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 occurred without any type of due proces ....
Middle of paper
.... the death penalty could be used
constitutionally. Yet, even with these various controls, the system does not
effectively eliminate racial bias.
Since Gregg v. Georgia the total population of all 36 death rows has
grown as has the number of judicial controls used by each state. Of the 3,122
people on death row 41% are black while 48% are white (Gest, 1996, 41). This
figure may be acceptable at first glance but one must take into account the fact
that only 12% of the U.S. populati ....
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Word count: 1069
Page count: 4 (approximately 250 words per page)
