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 …show more content…
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
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 …show more content…
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