Capital Punishment: The Case Of Cameron Todd Willingham

According to the National Registry of Exonerations (1),(2), from the year 2016 alone shows a record number of 166 exonerations, which almost one-third are wrongful homicide convictions.

In fact, Brewer killed his victim for the only reason because the victim was black (Tyner and Colucci, 1084). It it interesting to notice that two men got the same condemnation; however, there was enough proof to prove Davis’s innocence or at least raise a reasonable doubt and even though many tried to support Davis, the judiciary still decided to take his life. The crimes did not have the same weight, but they still got the same conviction creating an injustice in the law. This shows that being of a different race might influence ways judiciary uses death penalty.

"…[T]he American people no longer felt that the death penalty was suited to human dignity," they said. Most importantly, however, the attorneys argued that poor people and people of color routinely received the death penalty for capital offenses, at a rate vastly disproportionate to that of whites, particularly affluent whites, accused of similar offenses. This was a clear violation of the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection of the laws,” (Supreme Court Cases: Furman v. Georgia).”

Just recently on the news, a man is charged with murder and faces the death penalty if convicted. An officer shoot an unarmed black man in the back eight times again race is a fact for the killing. But, will race play a part in the sentencing, if found guilty, of the white officer. On the flip side of that, an Alabama man was released from death row after serving 30 years for a crime he did not commit. Much of the reasoning behind sentencing the Alabama man to death, was his race. He is a black man. Just think if the courts would have carried out the sentence given to the Alabama man, they would have killed an innocent man. There are probably many more men and women in the same situation as the Alabama man, sitting on death row for a

Being sent to Death Row is the highest prosecution a criminal could be sentenced to and the process when determining of someone deserves a death sentence is a very bias decision. Since 1977 when capital punishment was restored there has been about 20,600 homicides and only about .7 death sentences for every 100 homicides has been given in the Cook county. The decision to impose a death sentence is not only based on the crime done but also the race of the victim. Attorneys at a state level has a less formal guide when giving death sentences. It is commonly seen how race plays a major role in the justice system. As apart of attorney protocol of determining if the death sentence is given it is seen black males will be given a higher sentence versus a white male even if the crimes where similar. In this article “Disparities on Death Row” published in Grumman points out the unjustness in the justice system. Through ethos, pathos, and logos Cornelia Grumman effectively persuades her audience to spread the issues of capital punishment assignment.

Upon first observation of this cartoon, I notice the obvious that race is in question. Not just because the word is in the caption, but the characters depict this as well. Strapped down is a black man which represents the 109 executions of the 254 since 1976 according to The Death Penalty Information Center. The white character standing above him representing the majority white justice system of Texas. Not only is he asking if his race played a part by raising a hand that has been totally immobilized. I take this to mean that once a black man is in the system, the fairness he deserves is taken away because of the color of his skin. Without education and resources, it’s like being silenced. And to add insult to injury, the smirk on the officials

The study conducted by MSU examined jury selection as well as the decisions made by said juries. “The MSU study of capital charging and sentencing found that those who kill whites are more likely to get the death penalty than those who kill blacks. The MSU study found that a defendant is 2.6 times more likely to get the death penalty if the victim is white.” (ACLU). Following the study, North Carolina passed a law entitled the “Racial Justice Act”. This piece of legislature made it possible for inmates to appeal their sentences due to supposed racial profiling. Since the passing of the law last year, there have been 4 successful appeals. The law doesn’t guarantee that the whole sentence will be reversed; however, it puts in place a system that allows for flaws in the length/severity of the sentence to be readdressed. The passing of the law as well as the MSU study prove that although there are more minorities being charged for crimes, the charges are of ill-willed intentions.

However, statistics have shown that the death penalty is applied racially and discriminatorily. Three out of five murder cases in which the victim was white and the defendant was black resulted in the defendant receiving a death penalty. Professor Katherine Beckett of the University of Washington reechoed this fact by stating that, jurors in Washington “were four and a half times more likely to impose a sentence of death when the defendant was black than they were in cases involving similarly situated white defendants.” So where is the justice that advocates of the death penalty are imploring? Moreover, the rich are more likely to escape a death penalty than the poor. The DPIC has reported that most defendants in capital cases cannot afford an attorney. Thus, if equal justice for all is anything to go by, then justice should be equally distributed regardless of race and economic

     The death penalty is very discriminatory when it comes to racial issues. "The death penalty is fraught with abuses and the potential for abuse" (Moral Arguments 1). Capital punishment is

There is also a large disparity between races when it comes to sentencing convicts to Death Row. Looking just at the federal death penalty data released by the Department of Justice between 1995 and 2000, 682 defendants were charged with death-eligible crimes. Out of those 682 defendants, the defendant was black 48% of the cases, Hispanic in 29% of the cases, and white in only 20% of the cases (Coker, 2003).

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

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.

In the courtroom, these stressors come out in full force. Although the Courts have “concluded that statistics alone do not prove that race enter[s] into any capital sentencing decision in any one particular case…” it is obvious that ethnicity becomes a factor (Ross 153). Countering the court’s argument, statistics have shown that in America, “blacks who killed whites were five and six times… more likely to be sentenced to death than whites who killed whites” (151). The reason for this is mainly due to jurors unintentionally letting race influence their decision making process. The in-group bias and ethnic boundaries described above cloud the jury’s judgment, seeking a stronger penalty for minority groups. Also, if the victim who was killed was someone with good

A Georgia study found that killers of whites are 4.3 times more likely to receive a death sentence than killers of blacks. More than 75 percent of those on federal death row are non-white. Of the 156 federal death penalty prosecutions approved by the Attorney General since 1988, 74 percent of the defendants were non-white (governmentguide.com) . This shows that there is something definitely wrong with the judicial system. If this isn?t enough to convince you that the death penalty is wrong. Then people may need to look at other reasons.

Death penalty is just a capital punishment that punishes the worst crimes and if social or racial matters are to be affected by it, then death penalty should not be at fault, but the way the system works as a whole. Senator Russ Feingold states that “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.” He puts the system at fault, criticizing it on the fact that if such a system imposes capital punishment that is plagued by racial disparities, it’s not even worth living here anymore. Furthermore, in an article written by Xiaohua Zhu, he tells us that “While it may seem regrettable to execute a handful of felons who may truly want to reform, it would be worse to abolish the death penalty without paying adequate attention to the useful purposes it serves.”. If we were to disband death penalty because of a faulty system, we are forgetting to look at the larger purpose it provides us with. In addition, he states “ the right way to avoid such an error is not to abolish the death penalty, but to improve the legal system and the administration of justice, so the death sentence is given strictly in accordance with