Death Penalty Deray Mckesson Summary

Racial injustice has always existed in the American criminal justice system (S. Steiker and M. Steiker, 243). This can be seen in recent years where constitutional campaigns on the abolishment of capital punishment were led by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) Legal Defense and Education Fund (S. Steiker and M.Steiker, 244). This is an organization that fights for equality of rights and to “eliminate race-based discrimination” (Our Mission). It demonstrates that there is an inequality in the treatment of races concerning the death penalty. In addition, according to the authors, they never found a

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.

In “Racial Disparity in Capital Punishment and its Impact on Family Members of Capital Defendants,” Jennifer Schweizer pointed out the ongoing racial disparity in capital punishment and how it affects family members of African American capital defendants. Additionally, racial disparity affects the different stages of the death penalty process, from charging through sentencing and execution. Moreover, African American families have a higher likelihood of being impacted by capital punishment. Schweizer examined how the death penalty influenced family members of capital defendants. The south has the biggest death row population. Death sentences are greater in states that have a past of lynching.

When a person is charged with Capital punishment we automatically think they are a dangerous criminal, but what if someone was charge simply because of their race. Well, there have been many researches done along with statistical evidence to confirm that this may be in fact the case for African-Americans. The United States Constitution was established so that every Citizen in America is guaranteed their basic rights which include; guarantee a fair process in all hearings and equal treatment under the law. African-Americans have struggled throughout our history with unfair treatment and equality. For example, the decades of slavery and the struggle of passing the equal voting rights bill in 1965. This may have passed us, but many African-Americans are still dealing with racial discrimination and this time it’s with the Criminal Justice system in particular, Capital Punishment. There have been intensive studies and evidence coming up showing how race can in fact play a major role when determining if you get a sentence to Capital Punishment or not, even if you are in fact innocent. We are to believe with our Constitution, bill of rights, and laws that every citizen no matter what race you are will be treated equally fair and justice will hopefully be served, but throughout our history up until now we are finding out that ultimately what will decide the outcome of a citizens fair and equal trial is the color of their skin.

The sentencing has become very bias with white superiority has taken over. Minorities have no hope in being charged fairly in this old fashioned legislation. Black offenders as stated in the article, 14 example of racism in the criminal justice system receive 10% longer sentences than white offenders for the same crimes. This quote shows that the black offenders are being discriminated for no reason except for the fact that they are a different ethnic not for the severity of the crime. Another example of this backwards system is that 32% of black males and 17% of Latino males have the chance of being incarcerated compared to the whites who have a 6% chance. This data is worrying because to parents this is seen to be a devastating future for their younger male children. In a recent case, a black woman was sentence to 20 years for firing warning shots to scare off her abusive husband while in the Zimmerman vs. Trayvon case Zimmerman got not convicted for the murder of Trayvon Martin. What the similarity in each case was that they both plead the Florida stand your ground law the difference was that it applied to one of the convicted but no to the other but why because she was a black female woman and he was not. Why does taking a life have precedence over protecting

Racial bias in jury selection is ridiculous – qualified black jurors are illegally turned away as much as 80 percent of the time in the jury selection process. They get much harsher sentences – black people are 38 percent more likely to be sentenced to death than white people for the same crimes. Whites and blacks represent about half of murder victims from year to year, but 77 percent of people who are executed killed a white person, while only 13 percent of death row executions represent those who killed a black person. . . ()

According to the Death Penalty Center, in 1973 38 Black people were sentence for death row. Other races were charge with the same crime but Black people were issued death row. Our courts system demonstrates factors that are played in history and today’s society. Black life is not valued in the United States. The Stanford Law Review published a study that found similar patterns of racial disparity, based on the race of the victim, in Arkansas, Florida,Georgia, Illinois, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Virginia (see

Racial discrimination and capital punishment has been a heated topic discussed ever since the 1972 case Furman v. Georgia. In the article, “Does Racial Discrimination Make Capital Punishment Wrong?” by Stephen Nathanson, his position in this argument is affirmative as he argues that racial discrimination makes capital punishment wrong since death penalty is administered in an arbitrary manner. Arbitrariness is the quality of being determined by chance or impulse, and not by reason or principle. He claims capital punishment has been used disproportionately and arbitrarily since black people who murder are more likely to be executed than white people.

When looking at the general information race seems to be an independent variable in the sentences of these convictions. About 17% of defendants were convicted of murdering blacks and whites equally. However this information is misleading if not thoroughly reviewed.

Capital punishment is an act that uses racism in many occasion. “According to [Justice Department] figures, nearly 80 percent of inmates on federal death row are Black, Hispanic, or from another minority group" (Campaign to End the Death Penalty). In fact racism is still going on today in the world including the United States. "The imposition of the death penalty is racially biased: Nearly 90% of persons executed were convicted of killing whites, although people of color make up over half of all homicide victims in the United States" (National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty). "Death row in the U.S. has always held a disproportionately large population of people of color relative to the general population" (ACLU Briefing Paper on the Death Penalty).

Although roughly thirty six people are executed each year, it is safe to assume that around eighty percent of those people put to death had killed a white victim. Because of this, the death penalty is discriminatory. The poor and minorities, especially African Americans, are the groups who get the metaphoric “short end of the stick.” Studies have shown that black defendants with less evidence against them than a white person who had committed the same crime were more likely to be sentenced to death. Black defendants are also more likely to be sentenced to death than a person of another race who had committed the same crime. An additional study showed that black defendants were almost three times as likely to get a death penalty sentence than

As far as who the death penalty affects, nationally, a ravishing 70% of murder victims in cases which resulted in an execution have been caucasian, even though nationally only about 50% of murder victims generally are caucasian. According to a recent study, “jurors in the U.S are three times more likely to recommend a death sentence for a white defendant than for a black defendant in a similar case”(dpic). The study examined a number of cases in which defendants were convicted of aggravated homicide. The cases were reviewed in detail for factors that might influence sentencing, including the number of victims, the defendant’s prior criminal record, and the number of aggravating factors alleged by the prosecutor. Significant statistical research exists regarding race and the death penalty, and race is an issue that continues to be at the forefront of America’s capital punishment debate. Studies have indicated that race plays a decisive role in the question of who lives and dies by execution in this country. According to some studies, race can influence which cases are chosen for capital prosecution and which prosecutors are allowed to make those decisions.

Unsurprisingly, the death penalty system in the United States is immensely bias, and applied in a way that is unjust for individuals on trial. It is largely dependent on an individual’s social class, race, and the attorney’s skill. (Williams) A study by Professor Kathrine Beckett showed that jurors in Washington are four and a half times more likely to charge a black defendant with the death sentence over a white defendant. (Williams) These chances become enlarged if the victim was white. Moreover, according to the U.S. Appeals Court judge, over 99% of people on death row are impecunious. (Keller) Although people of various incomes commit murder, those who are less wealthy are most preeminent in receiving the death penalty. Arguably, one of the most important aspects on winning a case resulting in death penalty is the efficiency of the lawyer. Most defendants in capital cases cannot afford a lawyer on their own and appointed a lawyer. The attorneys representing them are many times overworked, underpaid, and inexperienced, leaving the defendant with a poor case, and perhaps a great tribute to their death. Overall, Capital Punishment is a broken, predisposed system of unjust

After the 1976 Supreme Court ruling concluded that the death penalty does not violate the U.S. Constitution’s ban on “cruel and unusual punishments,” many states have given the capital punishment to over 500 convicted felons. However, there is still a debate on whether the decision on the sentence is fair or not, particularly on the issue involving race. In 1998 the Death Penalty Information Center published the Death Penalty in Black and White, a study examining the sentences following the 667 murder convictions in Philadelphia to see if race was a possible factor in the decision of the death penalty.

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