Capital Punishment and Race in America

It has always bewildered me how the punishment for murder is the very crime itself. What do we teach society when our criminal justice system “...legitimiz[es] the very behaviour the law seeks to repress...”? How can we ever justify, even legalize, taking a human being’s life away? I continued to research capital punishment’s downfalls including, but not limited to its ineffectiveness at deterring crime, wrongful convictions, and inconsistently applied cases. However, it was only until recently that I discovered that one’s skin color plays a key factor in the decision between life or death.

First, to understand the death penalty in its current stage, one must take a look at its sinister roots: Southern lynchings. Although the practice of judicial murder dates back to ancient times, recent reports according to the Atlanta Black Star reveal that “Southern legislatures shifted to capital punishment so that legal and ostensibly unbiased court proceedings could serve the same purpose as [lynchings]: satisfying the lust for revenge...” To put it simply, in the early 1900s, lynchings became unpopular due to the negative attention they were receiving in the media. Thus, the South found a new way to hang African Americans without being reprimanded: by turning to the judicial system. Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer and the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, says it best: “[Lynching] made [America] seem like it was just rhetoric when we talked about justice and fairness. [So] what happened was that lynchings moved inside…I do believe that capital punishment is the stepchild of lynching. It was disproportionately used against people of color [and] it still continues to be shaped primarily by race.”

Recent studies have shown the extent to which racial bias impacts capital punishment. In fact, even though African American men are fifteen times more likely to be murdered as opposed to white men, “77% of capital homicide cases since 1976 have involved a white victim.” Cases with white victims are treated as more important than cases with black victims due to juror implicit bias. Even more alarming, “defendants convicted of killing white victims were executed at a rate 17 times greater than those convicted of killing Black victims.” And according to USA Today, “a black defendant is four times more likely to receive a death sentence than a white defendant.” It is the judicial branch’s duty to be impartial and fair; yet these statistics show how minorities, especially BIPOC, are treated unequally under the law. It is extremely frightening how implicit bias could cloud our judgment and cause us to condemn others to death merely based on their skin color.

McCleskey v. Kemp, often said to be the “Dred Scott decision of our time,” is a famous Supreme Court case in 1987 that brought up racial bias in the death penalty. The courts ruled in a 5-4 decision that in spite of the statistical evidence that showed racial discrimination in the capital justice system, “defendants must prove intentional bigotry to make their case.” Although it is unconstitutional to “seek the death penalty for racially biased reasons,” it is nearly impossible to prove a specific instance of intentional bigotry/racism. However, some states have legislature such as the Racial Justice Act from North Carolina which allows defendants to prove bias using patterns of racial discrimination and injustice instead of just evidence from an individual case. Although acts such as the RJA are one step toward African Americans being treated fairly under the law, people must take into account that many other factors prevent blacks and other minorities from having an equal chance at their trial. For example, “on average, North Carolina prosecutors in death penalty cases excluded qualified black jurors at more than twice the rate of qualified non-black jurors.” The lack of representation of black people on the jury is one of the most clear-cut examples of systemic racism in the criminal justice system. In addition, “...the poor and ethnic and religious minorities often do not have access to good legal assistance,” one of the reasons why the lack of socioeconomic status can be so devastating and wealthier, white people often do not receive as harsh a sentence compared to their poorer, minority counterparts.

“Between 1930 and the end of 1996, 4,220 prisoners were executed in the United States; more than half (53%) were black.” After the murder of George Floyd, people’s attention have been drawn to the appalling accounts of police brutality, unlawful and excessive force on the part of law enforcement usually against BIPOC. However, they fail to recognize the horrifying fact that due to racial prejudice, our very own criminal justice system legally executes a disproportionate amount of black people in the United States.

So, what can we do to change this? How can I, as an individual, possibly help? First, we must stop perpetuating the stereotypes that surround BIPOC and other minorities. We must be allies, embrace our differences, and spread awareness. We must not be afraid of speaking up and talking about the uncomfortable truth because avoiding the uncomfortable is accepting defeat--and accepting defeat is to become a part of the problem.

We must remember that aside from the petty differences such as skin color, we all share many similarities deep down. That’s what always drew me to the topic of the death penalty; a society that believes that someone--no matter how atrocious a crime they committed--deserves to die is a society that has lost its humanity. And although we do not want to admit it, we have become so disconnected from one another that we are now that society.

However, there is only so much we can do by educating others and changing our own ideologies. It is the duty of both the people and the institutions to tackle institutional oppression and racism; thus, we must become active in our government and our communities. Petition. Run for council. Vote. Use your privilege to lift other people up, not just yourself. Because only in that way will you make a difference.