Death Penalty Race

On April 25th, 2018 Erick Davila a 31-year-old black male was executed in the Texas State Prison for two murders. The victims were two black females, one a five-year-old named Queshawn and her Grandmother Annette. The killings happened at a children’s birthday party in Fort Worth Texas with intended target of Jeffery Stevenson a local gang rival of Erick. Erick was on death row 9 years prior to his execution doing everything he could to get the ruling overturned due to his claims of drug use. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected his pleas due to evidence of him having intentions to kill a various amount of people. Erick claimed to mistakenly kill the two victims while intending to kill two other gang rivals.

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 pleaded innocent in this case, there was no physical evidence that was linked to him and even seven of the nine witnesses revoked their statements (Tyner and Colucci, 1084). Davis even got support from various important public and politics figures such as the Pope (Tyner and Colucci, 1084). On the other hand, Lawrence Brewer, the white man, was sentenced to death after the murder of an African-American man, James

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.

There are currently 31 states with the death penalty. The states are Alabama, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Mississippi, South Carolina, Arkansas, Missouri, South Dakota, California, Montana, Tennessee, Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, Florida, Utah, Nevada, Georgia, New hampshire, Virginia, Idaho, North Carolina, Washington, Indiana, Ohio, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, And Oregon. All of these states have lethal injection. Three have hangings. Eigth have electrocution. Three have lethal gas. Two have firing squad. There are eighteen states without the death penalty. The states are Alaska, Michigan, Vermont, Connecticut, Minnesota, West Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Hawaii, New Mexico, Illinois, New York, Iowa, North Dakota, Maine, Rhode Island, Maryland Massachusetts.Maryland was the most recent to abolish the death penalty in the year 2013.

The death penalty has existed for several decades in the United States executing over 1,431 people since 1976, when the death penalty no longer violated the eighth amendment. Charles Brooks, a black male, aged 40, was executed in Texas in 1982, for the Murder of white male, David Gregory. Brooks was the first person to be executed by the use of lethal injection, since it had been reinstated in the United States. Since this first execution occurred, Americans have been debating on whether or not race plays a role in who lives, and who dies on death row. Despite all the anti-discrimination laws, the United States is faced with the challenge of racial tension and discrimination, which has a direct effect

Nearly 80 percent of murder victim in cases resulting in an execution have been white while 50 percent of murder victims are white 82 percent was found to influence the likelihood of being charged with capital murder or receiving the death penalty.Senator RussFeingold stated "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 RussFeingold 108th congress 2003). A 2007 report concluded that one-third of African American death row inmates in Philadelphia would have received sentence of life improsement if they had not been African-American.In 1990, non-partisan US General Accounting found a pattern of evidence Indicating racial Disparities in the charging, sentencing, and imposition of death penalty (Feb 1,2001)."Justice is never advanced in the taking of a human life"(Writer Activist and Civil Rights Leader Coretta Scott King Feb7, 2006).

The death penalty is the ultimate expression of state power. Although there are laws placed to maintain equal justice among each state, these laws are enforced by human of some race. The significant relationship between race and public support for the death penalty has been questioned for years. When doing research, act of using the death penalty has been racially inflected among whites and blacks throughout history. This was due to racism. However, the promise of equality in America has struck society into believing race is invisible. It is important for people interested in the sociology or psychology of death and dying to understand race matters when discussing the support for the death penalty. They are informed about the social problem

There are currently 31 states with the death penalty. The states are Alabama, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Mississippi, South Carolina, Arkansas, Missouri, South Dakota, California, Montana, Tennessee, Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, Florida, Utah, Nevada, Georgia, New hampshire, Virginia, Idaho, North Carolina, Washington, Indiana, Ohio, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, And Oregon. All of these states have lethal injection. Three have hangings. Eigth have electrocution. Three have lethal gas. Two have firing squad. There are eighteen states without the death penalty. The states are Alaska, Michigan, Vermont, Connecticut, Minnesota, West Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Hawaii, New Mexico, Illinois, New York, Iowa, North Dakota, Maine, Rhode Island, Maryland Massachusetts.Maryland was the most recent to abolish the death penalty in the year 2013.

"The scars and stains of racism are still deeply embedded in the American society." This is a quote said by John Lewis. A quote like that is so important in the world of today. The United States is one of the most racially diverse countries in the world and even with that, we are still facing so much tribulation over skin color. Despite the fact that racism has declined over the last several hundred years, looking through the cracks it 's still all around us. This is ranging from unequal court trials to violence with white supremacists. Throughout the years I have found a specific case that catches my eye, The Troy Davis Case. He was executed

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.

There are many controversial points of view on the death penalty in America’s society. Is the death penalty socially correct? Is it just? The death penalty is an execution sentence that a person convicted of a capital crime must face. A person can only be sentenced to death in 33 states (deathpenatly.org). There have been as of April 1, 2012, 3,170 death row inmates in the Unites States history, with an exception of the two inmates in New Mexico and eleven in Connecticut that remain on the death row due to the law not being made retrospective to these inmates. The controversy whether the death penalty is just or unjust has been a debate in America for many years. There have

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.

18th century William Blackstone cited murder as defined by: when a person, of sound memory and discretion, unlawfully kills any reasonable creature in being and under the king 's peace, with malice aforethought, either express or implied” Take 4 different cases: a white women, black women, a white man, and a white man. Now just looking at the race and gender, which of these would you expect to get either the death penalty or life in prison? You might think, women could get life in prison, possibly with a chance for parole, and the white man could get the death penalty, and the black man, life in prison. That’s what’s seen on the outside but if you dig further, you would be wrong. For instance take, Kimberly McCarthy a black women out of Texas, was sentenced to death after killing her 71 year old, white neighbor. As being the 500th person to die by capital punishment since its reinstatement in the US since 1976, it caused quite a bit of stirring, involving her race. Jason Michael Hann, a white man who is from California who is already serving a 30-year sentence for the murder of his 2-month-old son, Jason, received the death penalty for the slaying of his 10-month-old daughter. Juwan Wickmare, a 19 year old African American was convicted on 1st degree murder in August 2012 in the 2010 shooting death of 33-year-old pizza delivery driver Michael Nettles. Janepsy Carballo was found guilty of first degree murder in the 2008 death of Ilan Nissim, ex-business partner she blamed for

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

Racism has always been an issue in our society. Throughout history, minorities have been misrepresented in the justice system, especially in cases where the outcome is death. In early American History, blacks were hanged for breaking any informal laws. Back then, killings occurred without any type of dues process. In the 1960s the National Association for the Advancement of African Americans (NAACP) believed that African Americans received the death penalty more frequently than members of other groups. “According to data from Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), 55% of death row inmates are black or Hispanic”