Capital punishment has been administered in this country for over 200 years, however, some states have now abolished the practice, while others continue with sanctioned executions.
Racial Bias
The most famous statistical study conducted regarding racial bias in death penalty assessment was the 1970s Baldus study. The study indicated if a murder victim was white, the rate to which the offender was sentenced to death was much higher than if the victim was black (Howe, The Futile Quest for Racial Neutrality in Capital Selection and the Eighth Amendment Argument for Abolition Base on Unconscious Racial Discrimination, William and Mary Law Review, 2004, 2085).
In a more recent study, capital sentencing in Maryland between 1978 and 1999 was examined. The study found “pronounced bias against killers of white victims, and within the white-victim cases, additional bias against black offenders” (Howe, 2090).
Alternatively, a 2001 study of 900 death penalty cases indicated racial bias is not a factor in capital sentencing. It stated, “differences in state criminal laws, prosecutors; decisions and geographical factors, not intentional racial bias, account for the fact that the majority of offenders with death sentences are minorities” (Klug, Inter Alia. Study of Racial And Geographical Disparities in Federal Death Penalty System, Corrections Compendium, 2001, 1).
The majority of executed death row inmates since 1976 have been white, even though a slight majority of murders are committed by blacks (Eddlem, Ten Anti-Death Penalty Fallacies: The Case Against Capital Punishment Relies on Myth, Misinformation, and Misplaced Emotionalism, The New American, 2002, 24).
Does the Death Penalty Act as a Deterrent?
Another argument used by those against the death penalty is that executions do not deter criminals on the street from committing further acts of mayhem, murder, and violence.
