Race, Capital Punishment, and the Cost of Murder

Abstract

In recent years, American discussion about capital punishment has shifted its focus from the question of the inherent morality of capital punishment itself to the justness of its administration. Opponents of the death now rarely argue that death is itself an immoral or ineffective punishment but rather that the risks of its being unfairly applied are intolerable. In particular, death opposition groups have made some headway, both legally and in the court of public opinion, by publicizing wrongful convictions and executions. However, surprisingly little attention has been paid to another long-standing procedural worry about the death in the United States, namely, the apparent racial disparities in capital sentencing.1 Empirical studies dating back to the 1940s indicate that, all other things being equal, racial minorities, particularly African-Americans, are disproportionately more likely to receive the death for murder than are convicted whites.2 The U.S. General Accounting Office conducted a comprehensive review of the relevant studies in 1990 and concluded that even with the reforms sparked by the Supreme Court's 1972 decision in Furman,3 racial disparities in the charging, sentencing, and imposition of the death penalty persisted. For example, three-fourths of the studies examined by the GAO determined that black defendants were more likely to receive the death penalty, especially when their victims were white.4 State and federal government studies conducted since 2000 largely confirm these findings.5 In effect, murder functions as a status crime in the U.S., with one set of prescribed punishments for African-Americans and another set for other offenders.