Death Penalty Discrimination
"Twenty years have past since this court
declared that the death penalty
must be imposed fairly, and with reasonable
consistency, or not at all, and,
despite the effort of the states and courts
to devise legal formulas and
procedural rules to meet this daunting
challenge, the death penalty remains
fraught with arbitrariness,
discrimination, caprice and mistake." --Justice
Harry Blackmun, Feb. 22,
1994. Capital punishment is one of the most debatable
subjects, in American
society. Proponents of the death penalty believe it is
justice--retribution
for the crimes committed. The reason underlining Americans'
overwhelming
support of executions is usually revenge. We believe that most
serious crimes
deserve the most serious punishment, as we recall the statement
from the Old
Testament, "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,"
principle. When we hear
about a murderer, rarely do we want to understand what
drove him to murder;
more often, we wish to kill him. It is difficult to
understand that the
vengefulness we feel toward a murderer, which drives us to
champion
execution, is identical to the wish for revenge the murderer feels for
what
he believes to be the horrendous injustices in his life. Our desire to
tame
the heart of the murderer is quite limited. We feel as murderous toward
them as
they do toward those they have killed. We wish either to kill or
torture them.
This makes a murderer, if he is imprisoned, even more
murderous. Just as the
murderer's murder accomplishes nothing, so too the
death penalty has not in any
way decreased murder. The judicial system was
created in hopes of providing
justice for all people. Although movements such
as Civil Rights and Black Power
have taken place to ensure justice for all,
discrimination still exists in our
judicial system. Capital Punishment is
applied in an unfair, arbitrary and
discriminatory manner. As long as it
remains a part of our penal system, it will
be used disproportionately
against the poor, racial minorities, and those who
had received inadequate
legal representation. The following essay will cover how
racism is applied in
the death penalty; the means of discretion that the judges
and jury use; and
how the poor are discriminated against due to their lack of
proper council.
"Even under the most sophisticated death penalty statutes,
race continues to
play a major role in determining who shall live and who shall
die." --Justice
Harry Blackmun Throughout American history, the death
penalty has fallen
disproportionately on racial minorities. From 1930, the first
year for which
statistics are readily available from the Bureau of Justice
Statistics,
to 1967, 3,859 persons were executed under civil jurisdiction in
the
United States. During this period of nearly half a century, over half
(54%) of
those executed were black, 45 percent were white, and the remaining
one percent
were members of other racial groups (see fig. 1). Between 1930
and 1976 nearly
90% of those executed for the crime of rape in this
country were
African-Americans . Between 1930 and 1996, 4220 prisoners
were executed in the
U.S.; more than half (53%) were black . Currently,
about 50% of those on the
nations death rows are from minority populations
representing 20% of the
country's population. In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court
overturned existing death
penalty statutes in part because of the danger that
those being selected to die
were chosen out of racial prejudice. Legislatures
adopted the death sentencing
procedures that were supposed to eliminate the
influence of race from the death
sentencing process. That was one of the
grounds on which the Supreme Court ruled
the death penalty unconstitutional
in Furman. However, evidence of racial
discrimination in the application of
capital punishment continues. Nearly 40% of
those executed since 1976 have
been black, although blacks constitute only 12%
of the population. And in
almost every death penalty case, the race of the
victims is white (see fig.
2). Last year alone, 89% of the death sentences
carried out involved white
victims, even though 50% of the homicides in America
have been black victims
. Of all the executions that have occurred since the
death penalty was
reinstated in 1976, only one has involved a white defendant
for the murder of
a black person. Racial minorities are being prosecuted under
federal death
penalty laws far beyond their proportion in the general population
and the
population of the criminal offenders. Race of the victim was found
to
influence the likelihood of being charged with capital murder or receiving
the
death penalty. For example, those who murdered whites were found more
likely to
be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks were.
According to the
survey findings, 54% believed that blacks are more likely
than whites to receive
the death penalty for the same crime. This record of
racial injustice played a
significant part in Justice Harry Blackmun's recent
decision to oppose the death
penalty in every case. "Even under the most
sophisticated death penalty
statutes," said Blackmun, "race continues to play
a major role in
determining who shall live and who shall die." Race continues
to plague the
application of the death penalty in the United States. On the
state level,
racial disparities are most obvious in the predominant selection
of cases
involving white victims. On the federal level, cases selected have
almost
exclusively involved minority defendants. Under our system, the
federal
government has long assumed the role of protecting against racially
biased
application of the law. But under the only active federal death
penalty statute,
the federal record of racial disparity has been even worse
than that of the
states. So far, the number of cases is relatively small
compared to state
capital prosecutions. However, the numbers are increasing,
and under legislation
currently being considered in Congress, the federal
government would play a much
wider role in death penalty prosecutions.
"Whatever else might be said for
the use of death as a punishment, one lesson
is clear from experience; this is a
power that we cannot exercise fairly and
without discrimination." --Gross
and Mauro Discrimination against the poor
(and in our society, racial minorities
are disproportionately poor) is also
well established. Fairness in capital cases
requires, above all, competent
counsel for the defendant. Yet,
"approximately ninety percent of those on
death row could not afford to
hire a lawyer when they were tried." Common
characteristics of these
defendants are poverty, that lack of firm social
roots in the community and
inadequate legal representation at trial or on
appeal. A survey conducted on the
public opinions regarding the death penalty
showed that 70% believed that poor
people have a higher chance of being
executed than rich people do, because they
did not receive proper legal
representation. The poor and mentally ill are in
fact, being sentenced to
death row much quicker than the rich are. They are sent
to court and usually
end up with a court appointed attorney, who could usually
care less about
what happens in the case. Most of them also have very little
experience in
capital cases anyway. Some cities are trying things so that the
court
appointed attorneys have a little help by setting up public defender
offices.
But there are still to many places that rely on the list of local
lawyers to
draw from for their capital case attorney. It is hard to blame them
entirely
though. A private attorney in Atlanta may be being paid $75 an hour,
while a
court appointed lawyer will make about $30. States like Alabama make it
even
worse by placing a limit on how much a court appointed lawyer can be paid
for
pre-trial work, -$1000. Even if they spend 500 hours (the national average
is
2000) on pre-trail work, which amounts to $2 an hour. They would be
better
off working at McDonalds. The reason this happens is so that states
can reduce
already high costs. The most comprehensive study in the country
found that the
death penalty costs and average of 2.16 million per execution
over the costs of
non-death penalty murder case with the sentence of
imprisonment for life. In
Texas, death penalty cases cost an average of
2.3 million, about three times the
cost of imprisoning someone in a single
cell at the highest security level for
40 years. Hundreds of millions of
dollars and thousands of hours of court time
would be saved by replacing the
death penalty with alternative sentences. The
money saved could be devoted to
crime prevention measures, which really do
reduce crime and violence, and
thus are the true alternatives to the death
penalty. "A majority of Americans
have taken a very strong position on an
issue about which they are
substantially uniformed." --R. Bohm The
discretion of judges and juries in
imposing the death penalty enables the
penalty to be selectively applied.
Discretion in the criminal justice system is
unavoidable. The history of
capital punishment in America clearly demonstrates
the social desire to
mitigate the harshness of the death penalty by narrowing
the scope of its
application. Whether or not explicitly authorized by statutes,
sentencing
discretion has been the main vehicle to this end. But when
sentencing
discretion is used - as it to often has been - to doom the poor,
the friendless,
the uneducated, racial minorities, and the despised, it
becomes injustice.
Mindful of such facts, the House of Delegates of the
American Bar Association
(including 20 out of 24 former presidents of the
ABA) called for a moratorium on
all executions by a vote of 280 to 119 in
February 1997. The House judged the
current system to be "a haphazard maze of
unfair practices." "If
everyone took an eye for an eye, the whole world would
be blind." --Gandhi
The death penalty is one of the oldest of all
punishments. Because of this, it
is rooted in old beliefs, particularly those
made by whites. Capital punishment,
should by all means be abolished. It is
racially biased, discriminatory, and
arbitrary. Like Skurka said, "It doesn't
deter crime in any way or serve
any message to the public. It is inhumane,
cruel and unusual punishment, and is
contrary to every fundamental value we
have." As long as the death penalty
remains a part of our system, it will be
used disproportionately against the
poor, racial minorities, and those who
had received inadequate legal
representation. Society must begin to
re-examine its approach to punishment. In
conclusion, the death penalty
should be abolished because it has become a
horrifying lottery in which
politics, and race play a more decisive role in
sending a defendant to the
death chamber than the circumstances of the crime
itself. Works Cited 1.
Dison, J.E., "Changing Attitudes Towards Capital
Punishment, 1972 -
1982," American Society of Criminology, 1984. 2. Drimmer,
Frederick,
"Until you are Dead: The Book of Executions in America," A
Citadel Press
Book, New York, NY, 1990. 3. Ellsworth, Poebe C. and Samuel R.
Gross,
"Hardening of the Attitudes: Americans' Views on the Death
Penalty,"
Journal of social issues, Vol. 50, No. 2, 1994, p. 19-52. 4.
Radelet,
Michael, Hugo Adam Bedau, and Constance E. Putnam, "In Spite
of
Innocence," Northeastern University Press, Boston, MA, 1994. 5. Young,
R.L,
"Religious Orientation, Race and Support for the Death
Penalty,"
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 31 (Mar. 1992),
Pages 76-87.
Internet Resources 1. "Capital Punishment: The Death
Penalty." http://www.religioustolerance.org/execute.htm
2. "Public
Opinion About the Death Penalty."
http://www.essential.org/dpic/po.html
3. "History and Recent
Developments." http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/just/death/history.html
4.
"Death Penalty Information Center."
http://www.essential.org/dpic/dpic.r05.html
5. "The Case Against the
Death Penalty."
http://www.aclu.org/library/case_against_death.html#unfair
Magazine
Resources 1. Carroll, James, "Lets Gets Real About Executions in
America:
Three Easy Steps," The Atlantic Monthly, May 1994. 2. Chinni,
Dante,
"Life and Death Decisions," Newsweek, June 16, 1997. 3. Monsma,
Stephen,
"Capital Punishment - A Qualified Yes," The Banner, Dec. 8,
1997. 4. NA,
"UN report calls for ban on executions in the U.S," The
Globe and Mail,
April 4,1998. References
Bibliography
1. Dison, J.E., "Changing
Attitudes Towards Capital Punishment, 1972 -
1982," American Society of
Criminology, 1984. 2. Drimmer, Frederick,
"Until you are Dead: The Book of
Executions in America," A Citadel
Press Book, New York, NY, 1990. 3.
Ellsworth, Poebe C. and Samuel R. Gross,
"Hardening of the Attitudes:
Americans' Views on the Death Penalty,"
Journal of social issues, Vol.
50, No. 2, 1994, p. 19-52. 4. Radelet, Michael,
Hugo Adam Bedau, and
Constance E. Putnam, "In Spite of Innocence,"
Northeastern University
Press, Boston, MA, 1994. 5. Young, R.L, "Religious
Orientation, Race and
Support for the Death Penalty," Journal for the
Scientific Study of
Religion, 31 (Mar. 1992), Pages 76-87. Internet Resources 1.
"Capital
Punishment: The Death Penalty."
http://www.religioustolerance.org/execute.htm
2. "Public Opinion About
the Death Penalty." http://www.essential.org/dpic/po.html
3. "History and
Recent Developments."
http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/just/death/history.html
4. "Death Penalty
Information Center." http://www.essential.org/dpic/dpic.r05.html
5. "The
Case Against the Death Penalty."
http://www.aclu.org/library/case_against_death.html#unfair
Magazine
Resources 1. Carroll, James, "Lets Gets Real About Executions in
America:
Three Easy Steps," The Atlantic Monthly, May 1994. 2. Chinni,
Dante,
"Life and Death Decisions," Newsweek, June 16, 1997. 3. Monsma,
Stephen,
"Capital Punishment - A Qualified Yes," The Banner, Dec. 8,
1997. 4. NA,
"UN report calls for ban on executions in the U.S," The
Globe and Mail,
April 4,1998