The Effects Of Race On Sentencing In Capital Punishment Cases
Beginning of paper
Throughout history, minorities have been ill-represented in the criminal justice
system, particularly in cases where the possible outcome is death. In early
America, blacks were lynched for the slightest violation of informal laws and
many of these killings occured without any type of due process ....
Middle of paper
.... the death penalty could be used
constitutionally. Yet, even with these various controls, the system does not
effectively eliminate racial bias.
According to Professor Steven Goldstein of Florida State University, "There are
so many discretionary stages: whether the prosecutor decides to seek the death
penalty, whether the jury recommends it, whether the judge gives it" (As cited
in Smolowe, 1991, 68). It is in these discretionary stages that racial biases
can infect the system of dealing ou ....
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Word count: 894
Page count: 4 (approximately 250 words per page)
