On February 23rth 2020, a man named Ahmaud Arbery was out on a jog one late night when he decided to stop by an unfinished house to admire it. This would prompt pursuers who would go on to murder Ahmaud in cold blood in the name of justice. According to a 2023 reading, a “killer claims he did not execute a premeditated murder but was instead provoked by his wife’s infidelity”, giving him a lighter sentence because it was done in the name of justice. In the play Othello written by Shakespeare, the character Othello, in a blind fury, strangled his wife to death in the name of justice only to figure out his convictions were wrong all along. All of these tragedies have something in common, they were carried out under the motive of justice. Often, we cast blame on those who we believe have wronged us and carry out “noble” punishment in the name of righteous justice, but this kind of thinking is severely flawed and can lead to the gravest and most vile of mistakes.

There is something that they all share aside from misguided judgment, those who commit these acts are based on ignorance and/or emotion. The men who killed Ahmuad Arbery were motivated by their irrational hatred towards his race which stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of something different from themselves, and so they respond enraged and commit a heinous act. There is a name for this phenomenon of people being so sure of something even knowing little to nothing about it. It is commonly referred to as the “Dunning Kruger Effect” and it is the basis of a majority of cruel and blinded justice. According to the “New York Times,” David Dunning a main contributor to the effect pondered, “whether it was possible to measure one’s self-assessed level of competence against something a little more objective — say, actual competence.” Without this effect, one’s perception of a sin they saw committed could never lead to a punishment that was unjustly given because they question their knowledge and authority. This is unlike many of those who dispense “justice” who don’t know that their sense of what is right is not based on a solid foundation of truth. From irrational emotion springs forth a wellspring of cruelty and unusual punishment we justify with our bogus accusations. This danger goes far beyond our own hands as well, if someone with evil intent could use our lack of information to justify negative actions then a lot of us would be none the wiser as it’s tough to challenge the action that is widely accepted by the public.

Building upon this idea, questioning our conclusions based on ignorance could be a key factor in preventing false accusations. However, the only way to prevent against a misguided justice is constant. The prime characteristic of a silly person is that they believe they are clever, that being said there is never and probably never will be a human immune to being wrong. When we let our ideas go unchecked it results in monstrous actions committed by our own hands. Constant watch of our actions, holding ourselves accountable for them, and learning from them appear to be the only true way we as a species can pursue true justice untouched by the hands of bias. We are a long road from perfect justice but looking into a dark reflection of our conscience we will move ever forward towards an actual righteous future. In the words of physicist  Carlo Rovelli, “And only when we have failed when beaten and without hope, we are reduced to licking our wounds, then with iron in our souls we will begin to ask ourselves if we might not be right after all.” As of yet, we cannot perfectly defend our mind from these unknowns so we must hold on tight before making a decision that harms another person or even any sentient life, we must ask ourselves if what we are doing is just.

It seems also self-explanatory, always be cautious when you accuse someone of a crime or a wronging because injustice is an unappealing idea. In practice, it is a lot more difficult to watch your step when you don’t know you are wrong and or are overwhelmed by emotion. Almost everyone wants to pursue their definition of justice and righteousness because to them that is objectively right, however, despite our best intentions we should always be aware of the dangers of misguided justice.