Victims Of The Weak Judicial System

Adéla Jarolímková

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, we can observe the tragic and unjust story of Tom Robinson, who was falsely accused of raping a white girl. "Luckily," Tom Robinson wasn't a real person, and his story is only fictional. Unfortunately, this kind of scenario doesn't happen only in fictional stories; it occurs in reality as well. Surprisingly it is not that unusual in the US, and there have been many records of similar cases. People have been falsely accused of many crimes, like arson, thievery, rape, or murder.

Reasons, why this happens, are various these days: mistaken identity, official misconduct, misrecollection, misleading forensic evidence, and others. In the case of Tom Robinson, the reason was simply based on prejudice and hate towards African-Americans. Nowadays, this is a huge issue in society, especially after killing George Floyd in May 2020, which received a lot of attention. That is why I would love to introduce examples of victims with a similar story.

The first one is Brian Banks, who was falsely accused of raping his classmate in 2002. Brian was a 16-year old high school football star in California when his classmate Wanetta Gibson accused him of dragging her into stairways and raping her. Brian accepted a plea bargain and consequently spent five years in prison and five years on probation, including being registered as a sex offender. In 2011 Wanetta Gibson was caught confessing to lying about him raping her on a video. "My only dream in the world was just to be free and to have the opportunity as everybody here," said Brian after being given freedom. Today he continues in his football career and fights for the rights of falsely convicted victims. In 2018 a movie adaptation of his story was made, and it is definitely worth watching.

Next, we have Davontae Sanford, who was wrongly convicted of four murders at the age of 14 in the year 2007. He was charged with four shootings in his neighborhood and plead guilty. Later he insisted on his innocence - he claimed that he only confessed because he had felt desperate and had been tricked into confessing. Many people were fighting for his freedom, including his attorney Valeria Newman, law professor David Moran or former Action News reporter Bill Proctor, which he was given after nine long years. "This is the most compelling case you'll ever see because it shows how the system can totally fail a young boy," David Moran said.

The last case I want to include here is the case of David Robinson (coincidentally with the same surname as our book victim). He was as well accused of a murder he hadn't commit ted and was imprisoned for nearly 18 years. At first, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole because of killing a bar owner Sheila Box in 2000. In May 2018, he was released after finding clear evidence of his innocence. Setting him free took a long time and effort, and he would not be released if it had not been for his team of attorneys and other people believing in him, including Sheila's daughter. "Been a living nightmare. It's been an up-and-down rollercoaster" said, David.

I could go much further and name a lot more cases, including Jimmy Dennis, Raphael Rowe, Ronnie Long, but it would take me eternity. When you think about the fact that this is quite common and I would not be able to list all of them, it is genuinely heartbreaking. All of these stories mentioned above are tragic. It is necessary to talk about them to bring awareness and stop this. Their lives have been destroyed because of the weak judicial system - these men were robbed of their childhood, schooling, family life, reputation, dignity...

In the book Atticus (Tom Robinson's attorney) said: "But there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal-there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution, gentleman, is a court." But is it true? Are all men equal there? Is the judicial system reformed enough to satisfy Atticus's criteria? I would not say so. This prejudicial problem is still present, and it happens way too often in the US. I believe it is getting better now, but there is still a lot of work to be done in the future.

Edited by: Lilian Adekeye