NCJ Number
125896
Date Published
1989
Length
268 pages
Annotation
Based on a 5-year study (1976-80) of capital sentencing patterns in 8 States, this book examines the extent to which racial factors have influenced who is sentenced to death and who is ultimately executed.
Abstract
Capital sentencing patterns were examined in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Oklahoma, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, and Arkansas. In addition to the core study, the book reviews the legal history of racial discrimination in capital sentencing in the United States from the earliest claims (based on Marvin Wolfgang's groundbreaking study used in Maxwell v. Bishop) to the landmark case of McCleskey v. Kemp. The study focuses on the judicial system's efforts to address documented evidence of inequities in capital sentencing. In each of the States studied, death penalties were more likely to be imposed on defendants who killed white victims than on those who killed blacks; moreover, in each State, blacks who killed whites were more likely to receive death sentences than whites who killed whites. Further, the study concludes that the U.S. Supreme Court has acknowledged that this pattern exists but has decided to do nothing about this form of discrimination, refusing to hear future claims based on it. For the present, the issue must therefore be addressed through legislation. Extensive tables, chapter notes, case index, subject index.