The Crucible: Injustice

Thomas Goldstein was living in a garage in Long Beach, California, and attending college when a man was shot dead on the street near where he lived. Tom was a Vietnam War Veteran yet after a short while the police came after him. In 1980 Tom was charged with murder and sentenced to 27 years to life in prison. A man named Edward Fink who worked in the jail house where Tom was first brought to testified in court that Tom had confessed to him that he had committed the murder. Fink was the key witness at Tom's trial as well as another trial involving a man named Tommy Thompson. As a result of Fink's testimony Tommy was executed. There was a last minute debate as to whether or not Tommy was really guilty but the execution was not stopped in time to review the case any further. When Goldstein heard about this other case he called his attorney, Sean Kennedy from prison and had him look into Fink's records. They contacted Fink and he later recanted his earlier opinion. In 2004 Fink told the court that he has changed his mind and no longer believes that Goldstein was ever involved in the murder he was charged with. Tom was released immediately.

Thomas Goldstein was falsely accused due to a witnesses error. This reminds me of the crucible because all of the cases in the book were based solely on the opinions of witnesses. In my opinion there was never enough evidence in this case or any of the cases in the book to make any convictions. It is our right as Americans that we are innocent until proven guilty. The problem that has occurred in cases like these is that the defendants were proven guilty with out enough evidence. Witnesses have an extremely heavy impact on juries and are often inaccurate. The other problem that the defendants faced was that they did not have proper representation. If Tom had had a better defense attorney Tommy's case may have been discussed in the first trial and and more proof of Tom's innocences would have been brought up. In the crucible none of the defendants are even represented. They are brought to the judge and convicted on the account that their neighbor does not like something about them.