The justice system in America is designed to find and convict the true perpetrators of crimes, but this system is not infallible. Our justice system is supposed to function on the principle of “innocent until proven guilty”; however, there are cases, such as the West Memphis Three, in which the court convicts innocent people simply because they are in of a scapegoat. These situations are fairly reminiscent of the Salem Witch Trials, and even to this day, innocent people are still convicted of crimes they did not commit through unfair trials, just as people were in the Salem Witch Trials. When a case needs to be close for the state or police force to maintain their pride and good name or to calm the public, they often turn to convicting innocent people who don’t quite fit in with others. These scapegoats are on the…show more content… Unfortunately, human beings are naturally biased, and in cases that invoke strong emotions in people - this emotional bias is especially prominent in cases which call religion into question - a jury could be swayed before the trial even begins. In cases dealing with religious issues, such as the accusations of the West Memphis killings being fueled by cult practices and the Salem “witches” being possessed by the Devil, jury members feel an extreme bias as their religious practices are threatened by supposedly demonic forces. In the West Memphis Three trials, jury members felt as if it would be against their religion to let accused devil worshipers to walk free. Similarly, in the Salem Witch Trials, the accused were being judged by deeply religious people, and they would accept no other answer than the accused being possessed. For further proof of this bias, look no further than the fact that in both trials, young girls gave false testimonies that, despite there being no evidence to support them, were taken as truth, and strongly influenced the jury’s
