Discriminatory Death Penalty

Baldus study was based on more than two thousand murder cases in Georgia, and “the study found that defendants charged with killing white victims received the death penalty eleven times more often than defendants charged with killing black victims.” (Alexander p.110) Baldus Study was significant to this chapter because it shows patterns of discrimination and how the government and police enforcement use race to harass African Americans.

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

By Ramirez , Mark D. Competing Pressures and Complex Choices: African Americans and the Death Penalty. . vol 4 (2). :. 2014, 23. Print.

White Americans receive favorable treatment due to racial disparity in the justice system due to a modern stereotype that, based on the color of your skin, you are considered a threat. There are many cases of wrongful convictions based on skin color – a man of color will often receive a longer sentence than a white man. Of course, there has always been racism in the world – it is inescapable. In a report by Samuel Gross, “Race and Wrongful Convictions”, he claims, “African Americans are more than seven times more likely to be imprisoned for murder than white Americans, and more than six times as likely to be killed in a homicide” (Gross). Considering this, it is clear there is a problem that needs to be addressed. Currently, the American justice system is biased in its treatment of black men and for society to progress, this issue

If you are of a different color or race you will most likely be the most affected. In Race, Conceptions of Crime and Justice, and Support for the Death Penalty, the author writes, “therefore among blacks, the perception of fairness both in the procedural treatment of minorities and in sentencing decisions may be significant factors in determining attitudes toward the death penalty” (Young 69). This shows how racial biases are indeed continuously being used not only for the death penalty, but for other cases too, and how it plays a big part on who’s executed. In The enduring racial divide in death penalty support, the authors state, “Whites are significantly more supportive of capital punishment than are Blacks. Bohm (1991) reported that the Black-White difference in death penalty support (a mean difference of approximately twenty percentage points across the numerous Gallup polls) was greater than that observed for any other socio-demographic characteristic” (qtd in. Cochran & Chamlin 85).Again this shows the unfairness minorities face every day. No matter what the crime is people always suspect it was performed by any other race except for whites. This is one of the many wrong acts death penalty does and it plays a big reason on why it should be

At the prosecution stage, African Americans are subject to racially biased charges and plea agreements (TLC, 2011). African Americans are less likely to have their charges dismissed or reduced or to receive any kind of alternate sentencing than their white counterparts (TLC, 2011). In the last stage, the finding of guilt and sentencing, the decisions of jurors may be affected by race (Toth et al, 2008) African Americans receive racially discriminatory sentences from judges (TLC, 2011). A New York study from 1990 to 1992 revealed one-third of minorities would have receive a lesser sentence if they were treated the same as white and there would have been a 5 percent decrease in African Americans sent to prison during that time period if they had received the same probation privileges (TLC, 2011). African Americans receive death sentences more than whites who have committed similar crimes (Toth et al, 2008). Because of the unfair treatment from the beginning to the end of the justice system there is an over represented amount of African Americans in prison (Toth et al, 2008). Some of the problems faced by African Americans in prison are gangs, racial preferences given to whites, and unfair treatment by prison guards (Toth et al, 2008).

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).

After similar crimes are committed, in terms of severity, more serious life-long sentences are given to blacks than to privileged whites. “A July 2009 report by the Sentencing Project found that 2/3rds of people in the United States with life sentences are non-white” (Huffington). In some areas, such as New York and other major cities nationwide, the percentage is even higher. If the same crimes are being committed in similar circumstances, yet the only difference between the two is the physical appearance or the criminal, the punishments should be of equal intensity. Striking racial disparities exist at nearly every level of the Criminal Justice System-from arrest rates, to bail amounts, to sentence lengths, to probation hearing outcomes. Black Americans are also three times more likely to have their cars searched as well as more likely to be pulled over for no reason. It is no secret that African Americans and other racial minorities are often times deprived of basic human liberties or even constitutional rights solely due to the color or their

The Death Penalty is a racist practice and is costly to go through with. The death penalty must be abolished for reasons such as punishing the poor, violating the human right to live, and being incorrectly, or unfairly sentenced to death due to race or inaccurate evidence. What exactly gives governments all this power to decide whether someone lives or dies?

Of the eight people sentenced to death since 1994, six are black and another one is Asian. There are fourteen men awaiting the death penalty; nine are black, three white, one Hispanic, and one Asian (Amsterdam). Bryan Stevenson, an Alabama lawyer who is trying to have the death penalty barred, says, "Race and class bias are killing people . . . white or black, you are 11 times more likely to get the death penalty if the victim is white than if the victim is black, and 22 times more likely to get death if you're black and the victim is white. The death penalty is used to send messages to people of color that we can still kill you if you cross the line" (Grant). Women don't usually get the death penalty because the victims are usually lovers or family members.

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).

I think that the statistical data presented by the Death Penalty Information Center is eye-opening and sad. It presented quantitative evidence to show how racial bias and racial discrimination has the ability to play a big role in whether or not a defendant in a capital case will receive the death penalty. Moreover, the article presented strong evidence of racial disparities. I think the major thing that can be taken from this article is that the criminal justice system values the lives of white victims much more than they value the lives of black victims. In addition, if the defendant were black than they are much more likely to receive a much harsher penalty than they would if they were

One example would be of a man blamed for a crime he didn’t do. Back in 2002, a man named Daniel Moore was found guilty of a crime he supposedly had committed. He was accused of murdering and sexually assaulting Karen Tipton. He was put on death penalty by a judge overruling what the jury had originally stated. In 2009, Moore was found innocent when 256 pages of evidence were revealed (End Capital Punishment). This kind of example connects to another reason why innocent people are being put on death row. The death penalty is being misused when it is used in a discriminatory way against people of racial, ethnic and religious communities. There is a study that concludes that a defendant is more than likely to be put on death sentence if the victim

Numerous rivals of the death penalty accept that the equity in the American lawful framework is blocked by the sentencing of dark Americans by a supremacist and one-sided jury. For instance, "if the killer is dark, it is more probable that he will get capital punishment than if the killer is white"

Society needs to change the eye for an eye mindset in order for civilization to advance past the revenge philosophy that leads to an unending cycle of violence (ACLU, 2012). The American Civil Liberties Union (2012) says that death penalty is an infringement of common freedoms and conflicts with everything that our democratic based framework stands for. The death penalty system in the United States is applied in an unfair manner against people based on how much money they have and the race of the victim (ACLU, 2012). African Americans are more likely to be executed than white individuals, especially if their victim was white (ACLU, 2012).