Is Death Row Racists? Who gets sentenced to death more?

Question

One complaint leveled against the death penalty is that it is racially biased. Of the 3,122 inmates on death row, 1,493 (or 48%) are white; 1,272 (or 41%) are black; 236 (or 8%) are Latino; 50 (or 2%) are Native American; and 22 (or 1%) are Asian. Of the 328 prisoners executed since 1976, 182 (or 56%) were white; 127 (or 39%) were black; 17 (or 5%) were Latino; one (or 1%) was Native American; and one (or 1%) was Asian(NAACP, 949).


http://www.abanet.org/publiced/focus/spr97pol.html

Ugh People say its racist against blacks.. thats why i said it. cause it shows no.


people Over play the race card

Answer 1

No. The only probelem with the death penalty is that it is not carried out soon enough. The death row inmates can and do assault correctional officers (prison guards) while on death row.

Why does noone cry for the officers who have urine and feces thrown on them or who get stabbed with homemade knives (shanks), who get speared with homemade spears, or who get their throats cut.

Instead the liberals want to cry for the murderers.

Answer 2

The article you link to is from 1997. Much has been learned since then. It is now understood that the key factor is the race of the victim. That it, a defendent is much more likely to face the death penalty if the victim was white than if the victim was non white. The results of the Baldus study are striking. Other studies show the same thing.

For example, between 1976 and today, 79.3% of the victims of people executed were white, 20.7 % were non white.
(57% of the people executed were white, 43 % were non white.)
(See http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=5&did=184. You will find the number of executions by race of the victim and by the race of the defendent.)

Some of the answers you have received are way off base. At least one person wants to speed up the death penalty process. This person should read about the 124 people released from death row when proven innocent. Many had served over a decade. Speeding up the process will guarantee we execute an innocent person.

Answer 3

A survey once found that you are more likely to receive the death penalty if you killed a white person than any other race. The racial composition of the jury was irrelevant in assigning the death penalty.

Yes, it is racist. There are SO MANY OTHER reasons to abolish the death penalty as well. It is not a deterrent and it is not used properly. Life imprisonment without parole is still keeps the murderers off the streets.

Answer 4

Google "Baldus study death penalty." In the 1980s-90s, University of Iowa college of Law professor studied the racial effects of the death penalty. He found most statistically significant that it was the race of the VICTIM, not the perp, that mattered most. Thus, a black perp who's accused of slaying a white victim is most likely to get the death penalty, just the opposite was true for a white perp accused of killing a black victim.

The Supreme Court rejected the study as an insufficient basis to invalidate the death penalty on Fourteenth Amendment grounds, but Professor Baldus's study is still very important.
(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCleskey_v._Kemp)

Answer 5

It's not racist, but I don't think anyone should get the death penalty anyway. Why is it alright for our government to sentence someone to death when in most cases they are sentenced that way because they killed someone? Kinda oxy-moronic if you ask me. But as for your question...Those numbers really don't mean anything. None of you know how long those people have been on the death row or how many appeals are taking place. Saying that it's not fair because one race has been executed more often then the others probably has alot to do with cases/appeals still pending.

Answer 6

Wait, where do you see the racism? The fact that more white people get executed first? I don't know about racism, but most of the news about white people in death row are from murders to rape/abuse and stuff. Black people being there are publicized as commiting random killings, and the other two populations, I Have no clue about. So I guess publicity may have something do to with it...who knows..this is a toughie!

Answer 7

Considering 13% of the US is black, but they make up almost half of those executed, yes....statistically it should be about equal to 13%

The same sort of statistics were revealed in my Social Deviance class. In New Jersey, about 18% of the drivers are black, but almost 50% of the tickets issued are to black people.

And not only is it racist, but it is wrong sometimes. If one innocent person is executed, that is murder, and more then 25 people have been found innocent after the fact. In one case, there was a married couple convicted and sentenced to death. It was later revealed they were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time and were set free, or at least the wife was as her husband had already been executed. Given the frailty of life, and the fact you cannot unkill someone, it is far better to err on the side of life then death as there is already plenty of death in the world and we will all die sooner or later anyway.

Answer 8

a pal, a white cop, become shot and killed by using a black suspect. The state sought dying. notwithstanding if the suspect become convicted of homicide, the jury did no longer return a dying verdict yet handed down existence in penal complex. The jury later mentioned that a black juror pronounced that he does no longer vote for dying because of the fact he "had to stand along with his race." My pal become doing his activity conserving human beings he did no longer even understand and a few thug murdered him, the the thug gets existence. 3 of his toddlers mamas have been elated. My pal's spouse and son have innovations. bypass discern. So yeah, the dying penalty is racist.

Answer 9

There are less blacks that get death by a fraction,but also consider there are more whites in US than Blacks.And the Number of Blacks in prison all together is more than any Race.Go's to show you not all blacks are criminals but most criminals are black.

Answer 10

If you look at the crime statistics, minorities have a higher rate of arrests for violent crimes. They also lead the way in Drug arrests, domestic violence, armed offenses to name a few.

Most towns will tell you which areas are the high crime areas. I see the carnage on Friday and Saturday night knife and gun club participants come threw to visit. Most make it, many come in with silver bracelets on, meaning they go to the hotel with vertical bars after we patch them up. I am not a racist person, I am stating what I see daily.

In the many hospitals I work at, I can tell you that yes, many of the crimes committed are by minorities and usually drug related.