Unequal Justice by R. Perske

The due judicial process is wanting, since many people walk down the justice system and get penalized even through their rights are not dully accorded to them. The problem exists since some of these individuals are not of sound intellectual ability or don’t have the capacity to demand for their rights. Unequal justice is a book written by Robert Perske, in which he shares out his opinion and sound compassion for the American people living with disabilities but fail to get justice in the American Judicial system. The ideas of Perske reiterates the issues affecting the people with special cases, such as retarded minds or psychological issues but are still treated as people with sound mind hence denying them justice. From his opinion, American judicial system failed its obligation of according each citizen justice, since the people with disability cannot be treated as other citizens. The nation has failed to accord justice for the people in need of medical and psychological attention but will put them in prison. For justice system, the interrogators need to thoroughly understand the persons being interrogated and a thorough examination should be carried it to determine their sanity.  The people being interrogated may lack legal representation and hence they will be subjected to harsh treatment due to their inability to defend themselves or fight   for their own rights according to Robert Perske, many innocent people who are not of sound intellectual abilities end up in prison due to their lack of understanding of the matter and hence they may be coerced into confessing or agreeing to confess false crime. This will result in a wrong judgment and jail term that could have been avoided if these persons could have been subjected to thorough scrutiny, examination before being interrogated. Enough measures should be taken, and accountability by the interrogators to ensure that justice is serving to all the citizens. As stipulated by the bill of rights, every citizen's right to a fair trial process. The fair trial process begins with the moment a person is identified as a suspect. The interrogation accounted to the person and the representation a person gets to ensure that justice is served to the person. This has not been the case as for the poor people or the people with intellectual disabilities. In many cases, these people lack fair representation and in many cases, they are subjected to crude interrogation method, unprofessional examination process, and unfair trial. The judges and the jury can be fair but however, the process that the individual underwent to reach the jury process was marred with irregularities and unethical practices denying the said person a right to humane practice and fair process. Robert Perske posed a question, what if the accused is a person of disability and confesses to a crime and in his observation, a person with mental disability ends up confessing to a serious crime and get slapped with capital penalties. From his observation, the police and the interrogators will be happy to successfully prosecute a perpetrator even though the person was not subjected to a succinct interrogation process or accorded a medical test. Relating the issue of the persons with intellectual disability being subjected to unfair trial and subsequently getting jail, the bill of rights in the fourteenth amendment provides for a due legal process for a person to stand before the court of law. Even if a person confesses a crime or a felony he deserves the right to due representation by a legal counsel. A person with a disability may fail to demand these rights and since he was coerced into confessing the felony or due to his intellectual disability he didn’t understand the consequences of actions. Definitely, irrespective of the status of the person, the courts will sentence them to a jail term as long as the said crime is fit to be a felony punishable by law. But this will not be the case when the accused person is granted a legal counsel and subjected to the due legal process as demanded by the bill of rights. The same can be related to the Gideon Trumpet case where the poor and uninformed person can be denied their fundamental rights of fair representation. The court cab is more than happy to sentence a person if he is not in a position to request for a legal counsel as provided by the bill of rights. This applies when a person cannot afford an attorney, the court is mandated by the constitution to avail a legal attorney for the person, who can ensure that the accused gets a fair trial and accorded a fair legal process. As Gideon Trumpet missed these processes and even thought demanded for the same more than five times, the court told him that though the Constitution provides for the same in the fourteenth amendment, it is not mandated. Even though it is his right, the trumpet was outright and openly denied a fair representation, implying that he had to answer an unjust punishment for his case.

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