Justice or Lynching?

    Racial bias is a hot topic at any round table discussion. While politicians and court officials may deny its existence in the judicial system, minority groups feel it is one of the most pressing and supressive issues which denies true equality in America. But is there really a solution? Can the American public actually get the ogvernment to not only admit that there is racial bias, but also do something to prevent it in the future? With this web page my comerades and I hope to answer these questions and perhaps light a match under the perverbial butt of congress to do something about it. FIGHT THE POWER!!!!

-Tyler Cates, Ian Knight A.K.A. Dirty Killa

    The effects of a racial bias can still be felt through the Judicial system and the individuals it sentences to death on a yearly basis. While there can never be proof to analyze the consciences of Judges and Juries, the results of  a judgment
conditioned by bias' can be seen directly in the demographs illustrating percentages of black and white execution victims. These statistics on the whole show that African Americans are put to death at a alarmingly high rate considering the small percentage of individuals they represent in the American population. African Americans represent approximately 13 percent of the American population.

    Both the color of the defendant and the skin of the victim play a role in racist death penalty cases. Talking about racism in the judicial system is no exaggeration, and polls also show that about 49% of the Americans believe that blacks are more likely than whites to receive the death penalty for the same crime. The University of North Carolina released a study of all homicide cases from 1993- 1997, indicating that the likelihood of receiving the death penalty increases three and a half times if the murder victim is white rather than black. But not only money beats justice in the American court rooms.

            In conclusion these arguments are proven in the strong evidence provided by the Statistics. If  the argument against the racial biast is to be proven, percentages in death penalty statistics must change. The overwhelmingley large percent of black executions speaks for itself, despite arguments concerning agravated causes exc.  The causes of such percentages, despite what they are, are completely unexcusible as attributed to the governments responsability.

"The death penalty has been administered in a way that discriminates against minorities and poor people who can't afford high-priced attorneys"  Pat Robertson, religious broadcaster and one-time presidential canditate, April 2000

"Sending a homosexual to the penitentiary certainly isn't a very bad punishment for a homosexual."
From the prosecutors closing arguments in the case of Calvin Burdine, who was sentenced to death after a trial where his lawyer fell asleep several times

The cop paused and stared at the two of them, the black man in his white T-shirt and shabby jeans, the little white man with the thick glasses and the ballooning belly. "One of you two is gonna hang for this," said the cop. Then he turned to Brandley. "Since you're the nigger, you're elected." Nick Davies in "White Lies", quoting testimony leading to Clarence Brandley's release

www.fdp.dk
 

John William King will probably be the first white man in this century to be executed in Texas for the killing of a black. The last time it happened was in 1854 when a white farmer was executed for killing another farmer's prize male slave.
    Nationally, 8 whites have been executed for killing blacks since the resumption of the death penalty more than 2 decades ago. Conversely, 124 blacks have been put to death for killing whites, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington.
U.S. Justice Department statistics show that in interracial cases, blacks kill whites 2.5 times as often as whites kill blacks, a difference dwarfed by the 15:1 ratio above.

The General Accounting Office, the congressional watchdog agency, in 1990 reviewed more than 50 studies of race and punishment and found "a pattern of evidence indicating racial disparities in the charging, sentencing and imposition of the death penalty."

"That ought to really raise concerns and prompt an examination of procedural and other process-related matters"
Dan Morales, the outgoing Tx attorney general, commenting on the disproportionate number of minorities on death row.

It is difficult to provide substantial proof that racism is a factor in the way death sentences are being applied in US - although a majority of the americans do believe that the risk of being sentenced to deash .
But it is not only a question of practice in the courts. There is also reason to believe that black offenders run a bigger risk of being apprehended than white offenders do. There are many incidents of racism in the police force, which increases the chances that the police is more likely to look for a black suspect than for a white.
It is wellknown that many prosecutors in cases with black defendants do whatever they can to have an all-white jury by striking as many black jurors as possible - and not many black defendants can afford a defence attorney who can or will do much to fight against that.
Another factor is that in most states murder is considered a capital crime only if it is committed in connection with another crime like for instance robbery. Robbery is the crime of the poor, which means that it it typical committed by blacks - while the legislators are typically white middle class people who seldom needs to commit robbery.
But if the purpose of the death penalty really is to save lives, why is it worse to take a life in connexion with a robbery than in connexion with a typical middle class crime like tax fraud?  http://www.africana.com/DailyArticles/index_19990922.htm
 
 
  From January 1 1973 through April 1 1998, 451 individuals have been executed, the distribution by race being:
White:               56.3 %
Non-white:        43.7 %
 

Distribution of the 611 victims by race:

White:               82.7 %
Non-white:        17.3 %

Racial combination:
 

                      White defendant  Non-white defendant
  White victim                58 %               25 %
  Non-white victim            3 %                14 %

Statistics from the Department of Justice

                                       People on death row
                                            1987        1997
White                                 1,128        1,876
Black                                   813           1,406
American Indian                 17               28
Asian                                    9                17
Other                                   0                8
        By showing the inbalances betwen black death row victims (roughley 50 percent) and the black population (roughley 13 percent) in America, a clear and intolerable injustice is shown. In adition to this, the overwhelming majority of white victims regarding cases in which the death penalty is given also points at a racial injustice within capital punishment.

http://academic.udayton.edu/race/03justice/death03.html#RaceofDef
 

  RACIAL BIAS, PERHAPS A TWO WAY STREET. 

www.google.com

         Contrary to other major studies, John Ashcroft made public his findings that whites are in fact more likely to
receive the death penalty than are blacks and Hispanics.
According to Janet Reno Black and Hispanic defendants are less
likely at each stage of the judicial process to receive the
death penalty. Although these results would point towards the
support of higher death penalty rates towards blacks and
Latino's, the attorney general and U.S. lawyers are urging
smaller death penalty percentages among blacks and Latinos, a
full report of all death eligible cases is being requested so that there may be a more full and accurate data assessment regarding this issue.

    Along with the studies provided by the former attorny general and Mr. Ashecroft, other factors can determine that death penalty sentences are not racially biased. You must take into consideration that jurors must make their decisions on a case-by-case basis. When deliberating, the 12 chosen ejudicators must look at different aggrivating factors, such as the brutality of the homicide and also whether it was premeditated. So unless the jurors assume that one race is more vicious than another, racial bias should not exist when giving judgement on a person's life.  Links
Click here for a link to www.fdp.dk

ABC News article  Study Finds Racial Bias in Death Penalty

John Ashcroft findings

Death Penalty Statistics

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