Race and the Death Penalty - Is the Life of a White Person Worth More?

For decades, the debate about the death penalty has raged on. Race has always been, and continues to be a significant aspect of any discussion regarding the fairness and appropriateness of capital punishments. Following are recent findings, which highlight growing concerns regarding the fatal intersection between prejudice, racial power struggles and criminal justice.

The Penalty in Ohio

Recently, a comprehensive Ohio study concluded that in today's criminal justice system, who lives and who dies depends, in large part, on race.

The Associated Press reviewed 1,936 indictments spanning from 1981 to 2002 and found that the only consistent thing about capital punishment in Ohio is that it has been been repeatedly applied in an uneven, almost arbitrary fashion.

Clearly indicated was another disturbing trend: defendants facing the death penalty for killing a White person were twice as likely to be sentenced to death, than defendants charged with killing a Black person.

The Penalty in Kansas

A similar report in Kansas indicated that since the reinstatement of capital punishment in that particular state, 44 potential capital cases involved non-White victims and yet none resulted in a death sentence. On the other hand, eight defendants did receive death sentences. Their victims? White.

The Death Penalty Information Center Reports

The Death Penalty Information Center reports the following:

• Nationally, over 80% of murder victims in cases resulting in an execution were White, even though only 50% of murder victims generally are White
• 96% of states conducting reviews of race and the death penalty have discovered a pattern of either race-of-victim or race-of-defendant discrimination, or both
• 98% of the Chief district attorneys in death penalty states are White
• A Philadelphia study found that Blacks received the death penalty at a 38% higher rate than others when comparing similar defendants and similar crimes
• A North Carolina study found that the odds of receiving a death sentence rose by 3.5 times among those defendants whose victims were White

There's more. Additional reports are showing that it's not just the ultimate decision regarding punishment that's biased, but rather the whole process - start to finish - thus, compromising the right to a fair trial.

Jury De-Selection in California

A sworn declaration by a former Prosecutor noted that Judge Stanley Golde advised him during jury selection that "no Jew would vote to send a defendant to the gas chamber" and that the practice of exclusion extended to Black women as well. This judge presided over more death penalty cases in Alameda County than any other judge, therefore, the capital convictions in this county are coming under intense legal scrutiny.

Strong Evidence of Racial Bias in Jury Selection in Texas Case

The New York Times, Washington Post, Dallas Morning News and Houston Chronicle have all recently reported that Thomas Miller-El was granted a new trial in light of strong evidence of racial bias during jury selection (They struck 10 out of 11 qualified Blacks). The court found disparities in questioning methods and in the rationale ultimately used for striking potential jurors. A history of excluding Blacks from jury service haunts this city where Prosecutors held 1960s training manuals instructing them to avoid accepting "Jews, Negroes, Dagos, Mexicans or a member of any minority race on a jury, no matter how rich or how well educated."

Article continues...What message do these findings send? What's the future of the death penalty?