Posted: June 23rd, 2022

Race and Death Penalty

Term Paper
TOPIC IS : Race and Death Penalty
Select a topic of your choice related to the criminal justice theories and write a 5-6-page research paper. The paper should be double-spaced, 12 points and Times New Roman in font. Your research paper should include the following:

An introduction: (1-2 paragraphs)
Research question: Write one to two research questions that you would like to explore in your research.
Literature review (at least 4 pages): Find at least five peer-reviewed articles and paraphrase important conclusions of these articles related to your research question. Make sure to cite them all using the APA style.
Conclusion: In this section summarize the important points that you found in your research.

Note: DO NOT use direct quotes whatsoever, only paraphrase.

While your paper must have a scholarly tone (e.g. using appropriate grammar and a college-level vocabulary, not using contractions or the first-person or the second person), it should consist mainly of your own original ideas and thoughts. Use the APA style for references. To know more about APA citation, click on the link below.

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_style_introduction.html

The focus will be on integrating in your own language the literature available on the topic of your choice. Make sure the articles are peer-reviewed or scholarly articles and not book reviews, book review essays, newspaper articles, or descriptive pieces found on the Internet.

Please submit your term paper through Blackboard. Submit through Turnitin or SafeAssign several times before the due date to check for plagiarism. The originality report should contain less than 20% matching. Otherwise, it will not be graded.

Your term paper is due on August 12, 2020 at 11:59 p.m and will count as 30% of your overall grade.

TERM PAPER RUBRIC
Assignments with more than 20% matching will not be graded and will be assigned a “zero.” The 20% matching is allowed for the reference section and technical terms.

0-170
171-239
240-200
POINTS

Content & Development
150 pts
Poor
– Content is incomplete. – Major points are not clear and /or persuasive. – less than 3 peer-reviewed articles cited.
Fair
– Content is not comprehensive and /or persuasive. – Major points are addressed, but not well supported. – Research is inadequate or does not address course concepts. – Content is inconsistent with regard to purpose and clarity of thought. –
3 peer-reviewed articles cited.
Good
– Content is comprehensive, accurate, and persuasive. – Major points are stated clearly and are well supported. – Research is adequate, timely and addresses course concepts. – Content and purpose of the writing are clear.
-4- 5 peer-reviewed articles cited.

Organization & Structure
50 pts
Poor
– Organization and structure detract from the message of the writer. – Paragraph is disjointed and lack transition of thoughts.
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Race and Death Penalty
Student’s Name:
Institution:

Race and Death Penalty
There has been public debate and opinions that death penalties in the US criminal justice system are based on racial disparities, thus negating the fairness, equality and justice aspect of the criminal justice system, thus sending mixed reactions among the members of the public. Death penalties and any other decisions by judges or courts should be primarily based on the law, policies, and legal principles instead of other aspects such as racial disparities. People of all races need to be judged and treated equally under the law, especially in decision legal decision making. Different studies of patterns in death penalty sentencing reveal that racial discrimination contributed to the high number of black people becoming victims of the death penalty (Shatz and Dalton, 2012). In this regard, as of 2014, 42% of convicts under death row in the US were black people compared to the relative proportion of convicted murders that stood at 52.5% of all homicide offenders between 1980 and 2008. Additionally, as of 2020 January, the number of inmates in death row in the US was at 2620, whereby 42.10% were whites, 41.56 African American, 13% Hispanic, 1.79% Asians, and 1.03% Native Americans. The number of people based on death row as compared to their population in the US that stands at non-Hispanic white at 61%, Latinos at 18.1%, African Americans at 13%, Asians at 5.8%, Native Americans at 1.3% and others at 2.7% thus discrimination in court ruling (Levinson et al., 2014). This indicates racism factor contributes to the death penalty sentencing leading to the research questions for this paper that include. Different literature has been researched and written to evaluate the issue of racial disparities in death sentencing to reveal the facts and ensure that justice, equality and justice are attained in judicial rulings on matters of death sentencing.

Research questions
1. Are there facts on the racial discrimination leading to increased death penalties on the minority groups in the US, or it’s just a perception?
2. What factors contribute to racial discrimination leading to increased death penalties on the minority groups and the recommendations/reforms to eliminate racial bias in the criminal justice system?
Literature review
Researchers and scholars have evaluated the issue of racial discrimination in death sentencing to analyze the statistics on death sentencing and understand them to establish the facto and factors contributing to racial discrimination. According to (Vito and Vito, 2014), there has been a pattern of evidence showing that racial disparities in sentencing, charging and the imposition of death penalties in the US. The defendant is several times to face death sentences in a case that the murder victim in their case is white. Victim’s race is the highest reliable predictor of whether the defendant will get a death sentence. The study reveals that African Americans are treated more harshly than other races across all the stages and levels in the criminal justice system. This fact means that from the initial charging decisions to plea negotiating and the final decision, the chances of the African Americans’ chances of winning a case are significantly reduced. The harsh treatment makes the sentences referred to African Americans to be very harsh. The judges make decisions on the extreme ends at the expense of the African Americans. For instance, a report by the American Bar Association revealed that one-third of African Americans sentenced to the death penalty in Philadelphia would have been sentenced to life imprisonment if they were from other races. Similarly, research released by the University of Maryland revealed that race and geographical factors played a major role in making death penalty decisions. The prosecutors have high chances of seeking a death sentence for a victim when they are African Americans compared to whites. Additionally, research from Yale University School of Law indicated that African American defendants are three times more likely to receive death penalties than their white counterparts. Therefore, the study revealed a lack of equal justice for all the Americans as court decisions, especially those on death sentencing, are made concerning racial discrimination.
The death penalty occasioned by racial discrimination has been an issue of scholarly interest, and it became a matter of concern to the national legal system since the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Racial discrimination has consistently been experienced in US history, and the matter is practiced and experienced in the justice system at the expense of African Americans and in the interest of whites (Levinson, Smith and Young, 2014). Courts have addressed racial discrimination in sentencing and condemned the issue, arguing that their discrimination has no place in the criminal justice system, and all decisions should be based on the rule of law. In this regard, courts have adopted laws that enable the defendants to appeal their cases, claiming racial discrimination in the ruling. No court upheld a legal claim alleging racial discrimination in the death penalty’s imposition to the minority groups. The study argues that there is a need to evaluate and understand death sentencing about racial discrimination by differentiating between discretion and discrimination, ethical, legal and moral issues linked to racial discrimination in prescribing death penalties, evidence of discrimination and responses to racial discrimination claims. The grants prosecutors and juries complete discretion to reasonably recommend death sentences or life sentences depending if a case is a death-eligible or not. Discretion can be viewed as an act of discrimination against African Americans. Consequently, there is a need to prove arbitrariness and discrimination in death penalty cases by distinguishing systemic racial discrimination and individual case discrimination. The data on the two types of crimination establishes general discrimination and defenses that can be put forward in justice, equality and fairness. Furthermore, racial discrimination in cases arises from a combination of systemic disparities in a different jurisdiction. For instance, socioeconomic is the denominator facto that has increased racial discrimination in court decisions. Finally, the study recommends and established judicial and legislative responses to racial discrimination in the judicial system. In this regard, the courts need to insist on claims of proof and reject claims of arbitrariness. The court should evaluate the discrimination claims in individual cases and address them, discredit the death penalty to enhance public perception and stimulation of alternative focus in scholarly research on the death penalty. Additionally, congressional reforms should be adopted to ensure discrimination is eliminated in the judicial system.
Fenner (2020) notes that racial bias in the criminal justice system leading to increased death penalties among the minority communities has consistently dominated headlines, thus negatively portraying the court and judicial system. In this case, the study uses large scale statistical studies to establish the impact and issues of racial discrimination leading to increased death penalty sentences among the minority groups. In the assessment of the Connecticut death penalty law, it is established that the criminal justice system treated the minority groups on white crimes more harshly as compared to the cases of the same crimes being committed by the whites. The egregiousness of the crime cannot justify the disparate and harsh treatment directed towards the minority group. The study is motivated by the Connecticut legislature’s repeal of the law in 2012 that resulted in overturning the law since applied to death row and pre-repeal inmates. Donohue’s findings that the court relied on established that the law violated state prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment and that the death penalty was linked to racial discrimination. The research that the US supreme court enactment of the death penalty in 1972 argued states to ensure that racial discrimination was weeded out in the court of applying the law, but the court did not est5ablishe the approaches to be used ensuring that racial bias would not affect the application of the law. In this case, some states such as Texas aggressively used the law in issuing death sentences without considering the racial bias aspect. Texas law, when a defendant was found to have deliberately committed a murder it was presumed that there was a possibility that they would commit a similar crime; thus, they were a threat to the society, thus making the death penalty mandatory for them. It is vital to note that no white capital offender was sentenced to death when there were involved in deliberate murder cases than the case of the minority defendant found guilty of similar charges. Donohue and other researchers evaluated the news articles, public records and probation reports for over 1000 death-eligible cases in Harris County to ascertain the racial bias that resulted in sentencing disparity. The study concluded that there was immense racial bias in the American criminal justice system leading to an increased death penalty on the minority groups.
Phillips and Marceau’s (2020) study revealed that the defendant convicted of killing the white majority has high chances of being executed compared to the killers of the African American minority. The researchers argue that black lives do not matter as those of the whites when it comes to the death penalty issue. Data retrieved from the Supreme Court decision showed that the defendant convicted for the murder of whites got executed at 17 times more than those involved in murdering the African Americans. The Supreme Court has, in recent times, expressed its impatience in blocking execution, but the majority votes are in support of the execution resumption. The courts have been inclined through public opinion to address the issue of racial bias before the resumption of the executions. The courts are publicly criticized for their disregard of solid statistical evidence of race discrimination in the capital justice system. The study argues that Congress and state legislatures have failed in finding a remedy to addresses the racially biased death penalty system. The study concluded that the murder of African Americans is treated less culpable that the murder of the white majority, indicating that equality and equity cannot be achieved unless effective reforms are instituted.
Conclusion
Different research and literature indicate that there is statistical evidence of racial discrimination in sentencing, leading to high numbers of deaths among the minority groups, especially African Americans, and the issue can be reduced by adopting relevant judicial and legislative reforms. The study reveals that racial discrimination is a major factor contributing to bias sentencing at the minority groups’ expense. The murder of the whites is handled with a lot of seriousness compared to the murder of black people. Black people involved in the murder of white people are harshly sentenced terming their crime as a capital offense that attracts mandatory death sentences. On the other hand, whites involved in the murder of black people get lighter sentences such as life imprisonment. There is a disparity in sentencing in the American criminal justice system based on racial discrimination, and thus congress and legislative reforms need to be adopted in sentencing in the interest of justice, equality and fairness.

References
Fenner R. (2020). Race and Death Penalty: Faculty Research Spotlight. SLS Rev., 5.
Levinson, J. D., Smith, R. J., & Young, D. M. (2014). Devaluing death: An empirical study of implicit racial bias on jury-eligible citizens in six death penalty states. NYUL Rev., 89, 513.
Levinson, J. D., Smith, R. J., & Young, D. M. (2014). Devaluing death: An empirical study of implicit racial bias on jury-eligible citizens in six death penalty states. NYUL Rev., 89, 513.
Phillips, S., & Marceau, J. F. (2019). Whom the State Kills. U Denver Legal Studies Research Paper, (19-16).
Shatz, S. F., & Dalton, T. (2012). Challenging the Death Penalty with Statistics: Furman, McCleskey, and a Single County Case Study. Cardozo L. Rev., 34, 1227.
Vito, A. G., & Vito, G. F. (2014). Capital punishment. The Encyclopedia of Theoretical Criminology, 1-4.