Analysis Of The Article “I’M On Death Row For Punching A Man” By Maurice Chammah
This article is a solid example of how and why the criminal justice system is how it is today. In this article, J. T. , the inmate who told this story, is serving a life sentence for punching a man in the head. The man he punches in the head ends up having a brain aneurysm through the night and dies. Furthermore, there are several points in this article that do not make sense, but, somehow, it comes together and ends up finding two people guilty of murdering a man.
In this article, it’s the late 1980’s, and two young men are just relaxing in a car drinking in Las Vegas. Soon, a girl that they know walks up to them and they notice that she has a black eye. Eventually, she tells them that she was beaten up by her pimp and mentions that she wants him out of her hotel room. They agree to help her in situation, but in reality, this is the point where things take a turn. They go with the woman and, eventually, make it back to her room and confront the pimp. As the go through the door to the hotel room, the pimp jumps up off the bed and gets in a fighting stance, so the two men see it as a gesture to fight him. They fight the pimp, and each party gets a couple nice hits in. Seemingly, each party is not in too bad of shape, and the two men leave to go sleep in their car. In the morning, they end up getting arrested because the police believe they murdered someone. The guy they fought the night before ended up dying because of a brain aneurysm. Well, J. T. , ended up confessing to the murder and pleading guilty.
The other person whom was involved ended up being charged with involuntary manslaughter, while J. T. was given a murder charge. The jury and the judge told the story differently and said that J. T. was planning to kill him, which, in my opinion, could be considered mens rea, but is not because J. T. , from my perspective, did not walk into the room planning to kill the pimp. Further down in the article, it is revealed that J. T. had been put in jail before and really does not want to go back. Furthermore, J. T. felt that killing himself would be better than going back to prison all over again. He began admitting to murders that never happened, and even wrote the judge a letter that provoked the idea of killing J. T.
During J. T. ’s jail time, a doctor came and talked to him and came to the conclusion that J. T. was not a competent man and would not be able to help his lawyer during the trial. To counter this, the case judge wrote a statement that was the opposite of the doctors. He claimed that J. T. was a competent man and claimed that what the doctor had said about J. T. was fabricated by J. T. Eventually, J. T. lands on death row and begins talking to other inmates about his sentence. They all basically tell him that he should not be in prison and J. T. begins researching and figuring out ways on how to appeal his case.
Finally, J. T. got his chance because he told his lawyer that he could not read or write, so they decided to appeal to the judge and say that J. T. was “intellectually disabled”. The article reveals that this worked and that he has a new sentence. In my opinion, this whole article is just really confusing to understand because there are so many different things happening through out it. There is a point in the article where the inmate claims and confesses to murders that never even took place, which is completely ridiculous.
From reading this article, I have come to the conclusion that there are several things within the criminal justice that need to be looked at, especially in cases like J. T. ’s. Furthermore, it is said that J. T. fought his case and, eventually, won and got a new sentence. J. T. is no longer on death row, but is now serving a life sentence in Indian Springs, Nevada.
