2 sources cited length: 3903 words 11.2 double spaced pages rating: green price: $44.95 the death penalty and race to look closely at many of the mechanisms in american society is to observe the contradiction between constitutional equality and equality in practice. For example, black s often get dealt an unfair hand in the criminal justice system. In the real war on crime, steven donziger explains, there are so many more african americans than whites in our prisons that the difference cannot be explained by higher crime among african americans racial discrimination is also at work, and it penalizes african americans at almost every juncture in the criminal justice system.1 this paper focuses in on one of those junctures the death penalty.

The racial disparities that donziger finds in the prisons can also be found in death row. To be exact, african americans are 12% of the us population, but they make up 40% of the death row population.2 i, like donziger, believe something more is at work and in the tradition of ture and hamilton, i believe that this something works in covert. Death sentences: an empirical study of the georgia experience, the journal of criminal law and criminology 74 1983: 663 664. General accounting office, death penalty sentencing: research indicates patterns of racial disparities, the death penalty in america, 271. 25 hugo adams bedau, the death penalty in america: current controversies new york: oxford university press, 1997 250.

T he application of the us death penalty is unfair, arbitrary and racially biased. Whether a defendant receives a death sentence depends not on the merits of the case, so much as on his or her skin colour – and the race of the victim – and the county in which the murder case was prosecuted. First, the issue of bias: the north carolina senate recently approved senate bill 9. The act, signed into law by governor bev purdue in 2009, allows inmates to challenge their death sentences through statistical evidence of racial bias, including the exclusion of blacks from juries. Fortunately, the governor vetoed sb9, which would have required prosecutors to openly confess to racism. This would have made it far more difficult for prisoners to prove racial discrimination in their sentence, despite evidence such as a study of north carolina which found that defendants whose victims were white were 3.5 times more likely to receive a death sentence.

Second, the geographical anomalies: an analysis by the houston chronicle found that 12 of the last 13 people condemned to death in harris county, texas were black. After texas itself, harris county is the national leader in its number of executions. Over one third of texas's 305 death row inmates – and half of the state's 121 black death row prisoners – are from harris county. One of those african americans, duane buck, was sentenced based on the testimony of an expert psychologist who maintained that blacks are prone to violence. In 2008, harris county district attorney chuck rosenthal resigned after sending an email message titled fatal overdose , featuring a photo of a black man lying on the ground surrounded by watermelons and a bucket of chicken.

But this is nothing new: race and capital punishment in the us have always been inseparable. According to the washington based death penalty information center dpic , 56% of death row inmates are black or hispanic. However, although racial minorities comprise half of all murder victims nationwide, a far greater proportion 77% of the victims in capital convictions were white. The racial identity of the murder victim is thus a leading factor in determining who receives a death sentence in america. Amnesty international also reports that 20% of blacks nationwide were convicted by all white juries. Given the over representation of black and hispanic prisoners on death row, it is hardly surprising that of the 139 capital convicts found innocent since 1973, 61% have been of color.

The disparities multiply: nationally, alabama ranks 23rd in population, but second in executions in 2011. And while 65% of murders involve black victims, 80% of death sentences involve white victims. Further, according to the equal justice initiative, 60% of black death row prisoners were convicted of killing a white person, although cases involving black defendants and white murder victims represent a mere 6% of the murders in alabama. In the past 10 years, 23 alabama death penalty cases have been overturned because prosecutors had illegally struck black people from the juries.

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If the death penalty is highly racialised, it is a regional and local phenomenon as well. Over three quarters of executions take place in the states of the former confederacy including 35% in texas alone with their history of racial violence, lynching and arbitrary black codes and jim crow laws, which sanctioned death for blacks for certain offenses. In death penalty states, the decision to seek the death penalty takes place on the county level at the discretion of the district attorney. Only 10% of the 3,148 counties in america have returned a single death sentence a mere 1% of counties returned one or more death sentences per year. According to data from dpic, 15 us counties accounted for 30% of the executions since 1976 – which is less than 1% of counties in the country, and less than 1% of the total counties in all death penalty states.

Capital punishment has national and international implications, yet in the us – where a very small number of counties, largely in the south, accounts for a majority of the executions – local officials enjoy broad powers to prosecute and execute based on groundless assumptions and bias about race. General accounting office found a pattern of evidence indicating racial disparities in the charging, sentencing, and imposition of the death penalty. the study concluded that a defendant was several times more likely to be sentenced to death if the murder victim was white. This has been confirmed by the findings of many other studies that, holding all other factors constant, the single most reliable predictor of whether someone will be sentenced to death is the race of the victim. from initial charging decisions to plea bargaining to jury sentencing, african americans are treated more harshly when they are defendants, and their lives are accorded less value when they are victims. All white or virtually all white juries are still commonplace in many localities. A report sponsored by the american bar association in 2007 concluded that one third of african american death row inmates in philadelphia would have received sentences of life imprisonment if they had not been african american. a january 2003 study released by the university of maryland concluded that race and geography are major factors in death penalty decisions.

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 on civil rights as a priority for the 108th congress, senate, january 2003 2015 death sentences by name, race, and county click image to enlarge. According to a study by the women donors network, 95% of elected prosecutors in the u.s. Are white and 79% are white men. an analysis by dpic of the study's data further shows that, in states that have the death penalty, 94.5% of elected prosecutors are white.

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In 9 death penalty states colorado, delaware, idaho, montana, oregon, south dakota, tennessee, washington, and wyoming , 100% of elected prosecutors are white. Fandos, a study documents the paucity of black elected prosecutors: zero in most states , the new york times, july 7, 2015. jurors in washington state more likely to impose death on black defendants according to a recently updated study by professor katherine beckett of the university of washington, jurors in washington were four and one 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.

Including data through 2014, published 2015.the earlier version of the study had found that juries were three times more likely to recommend a death sentence for a black defendant than for a white defendant in a similar case. The disparity in sentencing occurred despite the fact that prosecutors were slightly more likely to seek the death penalty against white defendants. the study examined 285 cases in which defendants were convicted of aggravated murder. The cases were analyzed for factors that might influence sentencing, including the number of victims, the prior criminal record of the defendant, and the number of aggravating factors alleged by the prosecutor. the role of race in washington state capital sentencing, 1981 2012 jan.