Death Penalty

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer discusses that among the claims made about the death penalty by proponents of capital punishment is that the penalty is fairly applied so that it cannot be rejected as being applied more readily to any one group in society. The writer argues that this claim is false, and various analysts have shown how the poor are disadvantaged by the entire legal system and how minorities who kill whites are far more likely to be sentenced to death than anyone who kills another minority member. The writer notes that reforms of the entire justice system have been proposed, with the view that the unfairness extends to all crimes and not just to capital crimes. The writer concludes that it is not clear how any of the proposed solutions would affect problems in the system and unfairness in particular.

From the Paper:

"More and more analysts have found that the death penalty is not applied equally and that there is often a racial component in the way some offenders are treated and sentenced. This view has not been accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court, however, even as opponents of the death penalty cite statistics showing that the death penalty is racially discriminatory. These opponents have raised the issue in court with little success. They cite statistics to the effect that black murderers are far more likely than white murderers to get the death penalty, and that this is especially true if the victim was white. Statistics from Georgia show what happens. In that state, a black man accused of killing a white person is substantially more likely to receive the death penalty than a white person convicted of killing either a white or a black. Some forty six percent of the inmates on Georgia's death row are black, and most were sentenced to die for killing a white victim. Other states show similar statistics."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Banks, G. (2003, Spring). Death row's racism gets spotlight - Racefile. Colorlines Magazine, retrieved September 23, 2006 from http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0KAY/is_1_6/ai_99907501.
• Bienen, L.B. (1996). The Proportionality Review of Capital Cases by State High Courts after Gregg: Only "The Appearance of Justice." Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Volume 87, Issue 1, 130-314.
• A bleak indictment of the inner city (1990, March 12). U.S. News & World Report, 14.
• Borg, M.J. and Radelet, M.L. The Changing Nature of Death Penalty Debates. Annual Review of Sociology, 43.
• Cody, W.J.M. (2001, Summer. Lecture--the death penalty in America: Its fairness and morality. University of Memphis Law Review, retrieved September 22, 2006 from http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3843/is_200107/ai_n8954737.

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