The Death Penalty: The Morality Debate

Outside of the morality debate, Stichter finds that racism plays a large part in the comparative analysis of the death penalty. Under this belief, each criminal ought to be treated as equally as possible in respect to the crime committed. Contrary to that thought process however, “white murderers are less likely to be given the death penalty” (Stichter, 2014). Non-comparatively, however, someone who has committed an act of murder, regardless of race, deserves the death penalty, according to supporters. There again lies a fallacy though, because “some studies suggest that if the murder victim is white, then the murderer is likely to get a more severe punishment than if the victim was not white” (Stichter, 2014). In that case, then, it’s assumed …show more content…
Through his study, Sellin found doubts in the deterrence affect that the death penalty supposedly created (Donohue & Wolfers, 2006). Then, in the landmark Furman case in 1972, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional on both the federal and state level (Donohue & Wolfers, 2006). Up until 1975, there was a widespread moratorium on the death penalty. Justin Wolfers, in an analysis on the historical death penalty debate, cites that Isacc Ehrlich’s findings of “each execution sav[ing] eight lives,” caused Solicitor General Robert Bork to sway the Supreme Court’s reversal of the 1972 ruling (Donohue & Wolfers, 2006). When looking back through the death penalty’s history, a lot of flip-flopping has occurred at both the state and federal level. In the more recent years, the rate of executing those sentenced to death has slowed. In 2000, the state of Illinois suspended executions and in 2004, New York’s highest court ruled, “that the state’s death penalty statute was unconstitutional” (Donohue & Wolfers, 2006). On the issue of deterrence, research yields a mixed result with some studies finding little to no deterrence and others pointing to “powerful and impressive” deterrent effects (Donohue & Wolfers, …show more content…
For all intensive purposes, the study chose to focus on the Texas Department of Criminal Justice between 1974 and 2009. Their findings suggest a higher risk of execution for minorities if a victim is white (Petrie & Coverdill, 2010). Another topical study conducted by Anita Pritchard and Michael Wiatrowski, followed death penalty cases from 1977 to 1996 covering all 50 of the United States. In addition to race, the study considered political ideologies and geographic location playing a role in the likelihood of a death penalty sentence result. According to the study, “Conservative Southern states with higher concentrations of blacks are more likely to have a death sentence, more likely to sentence prisoners to death, and then more likely to execute” (Pritchard & Wiatrowski, 2008). Subsequently, liberal states with urbanized neighborhoods and higher concentrations of blacks were less likely to utilize the death penalty as a sentence and less likely to execute