Death Penalty Case Analysis

While supporters of the death penalty thought that the death penalty could be applied without racial and class disparities, research conducted through the years have indicated that race and class disparities have shown not in isolated cases, but in many cases. The authors argue that “Public opinion on the death penalty show that while most Americans recognize the problem of race and class bias, they do not view such discrimination as a reason to oppose the death penalty” (Radelet & Borg, 2000, page 5).

** Dash cam footage recieved from 2-LINCOLN-3's cruiser, where suspect was pursued in a black Tahoma and intercepted by 2-LINCOLN-3 in Crystal Garden houses. Suspect would be seen getting out of the car and running away from the scene; continuing the dashcam footage, you can see the suspect assaulting Detective on scene; dashcam also shows the suspect being frisked and Officer Barlow removing small amount of marijuana from the jacket pocket of the suspect. **

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

Racial disparity in the sentencing process of the criminal justice system also exists because of racial jurors. To eliminate the suspensions of racial disparity of racial jurors the jury will select at least one African-American to serve for the jury. A percentage of African-Americans oppose capital punishment (Tabak, 1999, p. 6). Prosecutors commonly discriminate against African-Americans during challenges of discretions and blatantly abuse the powers of prosecutors. Juries predominantly use more Whites in every trial is inappropriate on the levels of the criminal justice system. Americans have rights to a trial by jury of peers and has the right not to exclude minorities in the selection of a jury. Excluding minorities in a jury of an individual’s peers is a violation of an objective and fair trial for a defendant.

The case of Troy Davis and Lawrence Brewer have brought up many discussions and controversies regarding racial discrimination (Tyner and Colucci, 1083). Troy Davis was an African-American executed on September 21, 2011 after the murder of a white off-duty police officer, Mark MacPhail (Tyner and Colucci, 1083). However, Davis always

I think Texas needs to discriminate certain behaviors. Many people spent so many years in prison waiting to be executed. I think the government needs to reduce the waiting period for only those people who they are sure that they committed the crime and needs to be executed. Most of the time it’s unfair because those people spend their years waiting and enjoying in prison while the family members are still waiting for justice. It’s unfair that sometimes the family members don’t even witness the justice because they die before the person who committed the crime is executed. The Texas government also needs to reduce jail length for people arrested because of possession of drugs. The government needs to punish them, instead of putting them in

Jennifer Villegas Final Paper Fall 2016 CJ 3311: Ethics Dr. Rebecca Pfeffer Availability of Legal Representation for Indigent Defendants The rates of death penalty convictions in the United States are outstanding, and with the growing number of cases going into the criminal justice system for processing and in accordance with the numbers of death penalty convictions, it can become questionable the type of counsel being provided to those defendants who are without sufficient income to afford a lawyer for their defense in a capital case, these defendants are known under the official name of indigent defendants. Questions over the type of counsel that is appointed to indigent defendants have opened due to the high incarceration rates of minorities in the prison system.

The article that I read from Amnesty USA was about how the race of homicide victims affects the results of whether or not a defendant in a capital case will receive the death penalty. The article provides a graph that showed how death row inmates who have killed white victims

Four years later, however, in Gregg v. Georgia, the Court paved the way for states to reintroduce capital punishment when it declared that the death penalty does not necessarily violate the Constitution if administered in a manner designed to guard against arbitrariness and discrimination. Most serious legal challenges to the

How would you feel if you were woken up , were arrested , taken to jail and was charged with an adult sentence with no valid evidence that you committed a crime? In 1999 Adnan Syed who was 17 at that time was arrested for murder for killing his

Twenty two years after the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was constitutional, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) released a study examining the trials and sentences of 667 Murder convictions in Philadelphia between 1983 and 1993. The data shown above is a comparison of the races of the

Kimberly Ferrell Professor Sanders English 1301, Section 341 9 December 2010 A Vicious Cycle of Anger and Hatred The eighth amendment is designed to protect us from cruel and unusual punishment. Conservation of the United States Constitution,

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.

In “The Death Penalty: Is it ever justified?” by Edward I. Koch, he talks about how death penalty affirms life. Death penalty is the only way we have of doing justice in response to the worst of crimes. It also assures that life is precious by making murderers fear that the end of their lives is coming. A cold-blooded murderer named Robert Lee Willie said “Killing people is wrong…It makes no different whether it’s citizens, countries, or governments, killing is wrong”. The only reason he had behind his saying was because he didn’t want to die. Even though death penalty may sound brutal, it actually isn’t.

Summary paragraph: In Stephen Bright’s article, “The Death Penalty as the Answer to Crime: Costly, Counterproductive, and Corrupting” Bright asserts that capital punishment does not work because it is racially biased, the quality of the lawyers and attorneys supplied by the state to poor defendants is unfair, and that the law system currently in place does not accomplish its true goals. Bright defends his claim with logos and ethos by examining the opinions of judges and district attorneys, and by describing experience within the fields of human rights and law himself in order to persuade the reader to take up more cases for those on death row. Given the language used in this article Bright is writing to an audience with intermediate to professional experience within the field of law, and a willingness to adopt a new idea on the constitutionality behind the death penalty.