Death Penalty Essay
Lena Baker, a poor African American female, was put to death by an all white, rich male jury for the murder of Ernest Knight. Knight was a white rich man who hired Lena to be his personal maid. He unfortunately abused his power towards her. He enslaved her, even though slavery was, and still is illegal. He was killed in the early 1940’s by Lena Baker. The jury overlooked the whole case, because of her race, wealth, and attempt to defend herself. She was sentenced to death in 1945. According to deathpenaltyinfo.org her case was very quick and simple, no actual time and effort was put into the case. This may have happened over 70 years ago, but nothing has changed. Innocents are still being put to death, and inequality …show more content…
If the defendant is a penniless person of color and commits a serious crime such as murder, odds are the government will show no mercy compared to a richer white person. Stated by “The Death Penalty Should Be Abolished” an anonymous research project happened back in 2002 which stated, only 6 white people have been put to death for killing a black person while 112 black people were put to death for killing a white person over the span of around 50 years. A prime example of this is a true story that happened back in the late 90’s. According to The Washington Post, and “The Death Penalty Should be Abolished” three Starbucks workers were killed in 1997. 2 out of the 3 workers were white and the location was in a rich neighborhood. Not to long before this incident , three McDonalds workers were killed. Those three workers were black and the location was in a poor neighborhood. The differences in these two cases is even though both the shooters were black, the Starbucks shooter was put to death while the McDonald's shooter was sentenced life in prison. There was no actual social or wealth justice in these cases, rather than discriminatory between race and
Lena Baker, a poor African American female, was put to death by an all white, rich male jury for the murder of Ernest Knight. Knight was a white rich man who hired Lena to be his personal maid. He unfortunately abused his power towards her. He enslaved her, even though slavery was, and still is illegal. He was killed in the early 1940’s by Lena Baker. The jury overlooked the whole case, because of her race, wealth, and attempt to defend herself. She was sentenced to death in 1945. According to deathpenaltyinfo.org her case was very quick and simple, no actual time and effort was put into the case. This may have happened over 70 years ago, but nothing has changed. Innocents are still being put to death, and inequality …show more content…
If the defendant is a penniless person of color and commits a serious crime such as murder, odds are the government will show no mercy compared to a richer white person. Stated by “The Death Penalty Should Be Abolished” an anonymous research project happened back in 2002 which stated, only 6 white people have been put to death for killing a black person while 112 black people were put to death for killing a white person over the span of around 50 years. A prime example of this is a true story that happened back in the late 90’s. According to The Washington Post, and “The Death Penalty Should be Abolished” three Starbucks workers were killed in 1997. 2 out of the 3 workers were white and the location was in a rich neighborhood. Not to long before this incident , three McDonalds workers were killed. Those three workers were black and the location was in a poor neighborhood. The differences in these two cases is even though both the shooters were black, the Starbucks shooter was put to death while the McDonald's shooter was sentenced life in prison. There was no actual social or wealth justice in these cases, rather than discriminatory between race and