A Brief Note On Race And Capital Punishment Essay

The article that I read about the racial bias of the death penalty in the U.S. by David Love explained how southern states are responsible for the vast majority of African American executions in the United States. Love explicitly stated that “the application of the U.S. death penalty is unfair, arbitrary, and racially biased.” Most disturbingly, the article explained that whether or not a capital punishment defendant receives the death penalty does not depend on the facts of the case but more so on the race of the defendant and the race of the victim. Moreover, even the county in which the case was prosecuted can play a role in capital punishment sentencing.

The ethnicity of a defendant in a capital case should not play a role whatsoever in their sentencing. However, it plays a significant and crucial role in deciding who receives capital punishment. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, minorities account for a disproportionate “43% of total executions since 1976 and 55% of those are currently awaiting execution.” An interesting piece of information that I found from the article was that only 12 people have been executed where the defendant was white and the murder victim was black which is disconcerting when compared to the 178 black defendants who have been executed for the murders of white victims. The racial disparities in these statistics are alarming and troublesome.

This essay will critique “Race, Capital Punishment, and the Cost of Murder” by M. Cholbi. The critique will discuss and point out some unnecessary concepts and flaws in the author’s argument along with logical fallacies. The author appeals for a moratorium among capital punishment due to racial disparities. This essay will analyze the author’s paper on the subject of race and capital punishment. The subject of capital punishment is controversial, as some citizens believe capital punishment is unconstitutional.

The American judicial system is designed to have equal and fair trials. The 14th amendment abides with that and has made it so everyone receives just trials. Today’s society and judicial system have definitely improved from the past in regards to racism, however, in some cases blacks continue to get convicted and charged without solid or any evidence, solely taken on the word of skeptical or influenced witnesses. Yet, in recent years, science and technology have developed and allowed our legal system to exonerate many innocent people. Sadly, in the past, many blameless people suffered the death penalty from these false accusations. Racial bias and prejudice in the American judicial system are displayed in the Scottsboro Boys case, Harper Lee’s

Samantha Smith once said, “Well, I just hope we can have peace, and I hope it’ll do some good”. This quote makes me wonder if senseless homicides are slowly becoming a new way of life or if hoping for the world without murder just seems like a never-developed reality? The recent murders of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Laquan McDonald, and Amber Monroe makes it seen as an overdue alarm call for not only the African-American community to start taking action, but outside the African American community to fully unite and work together as one to combat race-related homicides in our nation.

"We simply cannot say we live in a country that offers equal justice to all Americans when racial disparities plague the system by which our society imposes the ultimate punishment." (Senator Russ Feingold, 2003). It has been proven that death sentencing across the USA is determined by the race of the victim and race of the defendant. In 1990, there was a report from the General Accounting office which concluded that those who murdered whites were more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks. (Focus, 2003) This injustice amongst us are because people are scared and don’t know. They don’t know whether a black man is pulling out a gun, their phone, wallet, etc. So just to remain safe, they retaliate by killing our men. Society has grown to function on the fear of black men. Capitalism and the imprisonment of black people have become profitable. They’ve made a big business to just imprison black men. Black men are inheritably a threat to the capitalist structure of America, it protects their money, their politics, and their society.

The impact of race on criminal justice and inequality: How much of a role does race play in the criminal justice and inequality equation? Vincent Toi Lai Lee 1001333586 October 2, 2015 Word count: 1452 For this essay topic, we will be discussing about different issues surrounding race within criminal justice and inequality; furthermore looking at the different factors and determinants that influences one’s perception of racial profiling, coming to the decision that race is not the sole factor in this problem. With so many news and incidents surrounding race and the police these days, it is not surprising for people to come to the conclusion that just because you are a certain race, you will be automatically treated differently than others, but that is not the case in reality. We will be taking a deeper look into the problem to find out what other possible determinants play a role in deciding how an officer makes an arrest or stop and continue to analyze what is happening in those contexts.

You are driving down the highway, obeying the traffic laws. You look in the rear view mirror and you see flashing lights, cop lights, and a siren. You pull over and you are not too sure why. What is clear from research is that race is a consistent predictor of attitude toward the police. A study in Cincinnati found that black drivers had longer stops and higher search rates than white drivers. (www.nij.gov)There are 2.2 million people behind bars in the nation’s prisons and jails today. This is a 500% increase in the last 40 years, prisons are becoming overcrowded and it is only getting worse. Today, people of color make up 37% of the U.S population but make up 67% of the prison population. African American men are six times more likely to be incarcerated and hispanic males are more than twice as likely to be incarcerated than white males. Even white males commit the same crimes, and they still do not get the same amount of time as blacks and hispanics do. This raises questions, is our justice system fair? Is the criminal justice system operated to target people of color? The risk that African Americans are unfairly targeted should be a special concern for the U.S supreme court which it seems to not be. The color of someone 's skin should not be taken into consideration in the justice system, it is unfair to the person being charged, it is unjustifiable and it is

The death penalty is one of the most controversial issues on American soil. Blacks are more likely to face the death penalty than whites in the commission of identical crimes(CNN, 2014). The history of capital punishment dates back to the days before Christ. The Old Testament adage 'an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,' has survived throughout the ages despite the New Testament's rendition of 'thou shall not kill'. Today's American victims endure a more demure of style of cruel and unusual punishment; death by lethal injection has replaced the barbaric traditions of the past.

While the nation has recognized the significance of having the first African American man as President, clearly societal issues of race are still very prevalent in the United States in the 21st century. What is striking about the discussion of race is how frequent national attention to these issues is focused on race and the criminal justice system. However, people may view the justice issues in these situations, they represent moments in our national life in which it becomes clear that longstanding differences in how we perceive the criminal justice system are still very evident today and, in many ways, continue to define the racial divide in the country. For these reasons, as well as ongoing concerns regarding public safety and the impact of incarceration on communities of color.

This research paper will provide an overview of the topic of race within the criminal justice system. At first glance this paper seems to be a simple task, but there is much difficulty to study such a broad subject manner. There are numerous amounts of different perspectives from which a discussion on the decision of race within the system could develop. The term race has changed significantly over the course of human history. Early theories of race allocated many social, intellectual, moral, and physical values to the evident differences between groups of people. After the civil war, The Jim Crow laws were enacted all across the South and in the North (Klarman, 2004). From the 17th through early 20th centuries, the study of race was defined

In addition to being racially prejudiced, capital punishment places innocent lives at risk. Recently in Chicago, a black man was released from death row after nearly sixteen years in prison. This man, Anthony Porter, came within two days of receiving a lethal injection, until the courts finally agreed hearing on his mental capacity. Porter was very lucky to receive an excellent attorney who managed to prove that Porter was innocent and led the police to a prisoner in Milwaukee who confessed (Kile). This shows the importance of the appeal process found in the courts, which serve to protect the lives of innocent citizens of the United States of America. A writer for The Christian Century writes, "Porter's case brings to light the very real danger that overzealous prosecutors, sloppy legal work and poor legal defense teams will send people to their deaths for crimes they didn't commit," (Kile). If Porter had an equipped defense attorney from the start, he would never have been to prison and nearly killed. Ryan Cummings of The Economist observed that more crimes are punishable by execution, more states have adopted the death penalty and the appeals process has been shortened. The overall expansion of capital punishment endangers innocent lives. Cumulatively, there is now less time and fewer tools to save innocent men and women

The death penalty is a corrupt form of legal justice. For example, “…Defendants in about one-third of the Texas cases were represented at trial by an attorney who had been or later was suspended or otherwise sanctioned…”(Leibman). This use of fraudulent attorneys in a case can lead to enough inaccuracies in the evidence to wrongfully execute a person. This action is against the constitutional right given to us of equal justice for all. In addition, “…One of you two is gonna hang for this. Since you're the nigger, you're elected…”(Texas Police Officer). A Texas police officer said this to 2 men, one black and one white that were connected to the murder of a 17-year-old girl. Race plays a big part in the sentence of guilty or innocent. However, supporters of the death penalty claim “…that it enforces the laws by issuing strict punishment to the offenders…”(President George Bush). The death

Does taking another’s life actually avenge that of another? The disciplinary act of capital punishment, punishment through death, has been a major debate in the United States for years. Those in support of capital punishment believe that it is an end to the reoccurrence of a repeat murderer. The public has, for many years, been in favor of this few and pro-death penalty. Yet as time goes on, records show a decrease in the public and the state’s support of the continuation of capital punishment. Those against capital punishment believe it is an immoral, spends taxpayers’ money improperly, and does not enforce a way to rehabilitate criminals and/or warn off future crimes.

While the topic can be overwhelming and complex, it is important to study the racist institution of the death penalty because execution is the ultimate expression of which individuals are valued by our society and which are considered dispensable. What the US expresses through its executions carries some racist undertones when we look at the races of the persons being executed, but it takes on a clearly racial direction when we consider the race of the original murder victim. For example, "the most comprehensive study of the death penalty found that killers of whites were eleven times more likely to be condemned to death than killers of African- Americans."3 On the flip side, "only 31 of the over 18,000 executions in this country's history involved a white person being punished for killing a Black person."4 In capital punishment, we find the modernday counterpart to lynching. Of course, lynching often meant sporadic acts of individual racism. Selective killing today is an official, bureaucratized act of the state and therefore an official statement of what our government stands for. And what the government stands for is the most complete disempowerment possible - death - for a large number of Black individuals.