Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences - This topic has 6 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 24 years ago by
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Why do some people consider the death penalty racist because there are more blacks on death row? Aren’t most murder defendants black?
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Name : donald merson, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Presbyterian, Age : 48, City : Baltimore, State : MD, Country : United States, Occupation : criminal justice, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class,You’re right, most people on death row are black. But most murderers are not, they are white. While blacks make up half of everyone in prison, including death row, two thirds of violent criminals are white, according to the Justice Dept.’s surveys of crime victims. I’d like to turn the question around to your own future profession. Why do people in the criminal justice system continue to use the other set of statistics, the ones from the FBI, which give the FALSE impression that most criminals in American are not white? Don’t you see that you do everyone a grave injustice by doing that? It does more to promote hatred between different groups than anything the Klan could ever hope to do.
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Name : ACC24067, Race : Mexican and American Indian, City : w Lafayette, State : IN, Country : United States, Occupation : Grad student, Education level : Over 4 Years of College,Many people, including myself, consider the death penalty to be racially biased not because of the number or percentage of blacks on death row, but because of the way death sentences are handed out. A person of color is more likely to be sentenced to death when conviced of the same crime than a white person. If a person of color commits a capital crime against a white person, the likelihood of that person receiving a death sentence is even higher. Whereas if a white person commits the same crime against a person of color, that person is even less likely to be sentenced to the death penalty than if the crime was committed against another white person. Add to this that a person of color is more likely to be wrongly conviced of a crime than a white person and you have a tremendous disparity in the way justice is carried out. Yesterday CNN aired an interview with a representative of the Bar Association who sited a study by the Bar Association that proves these disparities and calls for at least a temporary suspension of the death penalty until these issues can be resolved. This is not about being soft on criminals, it is about applying justice fairly.
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Name : Jacqueline-C21034, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 26, City : San Jose, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : Engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,Hi Donald. I have more often heard the death penalty refered to as classcist rather than racist, since it’s often true that if you don’t have money, you get the sort of defense that the state sees fit to provide. This defense, not to downgrade the efforts of the many hard-working D.A.’s out there, is often inadequate at best and a travesty at worst. Since many black defendants fall under the realm of the indigent, they may be found to suffer disproportionately from this lack of quality representation. Further, statistics show that black defendants are convicted and sentenced to death at a much higher rate than their white counterparts charged and convicted for the same crimes. Check with the BCA for the cite. Add to this the recent spate of death row inmates who, upon examination of new DNA evidence, or evidence that is not new but which the defendants and their supporters had to fight to make admissible to the Court of Appeals, were found to be not guilty, and you get a very legitimate question as to the equity of the justice system and its implements. ________________________
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Name : Jennifer R., Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Humanist, Age : 29, City : Saint Paul, State : MN, Country : United States, Occupation : Writer/Student, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,Well, exactly. I’d say it has more to do with poverty than racism, per se – the basic problem is that the biggest factor in escaping death row is not the defendant’s guilt or innocence, but how much money the defendant has to pay a defense lawyer. Rich defendants – and I’d say the vast majority of rich murder defendants are white – can afford the kind of quality legal service that can get them off entirely or at least have the sentnece reduced to life. Poor defendants – and though I don’t have the statistics in front of me, I’d be willing to bet they’re often black – get a public defender with 30 or more other cases to handle at the same time and alomst no funds to hire detectives, interview witnesses, or pay for expert testimony. Mounting a thorough defense in a murder 1 case can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Racism plays a part with the jury, too. Confronted with a young black male defendant, they see thier stereotypes brought to life, and might find it less taxing upon thier consciounce to convict. Personally, when I think that a bunch of Northwestern journalism students working part time found enough evidence to bounce 11 innocnet men off Illinois’death row, I find prospect of how many other innocent men have been killed or are even now waiting to die quite frightening.
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Name : Colleen32008, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 21, City : NYC, State : NY, Country : United States,Most murder defendants are not black. In fact, by sheer numbers, most murder defendants are white. That should not be surprising, considering blacks comprise only about 12 percent of the population. What raises the question of the death penalty being racist is that it is applied disproportionately to black convicts, especially those convicted of murdering a white person. Empirical studies have shown that a black person and a white person with identical criminal records who commit identical crimes are likely to receive different sentences. The white may get a life sentence, while the black gets a death sentence. Whites are almost never sentenced to death for murdering a black, while for a black, conviction of murdering a white is almost a guarantee of a death sentence where possible. Incidentally, in Texas, the defendants convicted of murdering James Byrd (dragging death) were the first whites sentenced to death in Texas for murdering a black since 1853 … when a man murdered another man’s slave.
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Name : Gregory H., Gender : M, Race : Black/African American, Age : 24, City : New York, State : NY, Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class,Even though there are more black defendants, 83% of people on death row are there whose victims are white, even though most blacks murder blacks. This means that white life is valued more than black life. So if a black guy kills a white person he is much more likely to die than killing a black person. That’s why it’s racist, not because the race of the defendant matters so much as the race of the victim.
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Name : west-indian-american-female-2124432, City : metro new york, State : NY, Country : United States,
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