Manuel Velez: A Case Study

found innocent, after being sentenced to death by an ineffective defense attorney who failed to present available medical evidence showing that the child´s head injuries were caused when Velez was away in Tennessee working in construction. This example shows how people are condemned to things they did not commit just because they are not White or as a result of their lower social position. Moreover, the inadequate counsel for the poor and Hispanic population had influenced court trials where thousands of innocents have been sentenced to death in all the American territory. In consequence, Manuel Velez became another prisoner of the Penitentiary System to be declared as innocent and obtained his freedom back in 2013 after these incidents that