The Court For Hear Death Penalty Cases

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

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).

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 study conducted by MSU examined jury selection as well as the decisions made by said juries. “The MSU study of capital charging and sentencing found that those who kill whites are more likely to get the death penalty than those who kill blacks. The MSU study found that a defendant is 2.6 times more likely to get the death penalty if the victim is white.” (ACLU). Following the study, North Carolina passed a law entitled the “Racial Justice Act”. This piece of legislature made it possible for inmates to appeal their sentences due to supposed racial profiling. Since the passing of the law last year, there have been 4 successful appeals. The law doesn’t guarantee that the whole sentence will be reversed; however, it puts in place a system that allows for flaws in the length/severity of the sentence to be readdressed. The passing of the law as well as the MSU study prove that although there are more minorities being charged for crimes, the charges are of ill-willed intentions.

Duane Buck, a death row inmate, has served more than twenty one years for murdering his ex-girlfriend Debra Gardner and Kenneth Butler. He accused Kenneth for sleeping with Debra and also shot his stepsister in the chest, who survived. After shooting Kenneth, Gardner ran to the street and was chased until she was gunned down while her children watched. Even though the crime should be punished, bucks attorneys argue Mr. Buck was denied a fair trial. Walter Quijano, a psychologist, gave his testimony during the trial stating that Buck was more likely to be a future danger because of his racial color. What surprises everyone is that Buck’s defense lawyer was the one who called Quijano and evoke the testimony. Even though the racial testimony had no place in the trial it still didn’t justify whether they should throw out the death sentence. No racial testimony appeared to be in his early appeals due to his counsel’s impotence for introducing it. Still it was very believable because this was not the first case Quijano made a similar testimony that had violated an inmate’s constitutional rights. Bucks lawyers tried to use this information to fight for Buck but they were not successful because the courts ruled Buck had waited too long to raise the issue. The argument here is if Buck is

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 case that we, the Supreme Court took was Foster v. Chatman. The facts are that an 18-year-old black man named Timothy Foster was charged with murdering a white woman. During the trial the prosecutor rejected four black jurors without giving a reason but later gave non-racial reasons as to why he rejected those jurors. The court decided that the reasons were good enough and did not violate race discrimination under the precedent set by Batson v. Kentucky and a jury composed of all white people decided that Foster was guilty and gave him the death penalty. Afterwards Foster declared for a new trial to be brought based on the notes the prosecutor took during selecting the jury of marking black juries with a B. The district court did not find

Cases heard by the Supreme Court are generally on appeal from one of the state's three appellate courts. The Court has limited original jurisdiction and very few such cases are heard by the Court in any calendar year. Such original jurisdiction cases are related to actions taken by a state official and are either requesting that the Court prohibit or force a state official to act. The majority of the Supreme Court's docket is related to appeals from the Appellate Courts but the hearing of such cases is entirely

Was Grove City College subject to federal requirements because its students received federal grants? Did the provisions of Title IX violate the First Amendments rights of the College?

The Supreme Court is the highest judicial court in the country or the state, they take judicial precedence over all over courts in the nation. Every year the Supreme Court receives about ten thousand petitions and if four Justices agree to grant the petitions then, the Supreme Court will consider the case. Out of all the cases there are only about one-hundred or fewer cases that they will chose a year. I will be discussing seven well known cases that were selected and decided on. These cases went on trial for months until the jury and judge could make a decision. Unfortunately, these cases were tried unfairly, missing key evidence in some way.

To look closely at many of the mechanisms in American society is to observe the contradiction between constitutional equality and equality in practice. Several of these contradictions exist in the realm of racial equality. For example, Black s often get dealt an unfair hand in the criminal justice system. In The Real War on Crime, Steven Donziger explains,

Capital punishment also reflects racial disparity. Between 1977 and 1984, the state of Texas executed 13 African Americans who were

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 North Carolina, from a study in Durham County by Isaac Unah, a professor in the Department of Political Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has written an extensive study on the effects of race, gender, and laws on the prosecution of the death penalty. Many people may think those who are given the death penalty are repeat, or well known criminals but in actuality through the past 30 years, about 2 percent of murders committed were by known criminals/repeat offenders, which resulted in a death sentence (Unah). This shows how almost anyone can be and will be convicted and given 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