You are to write a 750-word, single-spaced essay in response to the proposal
included in the Prompt. Since some essays written in the class represent group
efforts, I must emphasize that this assignment is to be completed individually.
Of course, I expect that you will do research to gather evidence for your essay. All
cited research must be from peer-reviewed journals and books or highly respected
newspapers and magazines*. Be sure to properly and fully cite all sources obtained
in your research efforts that you cite within your essay. The essay’s text should, of
course, be entirely your own work. Submit your Word or pdf file by email to
Sweany@unt.edu.
Prompt
Our crowded state and federal court systems lead to a significant problem in our
society today both in terms of cost and in fairness. Many cases are settled through
plea bargains without a trial because our legal system just does not have the
resources to continue with our current system of "innocent until proven guilty."
Luckily, advances in technology provide us with a possible solution. Since we can
now cheaply produce electronic sensors, we can and should mandate that each
person in the United States be outfitted with multiple cameras and listening devices
so that they can maintain a complete history of all their movements. Given this, and
the ability to securely store each person's information so that only that person can
access it, we should change our system of justice to use the principle of "guilty until
proven innocent." Then when a person is charged with a crime at some specific time,
the person can, if he or she wishes, rely on this personal database of activity to show
where (s)he was and what (s)he was doing at the time in question. Such a change
would make justice more fair, as the electronic data would be much more reliable
than human witnesses and would also significantly reduce both the backlog of court
cases and plea bargaining made necessary by our current overcrowded court
systems.
* While you may use Wikipedia to gain background information, you may not cite
Wikipedia or similar sources in your essay.