The Death Penalty is Racially Biased
Race of Homicide Victims in Cases Resulting in a Death Sentence
In a 1990 report, the non-partisan U.S. 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 confirms 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.
Underlying the statistical evidence is the differential treatment of African-Americans at every turn in the criminal justice system. 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. Furthermore, all-white or virtually all-white juries are still commonplace in many localities.
- A 1998 study of the city of Philadelphia found that, even after making allowances for case differences, the odds of receiving a death sentence in Philadelphia are nearly four times higher if the defendant is African-American. (David Baldus, et al., Race Discrimination and the Death Penalty in the Post-Furman Era. Cornell Law Review, September 1998.)
- In March 1998, Kentucky became the first state to pass a Racial Justice Act. This Act allows defendants to use statistical evidence of racial discrimination to show that race influenced the decision to seek the death penalty. If the judge finds that race was a factor, the death penalty would be barred. The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a similar bill twice, but it has been defeated in the Senate.
- In May 2002, the Governor of Maryland imposed a moratorium on executions
because of racial bias in the state’s death penalty system. A January
2003 study released by the University of Maryland concluded that race and geography
are major factors in death penalty decisions. Specifically, prosecutors are
more likely to seek a death sentence when the race of the victim is white and
are less likely to seek a death sentence when the victim is African-American.
