Death Penalty Sentencing: Research Indicates Pattern of Racial Disparities

• NCJ Number: 127081
• Author(s): L Dodge
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 6 pages
• Corporate Author: US Government Accountability Office
• Sale Source: Azimuth Inc.; National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Legislative Hearing/Committee Report
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Statement given before the Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights Committee on the Judiciary U.S. House of Representatives on May 3, 1990.

Annotation

A synthesis of 28 studies showed a pattern of evidence indicating racial disparities in the charging, sentencing, and imposition of the death penalty.

Abstract

In 82 percent of the studies, race of victim was found to correlate with being charged with capital murder or receiving the death penalty. Although race of victim influence was found in all stages of the judicial process across the studies, the evidence of race of victim influence was stronger for earlier stages in the judicial process than at later stages. The influence of the race of the defendant on death penalty outcomes was equivocal. More than three-fourths of the studies that found a race of defendant effect found that black defendants were more likely to receive the death penalty. The results show a strong race of victim influence: the death penalty sentence was more likely to be sought and imposed for an offender if the victim was white. The race of offender influence is not as clear and varies across a number of dimensions.