Race Bias in the Administration of the Death Penalty: The Florida Experience

Abstract

T WICE in the past fifteen years, federal courts of appeals I have been urged to reverse death sentences on the ground that the death penalty was administered along racially discriminatory lines. The first time, in Maxwell v. Bishop,' a petitioner submitted data to show discrimination against black offenders. The second time, in Spinkellink v. Wainwright,2 a petitioner submitted data to show bias against murderers of white victims. The Spinkellink data indicated that such offenders were substantially more likely to end up on death row than were murderers of black victims. Both times, the courts refused to find proof of racial discrimination. Data that have since become available, provided by the criminal justice system itself, make it clear that both kinds of discrimination existed.