Brown v. Board of Education

Brown v. Board of Education - Law Day Contest

Ted Sniderman

Ted Sniderman of Alex Spence Tag Academy won third place in the Dallas Bar Association's Law Day Essay Contest. Dr. Ray Davis is Ted's teacher. Ted's essay follows:

How Can The Courts Ensure That People Are Treated Equally

Ted Sniderman

“Guilty! Guilty!” says the judge. The court sentences you to twenty years in jail. “But I’m innocent,” you cry. No one listens. What if you really were innocent and you’re serving someone else’s time in jail? Is there a better way to be judged guilty or innocent?

What if the court was never mistaken? What if the only people in jail were the people who have lost the right of sovereignty? What if that was feasible? Well after you read this narrative, you will be thinking of your own ways to keep the people in the court trials treated equally.

What if there was a way you could tell if they were mendacious by looking at their faces or checking their pulse? Is that possible? If it is, all the horrendous people who are guilty will be doing time while the innocent people will be free, as they deserve to be.

First of all I’d like to tell you my ideas for keeping innocent people on the streets. You could have a mind reader or a machine that tells the truth by analyzing the perpetrator’s brain waves. It is kind of impossible if you ask me, although maybe in a “Star Trek” time. A mind reading course could be taught in college I suppose. If it is effective enough, it might be used elsewhere.

In order to ensure each person gets a fair trial, we should use three different methods in trying to decipher guilt. One method could be measuring the brain waves. Another could be detecting the amount of sweat you produce. A third way could be taking your pulse. With all three methods working together, we would be able to measure unusually high measurements of the truth or falseness.

Now imagine yourself back in that courtroom and you had just been hooked up to “the machine.” They ask you if you killed that bartender and you say no. The machine records the data that we talked about above. The gentleman behind the desk takes the results and shows it to the judge. The judge then says, “You’re free to go!”