Gideon's Army Summary

Draft Paper In the documentary film, “Kids for Cash”, Robert May shows his audience the horrors of the Luzerne County justice system. He uses imagery, appeals to logos and pathos, personal experiences and anecdotes to support his claim. Robert May made this documentary to show the world that the government needs to make sure that even minors have a fair trial and justice before being incarcerated.

The year is 1963, and Clarence Earl Gideon is falsely accused of a crime. Under Florida law, being charged with breaking and entering with the intent to commit a misdemeanor is a felony, and Mr. Gideon was the unfortunate victim here (Facts par 2). Like many Americans of his time, Clarence had only an eighth education (Facts par 1). He roamed in and out of prisons, which explains why he was poor (Facts par 1). Lacking the funds to pay an attorney, Clarence requested the judge to appoint him one (Facts par 2).

Countless people are getting placed in the criminal justice system on meager charges. Then, the system offers them “Legal Misrepresentation,” even though Gideon v. Wainwright (Alexander, 2012, p. 85) stated that they are entitled to an attorney if they are accused of a serious crime and indigent. Yet, public defendant attorneys lack resources and are overburdened with a substantial caseload that they cannot give defendants suitable representation. Subsequently, these accused people are forced into a plea deal to offset spending the mandatory maximum sentences in prison. Bad Deal

In a country where people are promised equal and fair treatment regardless of their gender or racial identity, Stevenson, through McMillian, shows the gory side of the reality that exists within the United States’ judicial system. A system that offers justice to some and victimizes

Gideon appears in court without money or a lawyer. Gideon asks the court to appoint him with legal counsel. Judge denies Gideon’s request for legal counsel, stating that under the laws of the State of Florida, the court can only appoint counsel when the defendant is charged with a capital offense. Gideon defends himself and carries out an: opening statement to jury, cross-examination of witnesses, declining to testify, and made a short argument emphasizing his innocence.

David Feige’s Indefensible: One Lawyer’s Journey nto the Inferno of American Justice invites people from all walks of life to a second hand experience of the criminal justice system hard at work. What is most interesting about Feige’s work is its distinct presentation of the life of a public defender in the South Bronx. Instead of simply detailing out his experiences as a public defender, Feige takes it a step further and includes the experiences of his clients. Without the personal relationships that he carefully constructs with each of his defendants, Feige would not be able to argue that the criminal justice system is flimsy at best, decisions always riding on either the judge’s personal attitudes or the clients propensity towards plea bargaining.

On a daily basis in the courtrooms across the world a person’s life is being determined to be set free, incarcerated for years, life or sometimes even sentenced to the death penalty. Not everyone receives fair justice, Some are unfairly punished for a crime they have never even committed, innocent people are put in jails just because of their gender, ethnicity, race, or even personal beliefs. In her book Devil's Knot The True Story of the West Memphis Three, Mara Leveritt describes actual details how the three children of West Memphis, Arkansas went missing and a day later were found brutally murdered near a canal. In her book Leveritt describes how brutal physical damages that were done to the children, the possible “evidence” that was found

Issues of Social and Economic Justice Throughout my experience in the Panhandle Promise Project, I had the opportunity to closely examine the injustice many of the clients experience based on their race, economic status, or in the criminal justice system. Since the starting of America’s war on drugs longer sentencing for drug offences that in violent crimes, there has been an increase of the number of minorities who are currently in prison (Wormer, Kaplan, and Juby (2012). For the children having a parent incarcerated affects them in several different ways, such as having a higher risk of being place in foster care (Andersen and Wildeman, 2014) , poor school performance (Eddy et al., 2014), food insecurity (Turney, 2014c), antisocial behavioral problems (Jarjoura et al., 2011f). For women who have been release from prison new barriers limit the assistance they will received, the ineligibility for food stamps (Travis, 2002), and in some cases the loss of their children custody (Welsh, 2014b).

Labels can do far more harm than hurting someone’s feelings. According to a theory in sociology known as labeling theory, giving other people labels causes them to feel a connection to that label over time. In our high school environment, this appears to be true. Many students who classmates called athletic or smart during freshman year confidently identify as so by now. During my time here, I have made personal fitness a large part of my life, and I believe it was because my football team saw me as a weight lifting enthusiast despite me having no athletic background.

The written story of how Clarence Earl Gideon, a poor Florida man, went from a convicted criminal to ultimately redefining legal history is astounding. The Supreme Court commonly dismisses more cases than it accepts and the fact that a handwritten petition from a prison inmate was accepted shows that even the seemingly most insignificant person can make a difference in our society. The book’s literature is highly legalistic but constantly provides a detailed account of how the judicial system is constructed. Coming from a regular college student standpoint with no previous formal law education, this makes the underlying concept easier to grasp. The story’s setting during the time of the Gideon case, showed how the legal system was constructed towards the growing concept of a defendant’s rights.

Not only does Berstein call for an overall reform of this nation’s juvenile prisons, she goes as far as saying the practice of locking up youth is in need of a “more profound than incremental and partial reform” (13). The fact that Bernstein outlines the numerous failed strategies and goals of this practice with her compelling use of studies and statistics is enough to promote an audience to reject the practice of locking up youth. The statistic she shares that “four out of five juvenile parolees [will be] back behind bars within three years of release” as well as the studies she conducted on numerous instances when a guards abuse of power lead to the death of a child work to further prove her point: being that “institution[s] as intrinsically destructive as the juvenile prison” have no place in a modern society (13, 83). Bernstein refutes this false sense effectiveness further by sharing her own ideas on what she believes works as a much more humane solution to rehabilitating

Just Mercy is a memoir that amasses and distinguishes the legal accounts of an activist lawyer’s [Bryan Stevenson] struggle against legal injustice. Stevenson was born into a low-income family living in a racially segregated community in Delaware. He made it to Harvard Law School after successfully graduating from Eastern College that is present day Eastern University. In his legal practice, Bryan Stevenson started representing poor clients in Georgia and later in Alabama, where he became a co-founder of the Equal Justice Initiative.

This is a moment to look at systems producing results and begin to require results from the American Criminal Justice

Gideon allowed God to determine the size of his army. Gideon began with an army of 10,000 against 100,000, but according to God this was just too many men. God did not want to allow Gideon to fight with so many soldiers, because the temptation would still remain to believe that the actual strength of the army was the winner of the battle. So at this point God gave instructions to Gideon to pare down his army to about 300 soldiers.

Over 2 million people are currently being held in United States prisons, and while the U.S. may only hold 5% of the world’s population, it houses 25% of its prisoners. In the past few years, America’s prison system has fallen under public scrutiny for it’s rising incarceration rate and poor statistics. Many Americans have recently taken notice of the country’s disproportionate prisoner ratio, realized it’s the worst on the planet, and called for the immediate reformation of the failing system. The war on drugs and racial profiling are some of the largest concerns, and many people, some ordinary citizens and others important government figures, are attempting to bring change to one of the country 's lowest aspects.