Essay about The Death Penalty

1. Disparity of application of the death penalty is a researched and heavily discussed topic. There is no disparity applied to the death penalty due to race. Many individuals believe that discrimination against minorities directly contributes to the amount of offenders on death row that are African American, Hispanic, or part of a different minority group. These trends exist for a reason, however I believe the reason is due to the fact that individuals strive to meet different goals dependent on their racial background. Currently, approximately 41 % of inmates on death row are black, and 44 % are white. There are more inmates who are white on death row, which makes it hard to determine that disparity was applied based on race or gender when individuals are faced with a death penalty sentence. There are far less women on death row. There are not many women on death row because the death penalty is not often applied to their cases. However, this is not due to their gender, it is based on the crimes that were committed and typically women commit less violent crimes than men.

As well as that, studies show that the death penalty has been disproportionately used between blacks and whites, with blacks being the ones where it happens more often. This has gone on as long as the colonial days, with the Jim Crow Laws being a big reason for the death penalty being used against blacks. Lynching was one of the most common forms of killing accused criminals until it was voted inhumane and was abolished in 48 states. Tom Robinson’s case was an example of an unfair execution “plan” even though he ended getting shot 17 times in the chest

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

You brought up how jurors are more likely to find a defendant guilty when the defendant is a different race, and the victim is the same race as the juror, which creates a problem if race is being viewed as a primary factor in the case. Unfortunately, as we know, racial disparities are apparent throughout every phase of our justice system. For example, black individuals are three times as likely to have their cars searched by the police compared to their white counterparts, in addition to being more likely to be pulled over (Racial disparities, 2014). On a larger scale, racial disparities in sentencing decisions are also imposed much more harshly for black individuals than white individuals in the United States. Furthermore, black males in the

Statistics prove that for many years the death penalty has fallen disproportionately on racial minorities in the United States. For example, since 1930

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

In “Black Men Sentenced to More Time for Committing the Exact Same Crime as a White Person, Study Finds,” a writer from The Washington Post, Christopher Ingraham, reveals that black men are most likely to receive a longer sentence than white men even if the same crime was committed. More specifically, he argues that in recent years black/white disparities has increased drastically, as shown in the Supreme Court case U.S. v Booker. He writes,

The ethnicity of a defendant in a capital case should not play a role whatsoever in their sentencing. However, it plays a significant and crucial role in deciding who receives capital punishment. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, minorities account for a disproportionate “43% of total executions since 1976 and 55% of those are currently awaiting execution.” An interesting piece of information that I found from the article was that only 12 people have been executed where the defendant was white and the murder victim was black which is disconcerting when compared to the 178 black defendants who have been executed for the murders of white victims. The racial disparities in these statistics are alarming and troublesome.

Many minorities are convicted more often and more severely than white defendants for the same crime or even for a less severe crime as seen with James Banks. Studies agree with this as well, according to the NAACP “5 times as many Whites are using drugs as African Americans, yet African Americans are sent to prison for drug offenses at 10 times the rate of Whites”, this illustrates the wide disparities in sentencing. If more white people use drugs then why are black people still being charged more as a group for the same crime? Black people are sentenced 10 times more for the same crime and they commit the crime less. A large difference such as this one cannot be avoided because it truly means there is a problem. Small differences in data are understandable but astronomical numbers such as theses should raise a red flag that there is injustice in are criminal system being done every day to

African Americans only make up 13% of the population. Half of all those convicted of murder are African American, outweighing the dominance of Caucasians who make up 64% of the population. Based on over turned convictions, African Americans are seven times more likely to be convicted of murder than Caucasians (Martelle, S. (2017, March 7). In a turmoil cycle, race crimes is an influence on sending innocent blacks to prison. It is believed that 84% of white murder victims and 93% of black murder victims are killed by members of their own race (Gross, Possley & Stephens, 2017,March 7). African Americans convicted of murder are more likely to be innocent than any other race convicted. Also, African Americans who are convicted of killing a

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

The majority of the victims who were executed for murder crimes have been African American which killed a Caucasian individual. The state in which the crime is committed, has an impact on which the defendant receives sentencing.

Also another study also say’s that, “The rate at which eligible black defendants were sentenced to death was nearly 40% higher than the rate for other eligible” (Dieter) This shows clearly also that the amount of black defendants sentenced to death is nearly 40% higher than any other person eligible,so that means that black defendants are most likely to get a death sentence than anybody else which shows that our judicial branch has some racism in its roots when it come to the death

Although Blacks population in the United States is almost 13%, about half of the people on death row are Blacks. Is it a fact that Blacks and Hispanics commit more crime? Do Blacks and Hispanics get adequate representation by the law? Can they afford high powered lawyers by years, or it is a fact that the justice systems is American is biased towards anyone not looking like mainstream America. “One of the biggest arguments against the death penalty is that it is handed put in a biased, racially disparate

The national statistics on the racial disparities in regards to race and the death penalty are very staggering. According to an article from the Death Penalty Information Center, the United States General Accounting Office stated that in “82% of the studies reviewed, the race of the victim was found to influence the likelihood of being charged with capital murder or receiving the death penalty, for example those who murdered whites were found to be more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks.” The article also included a chart with data about the people executed for interracial murders in the United States since 1976. The cases basically showed how in instances where there was a white defendant and a black victim, the defendant was only executed in a total of 20 cases and in instances where the defendant was black and the victim was white, the defendant was executed in a disproportionate 285 cases.