even given as much as a slap on the hand. Beyond this, the police assumed that Thomas was one of the culprits and never pursued 'the fourth culprit' any further. Greenlee was sentenced to life in prison for a crime he did not commit, and Thomas was murdered.The reason the police felt so pressured to pinpoint assaultants were to appease the public. The Tuesday following the assault, Orlando's Morning Sentinel printed a drawing that showed four electric chairs, and the caption for the picture read, "No Compromise!" (Radelet 104). Clearly the public mob had spoken and hence, Shepard and Irvin (the two other culprits) were sentenced to death, Greenlee was sentenced to life in prison, and Thomas was murdered. Community passion rang loud against these ill-fated and helpless men.In yet more cases involving minorities, racial hoaxes occur. Susan Smith v. South Carolina in 1994 involved such a hoax. Smith claimed that she was hijacked and that her kids who were in the car at the time were kidnapped. She blamed this crime on an African American who was between 20 and 30 years old. The entire black community of the town was immediately placed under suspicion. This is a prime example of a racial hoax, because in reality, Smith murdered her own children. (Simpson, 52). She fabricated a crime and blamed an African American because of his race. She immediately believed that by blaming a minority, the blame would be deferred from her. This is not a lone case. It occurs often. A few examples of this are in the cases of, Foster v. State 1956, Hall v. State 1978, and People v. Lindley 1943.Sadly, these anecdotal examples do not even come close to capturing the vast number of injustices committed in our country in administering the death penalty. Although many people are ignorant of how corrupt and unjust the American system truly is, they cannot ignore these disturbing examples of injustice. The examples discussed above reflect the role e...
