Extra credit 5: Frontline-Death by fire

Here is a the case of Cameron Todd Williams, a man who was put to death due to a fire that caused the death of his three children. What makes this story incredible is the fact that no evidence of arson was provided in court room, instead, he was charged because of a confession of a cell mate;the cell mate was put at the stance to testify against Williams. After the witnessed testified it seemed as the jury, the prosecutor and the judge were already convinced that Williams had caused this fire. During this time, Williams was advised to take a plea bargain to avoid the death penalty. Williams, knowing that he was innocent, decided to go on with the trial and did not take the plea.

The court did not having any valid evidence for a conviction. The only thing that they used to go through with the trial was Williams' cell mate's testimony and other presumptions of the incident. These other presumptions  were not valid evidence; they said that because Williams only had minor injuries from the fire that that was a sign of arson; they said that because Williams did not look remorseful to the interrogator that he was guilty. At the end, Williams was found guilty by the jury and put to death for the murder of his three daughters.

After watching this video and finding out that there was no evidence other than the cell mate's testimony, i have come to the conclusion that this man was innocent. The law states that in the justice system you are innocent until proven guilty not the other way around. This case should have been delayed longer; especially when a person's life was at stake.

Extra Credit 4: pbs frontline the confessions

"How could four men confess to a brutal crime that they didn't commit? Inside the incredible saga of the Norfolk Four -- a case that cracks open the justice system to reveal almost everything that goes wrong when innocent people get convicted."

This video was documented on the Norfolk Four case. This case was about a detective named Robert Glen Ford who aggressively accused and achieved confessions from four men to a crime they did not commit during an interrogation. The event started when a man, Daniel Williams, called 911 after hearing that his neighbor's wife was brutally raped and murdered. Immediately after he had called the authorities, he was asked to go to the police station to answer some questions. Upon his arrival, Williams, was placed in an interrogation room where he was accused of this crime. Williams was then interrogated by detective Ford, a detective who's reputation was gained by the amount of convictions he had won. According to this document, detective Ford had no evidence that Williams might have been the perpetrator of this crime. Including to this argument, detective Ford had done a polygraph test and a DNA test in which both proved that Williams was not at the scene. At this time, it was more than clear that Ford no longer cared about finding the truth but instead was only looking for a conviction.

Detective Ford managed to not only get a confession from Williams, but also got others involved in the crime scene. He achieved to involucrate six other men in this crime. Ford plotted out the entire story to the crime in which he had forced Williams and the others to confess to. Later after the incident, the true perpetrator, Omar Ballard, was found due to valid evidence and was questioned. He said that he was the only one that committed the crime. By the end of the document, Ford was prosecuted in the court of law and charged and convicted with two cases of extortion. On the other hand, two of the six men were released and found innocent; the other four still have there cases pending.

Overall, This document encourages me to believe that our justice system is not anywhere near perfect and will probably never be right. With cases such as these, it shows us how corrupted the system to this country is; There maybe many innocent people that are sitting in jail and many perpetrators that are running free in our streets. One can only hope that some day our justice system becomes just.

extra credit 3: Black in Latin America E02, Brazil: A Racial Paradise

In this video, Dr. Louis Gates travels to Brazil to investigate the countries African descendants. Before this country became a free racial democracy, this rainbow nation became the worlds largest slave economy. In Brazil, there were more than ten million more slaves than there were in the United States. The Portuguese controlled the slaves that were transported to Brazil. In this land, sugar was the main source that the slaves had to work to produce. During this time a large amount of slaves were transported there due to the large crave for sugar in the world. Ultimately, Brazil was one of the last countries to abolish slavery; since then, they have lived under a racial democracy. 

Brazil is considered to have the second largest black population in the world. As an outcome of these numbers Brazil has proudly maintained their African culture. “The rainbow nation” is a quote used by Dr. Gates as an indication of how skin color is viewed in Brazil. For instance, during the video Dr. Gates asks a few of the people that live there what they called their skin color; they said, “black.” Now, as we may see in the video, Brazil has all kinds of colored people, but, in the end, they were all black. This is an example of how strongly their culture represents their African pride.

At the end, although Brazil is freed from slaves and considered a racial democracy,but they still believe that they are treated as a second class citizen.

Brazil in need of affirmative action. 

Extra Credit 2: frontline 1hr long :The real CSI

Can finger prints lie?

Can two finger prints be the same or similar?

Can forensics make a mistake?

The answer to both questions is yes. Finger prints along with other forensic comparisons have been discovered to be no longer one hundred percent accurate. During this frontline episode, we learn the reasons why a lot of forensic test comparisons are no longer testified as they used to in the court of law. This video tells us the story of a few individuals who were unfairly accused of a crime they did not commit; all because of a forensics' testimony. 

The first case was about an attorney, Brandon Mayfield, who was accused of a terrorist attack that happened in Spain. Evidence was that his finger prints was a one hundred percent full match on the finger prints found on the crime scene. He was being charged of a crime he did not do or was capable of doing; only proof needed for a conviction was the fingerprint match. Forensics said, "there was no way we can be wrong, finger prints is an identical match." At the end, Mayfield  was found innocent when they had found the true terrorist in Nigeria. Other cases mentioned in the video of a wrongfully forensic evidence are the cases of both Lebron Brooks and Casey Anthony. Brooks was convicted for murder over a bite mark that was found on the body of a woman that matched his and Anthony was being charged for murder from the odor of a dead body in her trunk. Both Brooks and Anthony were eventually found innocent after analyzing the wrongful evidence that were alleged towards them. 

Overall, this video proves that forensics can make mistake and that these mistakes can be very crucial and wrong wen used in the court of law. This video has made me realize that there is a lot of corruption and wrongful doing in the court of law. I believe it is best to stay away from the justice system.

extra credit blog1: Genocide: Worse Than War by Daniel Goldhagen

In this pbs video by Daniel Goldhagen, he researches why he believes that Genocide is worst than wars. "By the most fundamental measure -- the number of people killed -- the perpetrators of mass murder since the beginning of the twentieth century have taken the lives of more people than have died in military conflict. So genocide is worse than war," reiterates Goldhagen. "This is a little-known fact that should be a central focus of international politics, because once you know it, the world, international politics, and what we need to do all begin to look substantially different from how they are typically conceived."Genocide is the slaughter or destruction of a significant amount of people because of their ethnic, racial, religious, or national group. Sadly, since the 20th century, people have been experiencing genocide in all corners of the world. Some examples of countries that have experienced genocides are the Turks when they slaughtered over a million Armenians, the soviet union when they killed over 8 million people in death camps, the communist Chinese killing over 30 million people in their country, the Japanese when they killed millions of people across Asia, and the Germans when they killed over 6 millions Jews. Furthermore, there has been over one hundred of millions of innocent people who have been victims of genocide across the glove; more than all the combatants killed in wars during our time. While many people have payed little to no attention to this ongoing   mass murder, the author Goldhagen has dedicated this film to show the world how much worst this issue is than war between countries.

In this document, Goldhagen travels to about nine countries around the world interviewing people who lived through these terrors of genocide; including victims, perpetrators, witnesses, politicians and others involved. While he interviewed the perpetrators of some of these genocide, there response to their reasons of killing appeared somewhat disturbing; at least in my opinion. They were asked why they did the killing and they simply would answer because we were told to. A perpetrator said,  "it did not feel like they were humans, it was as they were dogs, it was like hunting animals." Also, victims who survived and witnesses were also questioned and asked about their experiences throughout this terror. A victim said," it was horrifying; men, women and children were all killed merciless." Meanwhile, perpetrators and victims were not the only ones that were questioned, Goldhagen also interviewed a politician to look at their point of  views on genocide. The politician was asked why doesn't the country become involve in stopping these genocides in the world. He answered that in order for a country to get involved they must have military forces from different countries on board and that it is extremely difficult to have approved the support from these other countries.

 As Goldhagen mentions, Genocide is a decision made by leaders. Goldhagen said, "The question is can we get future leaders to make a different decision, i think we can". I will also have to agree in that countries can have better leaders that will make better decisions then genocide. Overall, gaining the support from multiple countries to help out genocide around the world will be extremely difficult to accomplish. Most leaders are more involved in crimes in their own countries then they are in others. In my opinion, genocide will eventually reduce but will never truly disappear.

Full Episode: Mexico & Peru: The Black Grandma in the Closet

This video is another one of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s adventure on discovering African heritage in Latin America. Withing this episode Dr. Gates travels to Mexico and Peru to uncover the history of the country's black ancestry; what is known as "the Black grandmother in the closet ." This quote signifies the hidden black heritage in which the people from these countries originated from. In other words, the people from Mexico and Peru are black descendant. Although history tells us that Mexicans have a black origin, Mexicans and Peruvians branched out to a more Hispanic culture. Now, just because they consider themselves a full Hispanic race it does not necessarily mean that they are in complete denial of their main origin. Furthermore, while their are a few people that know about their ancestry, according to this video most Mexicans and Peruvians are not aware of their African heritage. Also, the majority of the older Mexicans and Peruvians that know about their black back round chooses to not talk about it to the younger generations; they expressed themselves as only "Morenos."

This video also talks about the history of how people in Mexico and Peru became to be who they are today. Back in the slavery days, Mexico and Peru combined came to have far more slaves  then the United States ever had in their entire history of slavery. It started in the early 16 century, the Spaniards found a town in mexico where they began to transport African slaves. This city became a major trading center for commodities such as sugar, cotton, cattle and horses. As time passed more and more people began to populate the area. Eventually the city populated with a number of blacks and Mulattoes equal to the number of whites ultimately leading to the races mixing and combining heritages.

Another historical factor that Dr. Gates investigated in this video was the freedom of the slaves in these countries and their newly found Mexican culture. The historians in the video talk about the two black men who helped free the country from slavery; similar to the United States heroic president George Washington. Also alike our old President G.W, these two men hold a valuable meaning to their country including the appearance of their faces in their money prints.