Racial Discrimination And Capital Punishment

African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated; that is 60% of 30% of the African American population. African Americas are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites. “Between 6.6% and 7.5% of all black males ages 25 to 39 were imprisoned in 2011, which were the highest imprisonment rates among the measured sex, race, Hispanic origin, and age groups." (Carson, E. Ann, and Sabol, William J. 2011.) Stated on Americanprogram.org “ The Sentencing Project reports that African Americans are 21 percent more likely to receive mandatory-minimum sentences than white defendants and are 20 percent more likely to be sentenced to prison.” Hispanics and African Americans make up 58% of all prisoners in 2008, even though African Americans and Hispanics make up approximately one quarter of the US population. (Henderson 2000). Slightly 15% of the inmate population is made up of 283,000 Hispanic prisoners.

This essay will critique “Race, Capital Punishment, and the Cost of Murder” by M. Cholbi. The critique will discuss and point out some unnecessary concepts and flaws in the author’s argument along with logical fallacies. The author appeals for a moratorium among capital punishment due to racial disparities. This essay will analyze the author’s paper on the subject of race and capital punishment. The subject of capital punishment is controversial, as some citizens believe capital punishment is unconstitutional.

The moral and ethical debate on the sentencing and enforcement of capital punishment has long baffled the citizens and governing powers of the United States. Throughout time, the interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, and the vast majority beliefs of Americans, have been in a constant state of perplexity. Before the 1960s, the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution were interpreted as permitting the death penalty. However, in the early 1960s, it was suggested that the death penalty was a "cruel and unusual" punishment and therefore unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. Many argue that capital punishment is an absolute necessity, in order to deter crime, and to ‘make things right’ following a heinous crime of murder. Despite the belief that capital punishment may seem to be the only tangible, permanent solution to ending future capital offenses, the United States should remove this cruel and unnecessary form of punishment from our current judicial systems.

"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 Russ Feingold, 2003). It has been proven that death sentencing across the USA is determined by the race of the victim and race of the defendant. In 1990, there was a report from the General Accounting office which concluded that those who murdered whites were more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks. (Focus, 2003) This injustice amongst us are because people are scared and don’t know. They don’t know whether a black man is pulling out a gun, their phone, wallet, etc. So just to remain safe, they retaliate by killing our men. Society has grown to function on the fear of black men. Capitalism and the imprisonment of black people have become profitable. They’ve made a big business to just imprison black men. Black men are inheritably a threat to the capitalist structure of America, it protects their money, their politics, and their society.

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.

In this paper I shall argue that capital punishment is immoral. In Furman v. Georgia we find a landmark case in which the legality of capital punishment is exposed. Judges Stewart, White, and Douglas found the death penalty to be immoral given the arbitrary forces involved. ("Furman v. Georgia") They believed this was causing a higher number of minorities specifically blacks to be subjected to

"…[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).”

Kent McKeever a white male, husband, father, attorney and youth minister, whose home is in Texas thought that he lived a pretty privileged life and wanted to experience how harsh and real, those who were underclass and less fortunate lived and the struggles that they had to deal with on a daily basis. Being privileged has some very positive outcomes and he really never had to deal with anything that would hold him back. He would always do very well and try hard, he just wanted a better understanding of why these people get treated so poorly. By doing this he would have a clearer understanding of the shame and humiliation that these people hold with them everywhere.

This case presents the question whether a complex statistical study that indicates a risk that racial considerations enter into capital sentencing determinations proves that petitioner McCleskey's capital sentence is unconstitutional under the Eighth or Fourteenth Amendment.

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.

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.

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.

Those pushing towards the use of capital punishment argue that hate crimes are especially unacceptable, and to not issue such a drastic form of punishment would be setting an example of letting these crimes go without recognition or penance. The argument that hate crimes are absolutely unacceptable is an idea that both facets of the issue can agree with. There have been far too many heinous crimes committed under the name of hate crimes, deserving some punitive form of chastisement. One horridly infamous example of a mass hate crime that had deep impacts all over the world is the Holocaust, a genocidal lash out against anyone seen as impure in the eyes of the fascist leader and party that held control (“History of Hate Crime”). Despite the

     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

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).