Death Penalty Issue?

Question

In our country, out of all the people who are eligible for the death penalty (those who are convicted of capital murder in a state with the death penalty), a highly disproportionate number of those executed are Black. That is, out of the people who could receive the death penalty, it is actually imposed on Blacks at a higher rate than Whites. Is this a cause for concern? You could say, no they've still been gound guilty, and as long as they've been found guilty of capital murder, it is valid. In response to that, one might analogize to the following situation, saying suppose there is a police officer who only gives speeding tickets to Blacks, and, though all the Blacks whom he stops are actually speeding, this is still an affront to our system of (purported) equal justice. Please continue this discussion below, and let me know if you think the death penalty should at least be temporarily suspended until systemic discrimination is cured.
Source: Baldus Study

Some of you are getting confused. I'm not saying that it is a problem that more Blacks are being executed. I'm asking whether it is a problem that they are executed at a higher rate. E.g., assume there are 20 Blacks and 20 Whites eligible for the death penalty. Now suppose that 15 of the Blacks are executed but only 8 of the Whites are. would THIS be problematic. Put your thinking caps on people.

Answer 1

Actually, the most significant thing about race and the death penalty is that the race of the victim is what matters most. That is, if the victim is white, the defendent is much more likely to face the death penalty than if the victim is non-white. Baldus himself has said that "Among all death-eligible offenders, those data indicate that the death-sentencing rate from 1995 to 2000 is twice as high in white victim cases as it is in minority victim cases."

Aside from race, there are other problems with the death penalty.
It costs more than sentences of life without parole (much more),
and it is not a deterrent. Over 120 people have been exonerated on evidence of their innocence, and in the overwhelming number of these cases, this evidence was something other than DNA. There are now 4 cases in which it is highly likely an innocent person was executed. In one of these (in Missouri) the local prosecutor has opened an investigation into the crime for which someone was executed, citing serious doubts about his guilt. In another, there may not even have been a murder (modern forensics, but not DNA, have focused attention on this case.) It is in the nature of human beings to make mistakes. Temporarily suspending executions will never allow this to be cured.

Answer 2

Though the numbers are disproportionately black Americans, the very fact that they have been convicted by fallible humans of heinous acts is a serious issue.
We, are not capable of fairness, not with a legal system that depends on men with guns who are part of a unionized brotherhood. Who when questioned about the way they conduct investigations ban together and stonewall the citizenry.

The death penalty is a foolish waste of resources in the U.S.
To actually make it work there would need to be unequivocal evidence proving guilt. Then execution via a bullet to the head, with in hours after the verdict. Thus justice would serve, and millions of dollars saved.

Racial profiling???? yes, and no. Every cop isn't good. Nor is every convict bad. The shades of grey that pass between are the real issues.

And those thousands of convicts in need of supervision.

I say use them as Slave labor!!!!!! F- human rights....if you are there for the kind of krudd we assume- you are now a mule of the state. With no more rights to anything except to draw breath.

Answer 3

I think that unequivocally, murderers should be executed if there is no doubt of guilt and intent to kill, and just holding the victim down while an accomplice deals the fatal blow or injury is just the same as if he was doing it. The claim about "innocence" is usually because said person was the accomplice and not technically the killer. With DNA and modern science there should be less chance of mistakes. As for more of one race than the other, let's look at the population, say Washington DC, the nation's murder capital, there are more than one race than any other. If statistically there are more murders there, and one race group is the largest there. I'd expect a larger percentage of the murderers to be of that race. There is also the question (and you'd have to undertake an unbiased study, something I admit is hard to do, because government studies bow to political correctness first) which race group would be more likely to be involved in violent crime? Does one group feel they have a right to practice hatred and violence against another? Take the issue of illegal immigration, a person with no criminal background has a fair chance of entry, an illegal one knows they will never get permission, so naturally you'd have more criminal illegal aliens than legal ones (of course their own country encouraging their criminals to leave increases that liklihood). When they speak of "innocent people" being killed, they need to remember that every victim of a murderer, is innocent, especially those they kill after escaping or being released from prison. So I don't believe in letting any of them walk free again, regardles of race.

Answer 4

I think this is two separate issues. Yes, we should end discrimination but the biggest reason for ending the death penalty is that too many innocent persons have been sentenced to death and then found to be not guilty , several hundred by the Innocence Project alone. It costs millions to put a person to death with some ten years of appeals and the like, and for that same amount we could lock a person up in isolation for several hundred years and I suspect that most if not all those sentenced to death would prefer that to total isolation, locking them up with no visitation, no chance for release to allow them to commit another crime, perhaps by establishing a death penalty prison somewhere totally isolated from the rest of us - the priboleff islands in Alaska, for example.

Answer 5

No,i don`t think it should be suspended, i do think it is important that they look into the facts that more blacks are being executed then whites,and i hate to say its but as a white,i wander if this will ever change..I am not racist and well have many friends of all races..But my thoughts right now is pull our boys and gals out of the war zones and send all prisoners..This way,our kids are safe and those murdering ..raping no goods Will be on common ground and maybe they`ll learn what its like to fear for there lives..Matter of fact i think when war comes,prsioners should go first,then the soilders..This way our brave people will be saved and those who don`t deserve to be supported in jails will be out there fighting or whatever..just my thoughts

Answer 6

cyan is right, statisticaly blacks commit more crimes per capita than whites, there are a number of reasons for this but the bottom line is, if they want to hav equal representation they should commit equal numbers of crimes. Until then they will be over represented. I personally think that our death penalty system is flawed in giving the criminals too long to appeal and dwell, from the time of sentencing till they are strapped into the chair should be no more than 6 months. Enough of the endless appeals costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Answer 7

Each case is judged separately. Each defendant has an attorney. There are always endless appeals. Blacks do a disproportionately large number of capital crimes. If they don't want to get executed, they should not do the crimes. "Proportionality" is a bleeding heart liberal concept.

Answer 8

It has much more to do with simple economics: poorer people commit the majority of crimes. And there are more impoverished Blacks and Latinos than whites and Asians. Simple fact.

And it is a cause for concern. This is what capitalism does to a society.

Answer 9

No, I don't think it's cause for concern at all. If you look at crime in general, blacks commit more crimes per capita than whites. It has nothing to do with descrimination. it has everything to do with lifestyle. Blacks don't have to live that way.

Answer 10

You should go on the Jerry Springer show.