The Effects Of Race On Sentencing In free essay sample

Capital Punishment Cases Essay, Research Paper The Effects of Race on Sentencing in Capital Punishment Cases Throughout history, minorities have been ill-represented in the condemnable justness system, peculiarly in instances where the possible result is decease. In early America, inkinesss were lynched for the slightest misdemeanor of informal Torahs and many of these violent deaths occured without any type of due procedure. As the judicial system has matured, minorities have found better representation but it is non wholly indifferent. In the past 20 old ages strict controls have been implemented but the system still has symptoms of racial prejudice. This racial prejudice was foremost recognized by the Supreme Court in Fruman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 ( 1972 ) . The Supreme Court Justices decide that the decease punishment was being handed out below the belt and harmonizing to Gest ( 1996 ) the Supreme Court felt the decease punishment was being imposed # 8220 ; capriciously # 8217 ; and # 8216 ; wantonly # 8221 ; and # 8220 ; most frequently on blacks. We will write a custom essay sample on The Effects Of Race On Sentencing In or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page # 8221 ; Several old ages subsequently in Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153 ( 1976 ) , the Supreme Court decided, with efficient controls, the decease punishment could be used constitutionally. Yet, even with these assorted controls, the system does non efficaciously extinguish racial prejudice. Since Gregg v. Georgia the entire population of all 36 decease rows has grown as has the figure of judicial controls used by each province. Of the 3,122 people on decease row 41 % are black while 48 % are white ( Gest, 1996, 41 ) . This figure may be acceptable at first glimpse but one must take into history the fact that merely 12 % of the U.S. population is black ( Smolowe, 1991, 68 ) . Carolyn Snurkowski of the Florida lawyer generals office believes that the disproportional figure of inkinesss on decease row can be explained by the fact that, # 8220 ; Many black slayings result from saloon bash that wouldn # 8217 ; t name for the decease punishment, but many white slayings occur on top of another discourtesy, such as robbery # 8221 ; ( As cited in Gest, 1986, 25 ) . This may be true but the Washington Legal Foundation offers their ain account by reasoning that # 8220 ; inkinesss are arrested for slaying at a higher rate than are Whites. When apprehension sums are factored in, # 8216 ; the chance of a white liquidator stoping up on decease row is 33 per centum greater than in the instance of a black liquidator # 8221 ; ( As cited in Gest, 1986, 25 ) . Harmonizing to Professor Steven Goldstein of Florida State University, # 8220 ; There are so many discretional phases: whether the prosecuting officer decides to seek the decease punishment, whether the jury recommends it, whether the justice gives it # 8221 ; ( As cited in Smolowe, 1991, 68 ) . It is in these discretional phases that racial prejudices can infect the system of covering out decease sentences. Smolowe ( 1991 ) shows this infection by giving illustrations of two instances decided in February of 1991, both in Columbus. The first illustration is a white suspect named James Robert Caldwell who was convicted of knifing his 10 twelvemonth old boy repeatedly and ravishing and killing his 12 twelvemonth old girl. The 2nd illustration is of a black adult male, Jerry Walker, convicted of killing a 22-year-old white adult male while robbing a convenience-store. Caldwell # 8217 ; s test lasted three times every bit long as Walker # 8217 ; s and Caldwell received a life sentence while Walker received a decease sentence. In these illustrations, it is believed that non merely the race of the victims, but besides the value of the victims, biased the sentencing determinations. The 22-year-old adult male killed by Walker was the boy of a Army commanding officer at Fort Benning while Caldwell # 8217 ; s victims were non influential in the community. In illustrations such as these, it becomes apparent that racial prejudice, in any or all of the discretional phases, becomes racial unfairness in the terminal. Smolowe ( 1991 ) besides makes the point that Columbus is non entirely: # 8220 ; A 1990 study prepared by the authorities # 8217 ; s General Accounting Office found # 8216 ; a form of grounds bespeaking racial disparities in the bear downing, condemning and infliction of the decease penalty. # 8221 ; In an article by Seligman ( 1994 ) , Professor Joseph Katz of Georgia State # 8220 ; and other bookmans have made a separate point about prejudice claims based on the # 8216 ; devalued lives # 8217 ; of slaying victims. # 8221 ; Seligman besides asserts that those claiming prejudice believe that it is in the race of the victim and non the race of the suspect, and because the lives of inkinesss have been # 8220 ; devalued, # 8217 ; people who murder inkinesss are less likely to have decease sentences than those who slaying whites # 8221 ; ( Seligman, 1994, 113 ) . An Iowa Law Professor, David Baldus, besides found that # 8220 ; juries put a premium on the lives of victims # 8221 ; ( As cited in Lacayo, 1987, 80 ) . In a survey of more than 2,000 Georgia slaying instances, Baldus found that # 8220 ; those who killed Whites were 4.3 times every bit likely to have the decease punishment as those who killed inkinesss. And inkinesss who killed Whites were most likely of all to be condemned to decease # 8221 ; ( As cited in Lacayo, 1987, 80 ) . Harmonizing to Gest ( 1996 ) , of those executed since the reinstatement of the decease punishment, 80 % hold murdered Whites, while merely 12 % of those executed in the same clip period have had black victims. These figures show an obvious tendency of racial prejudice against those who murdered Whites. Could these disparities be because, as sociologist Michael Radelet put it, # 8220 ; Prosecutors are political animate beings, they are influenced by community indignation, which is subtly influenced by race, # 8221 ; or is it because # 8220 ; it is built into the system that those in the prevailing race will be more concerned about offense victims of their ain race, # 8221 ; as stated by Welsh White of the University of Pittsburgh Law School ( As cited in Gest, 1986, 25 ) . Because of the huge possibility of favoritism in condemning in capital penalty instances, each phase of prosecution must be controlled every bit much as possible. Although these wrongdoers are the worst the condemnable justness system has to offer, prosecuting officers must be encouraged to see the offense and non the race of the victim or wrongdoer and the justice must try to except the same racial issue when make up ones minding the penalty. I believe Justice Brennan said it best when he wrote the dissenting sentiment in a capital penalty entreaty. He wrote, # 8220 ; It is alluring to feign that minorities on decease row portion a destiny in no manner connected to our ain, that our intervention of them sounds no reverberations beyond the Chamberss in which they die. Such an semblance is finally caustic, for the echos of unfairness are non so easy confined # 8221 ; ( As cited in Lacayo, 1987, 80 ) . With great attempt, the judicial controls can get down to conflict the racial prejudice of Americas Judicial system but to wholly extinguish such a prejudice, the people involved in the judicial procedure must larn to look past the race of the wrongdoer or the value of the victim, and alternatively concentrate on fortunes of the offense. 382