Innocence and the Death Penalty

Paper Summary:

This paper takes a look at the death penalty and the issue of an innocent person being incorrectly sentenced, and executed for a crime he did not commit. According to the paper, racial bias more than exists, it simply dominates the entire decision of who should live and who should die.

From the Paper:

"Research demonstrates that death penalty inequities are not just limited to certain regions of the country such as the South. A study on the Philadelphia justice system by David Baldus and George Woodwort shows that blacks in Philadelphia are four times more likely to get the death penalty than other defendants who commit similar murders. Over eighty-nine percent of its prisoners on death row are people of color. Another study found that six out of ten defendants sentenced to death in Georgia for killing a white person would not have received a death sentence had their victim been black. A white victim case was over four times more likely to result in a death sentence than was a comparable black victim case. And, in Maryland, a death sentence is eight times more likely in a white victim case than a black victim case, according to a 1987 Public Defender's Office study. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Baldus, David C., et. al. "The Use of Peremptory Challenges in Capital Murder Trials: A Legal and Empirical Analysis." 3 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 3. 2001.
• Carmical, Casey. "The Death Penalty: Morally Defensible?" Available: http://www.carmical.net/articles/deathpenalty.html (Accessed 4 May 2006).
• Chemerinsky, Erwin. "Eliminating Discrimination in Administering the Death Penalty: The Need for the Racial Justice Act." Santa Clara Law Review 35:519-534. 1995. Available: http://eprints.law.duke.edu/archive/00000751/ (Accessed 4 May 2006).
• "Criminal Justice in Black and White." ACLU News Jul./Aug. 1998. Available: http://aclunc.org/aclunews/news498/justice-facts.html (Accessed 4 May. 2006).
• Dieter, Richard C. "The Death Penalty in Black and White: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides." Death Penalty Information Center. Jun. 1998. Available: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=45&did=539 (Accessed 4 May 2006).

More papers on Innocence and the Death Penalty:

• Argumentative Essay # 4414 : "For the Death Penalty"
• Persuasive Essay # 73633 : "The Death Penalty"
• Term Paper # 148794 : "The Death Penalty vs. Life Without Parole"

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