Jackson Saffold

US Political Systems
May 1st, 2019
Civic Engagement #3

For my third civic engagement, I chose to attend the Making an Exoneree event at

Georgetown University. It was an event that talked about the issues in the judicial system

pertaining to American prison system and how many wrongful convictions there are. There was

also talk about facts around the disproportionate number of African Americans that are in prison.

It was an interesting conversation because a lot of the talk was on juries and how the age old

saying “jury of one’s own peers” simply is not the case. One case in about John Brookins

specifically showed blacks and whites and prejudice in the judicial system. Brook was black and

woman murdered was white along with the real murderer the daughter being white as well. The

case was full of terrible injustices. The prosecutor didn’t even investigate the daughter because

of the fact that the prosecutor had a relationship with the daughter at the time. They talked about

how the jury along with the towns disproportionate amount of white people (98%) in the town

who wanted to immediately go after black individuals. I saw some parallels between this and the

making of ferguson how there were some disparities between different races that caused major

issues. The main purpose of the night was to talk about various cases that there were wrongful

convictions, under the umbrella of prison and social justice reform which have obvious ties with

American Government.