the women.
After someone is brought in for questioning there should be stringent questions asked although
they are suspected of committing a crime. Then when taken to trial that evidence and the
questions asked should be brought up and dissected during the trial.
In the film Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four, it was stated, “A lot
of lawyers jump into these cases and they think that just because their clients are innocent, their
