The Role Of Race In The Death Penalty

Superior Essays
Very few countries similar to the United States employ the death penalty as punishment for murder. The list of other countries that also apply the death penalty includes China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Needless to say, we are not keeping good company when it comes to the practice.
Support for the death penalty became popular during the 1990’s, when crime was on the rise and politicians, in an effort to appear tough on crime, embraced policies such as the three-strike rule and minimum sentencing. Since that time, however, the political climate has changed, and the death penalty has frequently come under fire from both liberals and conservatives alike. There are many reasons to oppose the death penalty, but I will focus on what I believe to be the four most important reasons. The first and foremost reason that the United States should rethink its position on the death penalty is the illusory majority support for the practice. There has been research that indicates a majority of Americans might prefer life without parole over the death penalty, but this is not usually measured in traditional surveys. The second reason the death penalty should be repealed is because of the excessive costs. Studies have found that death penalty cases cost taxpayers substantially more than non-death penalty cases for similar crimes. The fact that there are mixed findings regarding the death penalty’s deterrent effects is the third reason I believe we should cease the practice. Past studies indicate that the death penalty acts as an important deterrence, but new studies show that these findings may be incorrect. Finally, I think the death penalty should be repealed because of the racial disparities associated with its implementation. Studies show that defendants who murder white victims are much more likely to receive the death penalty as a sentence than defendants who murder black victims. PUBLIC OPINION ON THE DEATH PENALTY The public’s majority support for the death penalty is frequently cited as one of the number one reasons the practice is still legal in the United States. And traditional polls frequently allege majority support for capital punishment. However, there is research indicating the public’s opinion of the issue is not so cut-and-dry. Majority support for the death penalty, is what some scholars have deemed “illusory” – the unfortunate byproduct of inaccurate and incompetent survey techniques. One alternative to the death penalty is the sentence of life without parole. However, major polling companies such as PEW or Gallup simply ask respondents, “For persons convicted of murder, do you support or oppose the death penalty?” This basically forces respondents to pick one side of the issue, without offering an alternative. Research done by some political scientists indicate majority support for the death penalty would not be nearly as strong if respondents were given the option to support life without parole. In one study, when given this option, the majority of respondents supported life without parole as a sentence over the death penalty, when it
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Like most aspects of America’s criminal justice system, there exist wide racial disparities in the application of the death penalty. Many political scientists believe that this is the result of discretionary practices by judges and prosecutors. Prosecutors can often decide which cases they want to pursue the death penalty for, and studies have shown that prosecutors are more likely to pursue a punishment of the death penalty when the victim is white as opposed to being black.
This phenomenon is known as “race of victim” discrimination and can be seen in multiple states where the capital punishment is still applied. In Florida, defendants were 4.8 times more likely to receive the death penalty as a sentence if the victim was white than if the victim was black. That number was 4 in Illinois, 4.3 in Oklahoma, 4.4 in North Carolina and in Mississippi it was an astounding 5.5 (Gross 1989).
One editorial highlighting the death penalty’s application in Kentucky found significant racial disparities. For example, 100% of the people on Kentucky’s death row in 1995 were convicted of murdering a white victim. Despite the fact that there had been over 1,000 African-Americans murdered in Kentucky since the death penalty had been reinstated, none of them were sentenced to death row (Who

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