African-Americans and The Death Penalty
Of the 301.6 million inhabitants in the United States, African Americans comprise 13.1% (roughly over 40.7 million. A unique paradox resonates in that despite so called certain gains from integration, various ills continue to place the second largest racial/ethic group after whites in a quagmire. Crime by far is one such factor.
According to NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.’s “Death Row Report (2009),” 3,297 inmates are on death row in the United States – 3,239 males (98.24%) and 58 females (1.76%). African Americans constitute 41.58% (1,371). Race and racism has and to this day remains an indicative dynamic in the African American community and such a menace is a relative contributing factor to the crime rate. “Existing explanations for the higher rates of crime and violent victimization among African Americans consider the impact that racist beliefs against African Americans have on employment and wage prospects, which eventually translates into crime through their limited opportunities (Ortiz, 2007).” The hallmark of the death penalty paradigm in regards to African Americans tragically has been racism. Former Manhattan District Attorney, Robert M. Morganthau, once stated:
The imposition of the death penalty was akin to being struck by lightning: it was arbitrary, cruel, and unpredictable in its selective fury. The death penalty’s arbitrary quality meant that those with the power to hurl this lightning could be influenced by personal prejudices. There was ample evidence, for example, that juries, judges and prosecutors were more likely to inflict the death penalty on African-Americans, especially if the victim in the underlying crime was white. The opening created by the arbitrariness of the process resulted in a flood of cases which were all too predictable: the death penalty was used primarily against the poor, minorities, and those unable to secure competent attorneys (Morganthau, 1995).
Black on Black crime continues to thrive yet the number of African Americans on death for such crime is low. In most cases, the race of the victim (white) as Morganthau asserted was been an intrinsic factor. The injustice of the system is glaringly apparent despite the so called concerted effort has been made to address it.
The problem of racial disparities in the application of the death penalty which existed before 1976 has not been eliminated… African-Americans continue to be sentenced to death and executed in far greater numbers than their proportion in the U.S. population (Death Row, 1996).
Landmark scientific techniques such as DNA profiling have come to the forefront as a vital proof and support of the injustice of the system. They reveal a startling and tragic new reality – the innocence of many inmates, in particular African Americans. Wilbert Lee, Freddie Pitts, Anthony Porter, Clarence Brandley, Walter McMillan, Evan Simmons, to name a few were exonerated of their crimes and released from death row due faulty judicial processes and blatant racism.
Many high profile individuals in the legal and political arena have called into question capital punishment. Some have spoken out more vehemently than others, even feeling it should be abolished. Retired Supreme Court Justice, Lewis F. Powell, Jr. purported, “Prosecutors must reveal the dirty little secret they too often share only among themselves: The death penalty actually hinders the fight against crime (Jeffries, 1994).” Of the 3,297 on death row, how many could be innocent? Crime has not been abolished therefore, how affective is capital punishment? These questions and a host of others will continue to arise and further substantiate the controversy surrounding this issue.
Reference List
“Death Row U.S.A. – January 1996.” NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.
“Death Row U.S.A. – January 2009.” NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.
Jaynes, Gerald David and Robin M. Williams, Jr. (1989). A Common Destiny: Blacks and American Society: National Academy Press: Washington, D.C.
Jeffries, John C. Jr. (1994) Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr.: A Biography: Scribner.
Krug, E.G, K.E. Powell, and L.L. Dahlberg. 1998 “Firearm-related deaths in the United States and 35 other high- and upper-middle income countries”. International Journal of Epidemiology 7: 214-221, 1998.
Morgenthau, R. ( “What Prosecutors Won’t Tell You.” The New York Times: February 7, 1995.
Ortiz, Juanita. (January 17, 2007) African Americans and Crime: A Residential Segregation Explanation: An Abstract. University of Oklahoma Department of Sociology,Norman, OK.
Wacquant, Loic J.D. and William Julius Wilson (1989). “The Cost of Racial and Class Exclusion
in the Inner City.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 501: 8-25.
William Julius W. (1987). Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy: The University of Chicago Press.
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