In 1985, Rolando Cruz was sentenced to life for the murder of Jeanine Nicarico. He was also accused of kidnapping and rape. Even though the law enforcement agents did not present linking the defendants to the crime, the two were wrongfully convicted and later sentenced to death for the offenses. The wrongful conviction of Rolando Cruz and his co-defendant is an example of systemic discrimination. From the beginning of the case, Rolando Cruz and his co-defendant were subjected to discrimination by the criminal justice system. Starting from the arrest to conviction and the appeals, the criminal justice system failed the two defendants at every stage of the criminal proceedings (Walker, Spohn & DeLone, 2012). Rolando Cruz and his co-defendant faced bad police practice that simply …show more content…
Most of the evidence had been collected from cellmates or close acquaintances to the defendants. All these witnesses were aiming at either collecting rewards from the police or reducing their time at the prison. Another evidence of systemic discrimination was the lack of strong alibis from the defendants. Cruz had reported visions of the crime and the police used these visions as evidence without recording them. This was evidence how much the police were hell bent to convict the suspects. Before the start of the trial in 1985, the lead detective had resigned after finding out that law enforcement officers were after innocent persons. The sheriffs went ahead with the investigations and even testified that Cruz had reported visions that were closely related to the actual events during the crime (Mello, 2001). However, Cruz testified that he never informed the sheriffs of the alleged visions that were being presented before the court. The police did not present any record of such testimonies, but the judge went ahead and convicted Cruz and Hernandez for