What is justice? When is enough enough? How far is one willing to go to have justice be served? These are just some of the topics that Black Mirror tries to address in episode two of season two, "White Bear". The directors portray a dystopia, a society characterized by human misery, where criminal punishments have gone to extremes and the criminal is now constantly under the scrutiny of the public eye. In America, the justice system prides itself on having an innocent until proven guilty judicial system, and that everybody is entitled to have a fair trial by the public. Can that still be the case with the hundreds of media outlets that report on the trials in today's culture? The show hints at the media for being the cause of the dystopia because of how they treat the victim's family and defendant throughout the trial process. The show is able to portray a dystopia of the criminal justice system through their use of cellphones, the idolization of the defendant, and references to the death penalty. The media plays too big of a role in today's trials for anybody to receive a fair trial.

A topic that is prevalent in today's media is the bystander effect. The bystander effect is when people standing around the victim just watch as the person id being treated unfairly instead of helping them out. Throughout the episode, all of the supporting actors have their phones out video taping the main character as she is chased by "hunters" in masks. Instead of helping the main character out, people immediately pull out their phones and start to video tape another person's misfortune. The issue is not only when people videotape other people's misery, but also the fact that media plays the videos on their broadcasts nonstop. Criminals of high profile cases go through "trial by media", before even entering a court house (Effect). In recent years, "media [has] play[ed] a vital role in molding the opinion of the society and it is capable of changing the whole viewpoint through which people perceive various events", this makes it so much harder for the defendant to have a fair trial because everybody has already made up their minds of whether or not they believe that the defendant is guilty (Effect). In order to serve on a jury, in the United States, one must show that you have no connection to the case, or have any biases that would lead one to lean one way or the other. If a person is chosen to serve on the jury of a high profile case, then they must not read or listen to any thing that has to do with the case reported by the media. This policy has become more difficult for jurors to follow and for law enforcement to enforce, with the use of cell phones and social media. Now people can look anything up at anytime. In recent years there have been cases that have had to be tried outside of the county or state that it happened in because it would be to hard to find a jury that was not going to be biased because of what the media had been reporting on. Instead of just reporting what law enforcements findings were, the media is now taking matters into their own hands and almost performs, "a separate investigation, builds a public opinion against the accused even before the court takes cognizance of the case" (Effect). The media is not only effecting the publics opinion about the defendant but also the judges, in a high profile case the judge "will tend to be bias and give verdict as per as media reports just to be in lime light" (Effect).  In this episode, the majority of the public had already deemed the defendant guilty, and they were watching her relive the events of her wrong doing every single day. They were treating her like an animal. To them it was all just a show that they were watching; it was their guilty pleasure in a sense. People are paying money to go to White Bear, which is a theme park that reenacts a crime and puts the inmate through a trial and sentences them over and over again.  The theme park's directors and actors alike are making money on other people's misfortunes.

After a big public trial ends there are always Lifetime movies or television specials done on the defendant and their specific case. This raises the question "as to whether true crime is considered art or entertainment" (Levin).  In order to get the ratings that the channel is looking for, they always try to have a big name celebrity be the killer. The directors are glamorizing the criminal and are making them a household name most of the time. It is not only the person's real name that one can associate with the crime, but also the nickname that the media gave to them such as "The Boston Bombers", "The Zodiac Killer", or "The BTK". These nicknames make the killers seem like they are above normal people and give them the sense of recognition that they were looking for. Criminologists have said, that the nicknames also give the killers something to live up to or aspire to be (Levin). They want to keep killing in order to live up to the bigger than life name that the media has given them (Levin). In this episode, the main character's nickname or the object that we as the viewer associate with her crime is the White Bear, hence the name of the amusement park. In todays culture it is not uncommon to find people who idolize crime and the media and mass consumer markets recognize that so, "their images [serial killers] can also be found on serial-murder trading cards, comic books, T-shirts, calendars and action figures for the kiddies" (Levin). There are many people who believe in what the criminal had done and are willing to continue to carry out the killer's mission by becoming "copy cat killers" (Levin). The media does not help with this problem because the media is where the future copy cat killers are getting their information from in order to carry out the next murder or serial crime. 

Not only does this episode address the role of media in court cases today, but it also touches on the death penalty. The chair that we find the main character sitting in looks eerily similar to an electric chair. Public figure heads, such as President Barack Obama, have come out and addressed concern about the death penalty. The historic viewing of the death penalty has been that there are some heinous crimes that are deserving of the death penalty, so many people including Barak Obama are not opposed to the death penalty in theory (Marshall). However, over the past years, there have been many issues with the death penalty such as "wrongful sentences, racial biases, and botched executions" (Marshall). President Obama said, "'At a time when we're spending a lot of time thinking about how to make the system more fair, more just, that we have to include an examination of the death penalty in that" (Marshall). If a person is given the death penalty as their sentence they will go through years of appeals and legal procedures before ultimately being put to death. This makes the death penalty inefficient because many people have been known to be sentenced to death row to only be proven not guilty years later (Marshall). In recent years there have been many death penalty cases that have gone under review for wrongful imprisonment. One case that is being reviewed is the case of Cameron Todd Willingham. He was executed in 2004 because he was the main suspect in the arson death of his three children in December of 1991 (Grann). In the ninety's there was no such thing as arson investigators. If a fire occurred and it needed to be investigated the Fire Chief would determine whether the fire was accidental or set on purpose. Years later when forensic scientist, Gerald Hurst went back to investigate the fire for an upcoming appeal it was clear that the fire was accidental (Introduction). This evidence was found too late and could not help because Texas's mayor "Rick Perry, refused to delay Willingham's execution" (Introduction). In 2009 the Texas Forensic Science Commission published a report that supported Dr. Hurst's findings that the fire was accidental and there was no evidence to suggest that it was arson (Introduction).  This is just one of the many examples of wrongful imprisonment and execution that can be found in America's justice system. Another issue with the death penalty is whether or not it is humane. Prison officials claim that the inmate feels no pain when they are put to death, but since they end up dying, there is no way to prove what they feel up until that time when they take their last breath. This is just like what the owners of the theme park are doing to the girl, except they know that wiping her memory causes her pain; they just make her forget the amount of pain she is in everyday.  

As a nation we are trying to find a way to break away from the death penalty so we hopefully do not get into a situation as bad as Black Mirror portrays. Mass media is still a new concept and not a lot of laws have been written to control what the media tells the viewers. While the actions depicted in this episode are exaggerated, it helps the viewer see what could happen if we keep going on as we have been. It may take years to have a full understanding of what justice is and what it should look like, but by taking steps to curve the death penalty rate and media attention the accused may be able to be granted a fair trial.

