Bias and the death penalty →
As a part of the criminal justice system, death penalty sentencing is also biased. While there are persistent difficulties with finding data related to bias, partly due to the nature of bias and insufficient data collection, there are studies and cases that point to the nearly arbitrary nature of sentencing.
One relevant study, “The Impact of Legally Inappropriate Factors on Death Sentencing for California Homicides, 1990-1999″ (46 Santa Clara L. Rev. (2005)), is a state-wide study on the role of race, ethnicity and geography in death sentencing in California. The authors, Glenn Pierce and Michael Radelet, reviewed all homicides that occurred in California from 1990-99, using records from the FBI and Vital Statistics. They conclude that the race and ethnicity of the victim and the location of the crime play a critical role in determining who will be sentenced to death.
Key findings of the study include:
- While 27.6% of murder victims are white, 80% of executions in California have been for those convicted of killing whites.
- Those who murder whites are over three times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who kill African-Americans and over four times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who kill Latinos.
- Death sentence rates vary substantially from county to county in California and this variation cannot be explained simply based on homicide rates. A person convicted of 1st degree murder in a predominantly white, rural county is more than three times as likely to be sentenced to death than a person convicted of a similar crime in a diverse, urban county.
(Source: abbyjean)
