Innocence: Round, not Flat

Thesis

Racism is the result of flat characterization, and leads to issues like false incarceration. The Innocent Project is one way to challenge that.

Main claims

• We are always surrounded by narratives, and that influences our views of the world and the people in it.

• Flattening a person or persons based on race → racism 

• Examples of racism among police demonstrate flattening further

• Innocence Project as a means to confront and reject flattening

Best Evidence

• Abbott 
  • Round vs. Flat (133)
    • Flat characters are “limited to a narrow range of predictable behaviors” (133)
      • no hidden complexity (133)
      • Keen- “easily recognizable, easily remembered” (68)
• Reader/Viewer + Narrative → Reader/Viewer’s construction of a character (134)
• Reader/Viewer + Narrative → Reader/Viewer’s construction of a real person (135)
  • However poorly they are composed or however poorly we may read or view them, histories, biographies, newspaper reports, legal briefs, documentaries, film biographies all purport to tell us of real people. But are real people characters? (135).
    • Perhaps they can become characters simply by the nature in which we view any story. When it comes to race, we see repeated mugshots of black men, ‘criminals.’ Might some come to see them as a specific kind of (flat) character?

• Delgado and Stefancic
  • Reasonable racist: one who treats members of another group in racist fashion because he or she believes that, statistically, the other group is prone to crime or similar behavior (183).
    • Influenced by narratives and ultimately flatten individuals based on race.
  • Racial Profiling: In which the police stop minority-looking motorists to search for drugs of other contraband (121).
    • Searching for certain characteristics, repeated examples of how someone is ‘just like the others.’
  • The number of young black men in prison or jail is larger than the number attending college (120).

• The Innocence Project
  • “The Innocence Project’s mission is to free the staggering number of innocent people who remain incarcerated, and to bring reform to the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment.”
    • Most known for providing DNA evidence to prove false imprisonment
    • Most of TIP’s cases are for sexual assault and murder
  • Over 300 cases detailed on their website of people falsely incarcerated. Small number in comparison to the overall prison population, but even then majority of clients are African American men.

Case Example: Malcom Alexander.

• Convicted 11/05/1980 for rape
• Unrelated incident prompts police to place photograph in an array shown to the victim
  • “Tentative selection”
  • Confidence jumps to around 98% by the time of the trial
• Means of blood type testing connection available but unused
• True perpetrator’s hair found and tested in 2013
• Exonerated 1/30/2018
  • Spent 38 years in prison, some have spent even more

The Innocence Project may become one way to confront flattening based on race.

• Expansion to help more clients in the present
• Speak about racial bias

Counterpoint

A lot of those cases from TIP came from much earlier times (late 70s, 80s, 90s). If flattening was a problem, it could have just been a problem during those times.

Rebuttal

The Pew Research Center shows that, as of 2017, black men make up the majority of men in prison. While that percentage is shrinking, it’s still significant.

Counterpoint

Doesn’t all of this have more to do with masterplots than round and flat characterization?

Rebuttal

That may be so, however I would argue that to limit someone to a ‘type’ is also a form of flattening. And maybe that’s something I can explore a bit in the project itself.

Counterpoint

There’s no real point to relying on The Innocence Project since it can’t help everyone.

Rebuttal

Unfortunately, that’s true. There are many who cannot be helped by TIP, for example there are many cases involving drugs rather than DNA. However, TIP does more than just provide DNA evidence. They also work to improve case law and push for reform in order to prevent false incarceration. Even if this cycle continues, as it likely will, it could be that they are able to take away the validity of those who make a habit of flattening a person based on race. There’s still more I have to do to tie in this piece of my project, so I will focus on it more as I continue.

Plans for Development

• Continue paper
• Edit as necessary