Race and The Death Penalty Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Race and The Death Penalty - Research Paper Example Now, in United States of America death penalty of color is a predominant phenomenon. In this country, the blacks in the death row are very high in number. the In the recent years the Supreme court of the United States also rejected the application of statistical studies that claim bias of race as the prime reason for the purpose of overturning the death sentence (The death penalty is applied unfairly and should not be used: Disagree). 1.2. Relevant statistics Color of defendant and the skin color of the defendant are crucial factors in the death penalty of the Americans. Since the year 1976, the people with variations in skin color accounts for around 43% of the total executions. Still 55 % of the executions are waiting. The jurisdictions in which there are highest percentages of death penalty are US military which is â€Å"86%, Colorado which is 80%, US government which is 77%, Louisiana which is 72% and in Pennsylvania which is 70%† (Race and the Death Penalty). It has been found that white victims have accounted for around one half of all the victims of murder where around 80% of all the capital cases included people of white skin. In October, 2002 â€Å"around 12 people have been executed where the defendant was white and the victim of murder was black† (Race and the Death Penalty, 2003). Around 178 defendants convicted for murder were black along with white victims. In the month of January 2003, researchers in the university of Maryland governor revealed that the defendants who killed white persons were prone to death sentences. In August 2001, the supreme court of New Jersey released that they were more likely for proceeding against the defendants killing the white victims. In the month of April 2001, a group of researchers from the University of North Carolina published a study of all the homicide cases in North Carolina in the time frame of 1993 to 1997 (Race and the Death Penalty). From the figures of US department of Justice the figures reveal that from the period of 2001 to 2006 around 48 percent of defendants in the cases where death penalty were sought were of the African American origin (Does a person's race affect the likelihood of him/her receiving the death penalty?). 2. Reasons for disproportionate death penalty 2.1 Domination of white in the criminal justice system The criminal justice system of America and its internal mechanics is vehemently controlled as well as dominated by the white people. The death penalty can be symbolized as a control of the white over the blacks. The black males who flaunt a threatening and defiant persona are viewed as subjects of death sentences provided by the middle aged white male prosecutors (Does a person's race affect the likelihood of him/her receiving the death penalty?). But we will highlight our focus to a different trajectory which will yield a bit surprising results. 2.2 Blacks commit more crime American civil rights activists and Baptist minister Sir Jesse Jackson states that in Alabama (a state of United States of America), the African Americans form 25% of the total population of America and of Alabama’s 117 death row inmates, around 43% of them are of black origin. Although it highlights that the African American are more prone towards death row but one of the reasons is also that the