Two Mississippi men spent a combined 30 years in prison for crimes they didn’t commit. They were separately charged with sexually assaulting and murdering two 3-year-old girls — in two separate crimes — two years apart. The pathologist who conducted both autopsies said he suspected the girls had been bitten. They were innocent.
A common law rule (sometimes called due process)
requiring a procedurally fair hearing and an unbiased decision in government and some private decision-making.
1 The very nature of binding justice
Injustice is first of all the impact it has.
It is a deciding moment for the rest of your life.
It is the worst thing that you can experience.
Only then, at that moment you can feel what is happening.
Injustice is a feeling impossible to put into words.
There has to be a balance in the decision making – a fair procedure – to avoid possible mistakes.
It is hard to answer the question what justice requires.
It is very hard to argue about justice without first to argue about the purpose.
Aristotle
Talk to Al Jazeera – Professor Michael Sandel
16 okt. 2011
Al Jazeera’s Tony Harris interviews Professor Michael Sandel of Harvard University, Boston whose courses have become an international phenomenon.
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What is Justice?
Michael Sandel 2011 Al Jazeera Interview
Al Jazeera’s Tony Harris interviews Professor Michael Sandel of Harvard University, Boston whose courses have become an international phenomenon. Sandel talks about
What is justice,
What is right and what is wrong and
How it is connected to the concept of freedom.
CHAPITRES & ANNOTATIONS
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Introduction
01 min 29 s 3 annotations
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What is justice?
00 min 31 s 2 annotations
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Is justice the same wherever you go in the world?
00 min 40 s 1 annotations
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Do we have an intuitive sense of what’s right and what’s wrong?
00 min 50 s 0 annotations
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The unfairness in economy
03 min 24 s 8 annotations
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A lack of serious debate about moral issues
01 min 45 s 3 annotations
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Sandel’s thought about the “Arab Spring”
03 min 13 s 2 annotations
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The growing gap between rich and poors
03 min 12 s 5 annotations
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Does Sandel see the potential for poor people in America to rise up?
02 min 54 s 6 annotations
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What means to think critically?
02 min 59 s 1 annotations
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Sandel’s judgement on the American policy in the world after 9/11?
04 min 10 s 0 annotations
1
Introduction
01 min 29 s 3 annotations
Michael Sandel at Harvard
00:00:09 Chapter 1
Michael Sandel on wikipedia
00:00:12 Chapter 1
Justice with Michael Sandel (online courses)
00:00:15 Chapter 1
“Michael I travel all over the world now and
I am keenly sensitive to issues of poverty inequality in my life.
I’ve seen a lot of it.
I see so many people from all over the world who are working for nothing,
who are working for nothing and they are making tons of money
through their labour countries and corporations.
Michael it’s just not right.”
Answer:
“Well this is one of the biggest questions of justice.”
2 Discredited as flawed and biased
Wrongfully Convicted: Flawed Autopsies Send Two Innocent Men To Jail
The wrongful conviction case of Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer is a tragic example of how flawed forensic science and biased investigations can lead to devastating consequences. Here are the key points about Levon Brooks in this case:
- Levon Brooks was convicted in 1992 for the murder and sexual assault of a three-year-old girl named Courtney Smith in Noxubee County, Mississippi. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
- Brooks was implicated in the crime based on the testimony of Dr. Steven Hayne, a forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy on the victim. Hayne testified that the injuries on the victim’s body were consistent with sexual assault and that Brooks’ DNA matched the semen found on the victim’s body.
- However, Hayne’s findings were later discredited as flawed and biased. Hayne was found to have a history of providing unreliable and unscientific testimony in numerous criminal cases, including the case of Kennedy Brewer, who was also wrongfully convicted of a similar crime in the same county.
- In 2008, DNA testing proved that Brooks was innocent of the crime. The DNA evidence pointed to Justin Albert Johnson, a convicted sex offender who was already serving a life sentence for a similar crime.
- Brooks was exonerated and released from prison in 2008, but he had already served 16 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
- The case of Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer prompted an overhaul of the state’s criminal justice system, including changes to the way forensic evidence is collected and analyzed. It also led to a deeper investigation into the misconduct of Dr. Hayne, who was later stripped of his medical license.
