The Media And The Criminal Justice System - 1550 Words

As far as time itself people have always committed crimes. We can find the first crime in the bible itself when Cain killed his brother Able. However what we did not have back then was the media coverage of the story. The media has been able to influence the criminal justice system by expressing strong opinions about different cases. In some of those cases, the media has picked a side. Generally, people tend to pick sides depending on whom they believe, there is always two sides to every story. However with the media it becomes different, because the media tends to pick one side over the other and some people are influenced by the media opinion and that makes the job of the criminal justice system more difficult, since they have to find†¦show more content†¦Although the media is not directly asking people to riot, the media has to accept responsibility for the way they reported a story before that story was tried in a court of law. The justice system has to be free of outside influences. A person is truly innocent until proven guilty. Part of the problem with the media is that they believe that their first amendment right allows them to trample on people s rights to be innocent until proven in a court of law beyond any reasonable doubt that they are guilty. In the justice system shortcuts should not be taken, and allowing the media to express their opinion as a fact it s detrimental to our justice system. Criminals will try to argue their innocence although they know that they are in fact guilty. There have been many cases that the media has talked about and expressed their opinion and a person was tried and convicted of a crime they did not commit. It was found after the fact that indeed the person had been telling the truth the whole time. However, it is too late to do anything about it because the person was found guilty sentenced to death and executed. No one is trying to take away the media s first amendment right to free speech, however people s rights are being affected by the media s opinion and statements about a case. One person being executed for a crime they did not commit is too much, however throughout the years over one thousand