The Recent Federal Execution: What Happened?
In July, the United States government carried out the first federal execution in almost 20 years. Following a lengthy appeals process, Daniel Lewis Lee was put to death by lethal injection for charges of murder of a family of three. This decision ended an informal moratorium on capital punishment by the federal government.
The debate over capital punishment has waged in the United States for decades, with some of the most common arguments surrounding constitutionality and morals. However, the recent Supreme Court decision has raised questions beyond these basic moral and legal arguments. In a time of heightened racial and equality conversation, it is very important to consider the implications that not only the justice system, but the death penalty, has on minorities.
Racial Bias: The Jury, the Victims, the Location, and the Constitution
On first glance, it is fairly easy to look at the criminal justice system and find inequalities. Although African Americans make up only 13 percent of the population, 42 percent of prisoners on federal death row are black, 35 percent of all individuals executed over the past 40 years have been black, and 66 percent of juveniles sentenced to death have been people of color. NAACP Director of Litigation, Samuel Spital, has said that “the system is infected with racism.”
Looking at these statistics, the question that we have to ask is why? Are there legitimate reasons that these individuals seem to get the short end of the stick, or are there true disparities within the justice system that disproportionately impact African Americans and other people of color? This question becomes even more important when considering a sentence between life and death.
The Jury
One of our most valued rights as Americans is the right to a free trial and a trial by jury. However, many people don’t know the rules behind jury selection in capital trials. When called in for jury duty in one of these trials, all of those selected are required to fill out a questionnaire stating whether they would be able to sentence the defendant to death or not. This takes all people who would oppose the death sentence out of the running, making the jury less randomized. Italso inevitably makes the jury more white – people who support capital punishment are statistically likely to be white and male.
After this vetting process, the judge is allowed a series of peremptory strikes. Peremptory strikes or challenges are the right to remove a juror from the trial without stating a reason. In normal trials, judges get six peremptory strikes, but in capital trials judges can remove up to twelve jurors. This often leads to a phenomenon referred to as jury bleaching. In capital trials, judges often use their peremptory strikes to remove non-white jurors in an effort to remove the defendants peers from the jury in order to get a conviction. Even before the trial, a black defendant will already be one step behind.
Victimology
During the trial, it is often difficult for the jury to let go of their personal prejudices. This is very evident in the victimology presented in capital cases. Even though most homicides occur within the same race, the rate of execution for these homicides is very small. However, homicides between different races and genders yield different results. Black male perpetrators are far more likely to receive a death sentence if they kill a white man or woman. Out of all capital cases, an execution is most likely to occur with a black male perpetrator and a white female victim. However, it is almost statistically impossible for a white person to be executed for killing a black victim. When surveying all of this information, this seems inequitable. If the death penalty were adminstered farily, the race of the killer and the victim would not be statistically important.
Proportionality and Geography
In the context of capital cases, proportionality review refers to the court’s evaluation of the current case in comparison to other cases. In other words, have people been executed for a similar crime in previous cases? If the answer to this question is yes, then it is much more likely for the defendant to receive a death sentence. This seems to be fair in theory – people who commit similar crimes should get similar punishments. In terms of the justice system, this is not always the case. Because the justice system is state controlled, the location of the crime can severely change the punishment. If a state or a county has executed more people, it is more likely that cases pass proportionality review. However, for a state to execute their first inmate, the proportionality review is more likely to be a roadblock.
Through this logic, you could commit the same crime in Louisiana and in Connecticut and receive different punishments. This can even be differ within state counties. The proportionality review currently has a large area of failure. There are so many homicides in the United States, many of which do not result in capital sentences. Through proportionality review, people who get death may not be guilty of the most dangerous crimes. For minorities in the south, this can be detrimental to their trial. African-Americans are already disproportionately put on trial in capital cases in the south, and because more people are executed in these areas, they are more likely to be sentenced to death.
Constitutional Implications
One of the most common critiques of the death penalty is that the constitution states that no one will be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. After looking at the racial and geographical disparities, the death penalty seems to be unfair. In the Supreme Court case of Furman v. Georgia in 1972, the death penalty was ruled to be ‘capricious’ and ‘arbitrary,’ one judge even stating that to receive the death penalty is like being struck by lightning. However, for African Americans in the United States, this means something different, and the capriciousness of the death penalty impacts them in different ways. Social scientists and judges believe the death penalty to be arbitrary is because a black defendant is more likely to be sentenced to death for a lesser crime than a white defendant. By the principles of the constitution, this makes the death penalty unfair.
Morality or Equality?
Most people in the United States view the debate over the death penalty as a moral argument; is the death penalty morally right or wrong? However, the unequal results of the death penalty show that it should be a conversation about equality before being a a moral argument. If the death penalty and the justice system does not treat the defendants equally, how can we be expected to form a moral position? African-Americans and people of color are disproportionately and unfairly represented amongst death row prisoners, not because they necessarily deserve death, but because the justice system is structured in a way that puts them in these positions. Before we discuss whether someone being killed by the government is justified at all, we need to look at how the death penalty is unjust in itself.
Organizations and Action
While the justice system has its flaws, there are many organizations that have been able to recognize this and are fighting for change.
- The N.A.A.C.P. has a large and experienced legal team who has been fighting for the rights of African Americans for decades. The Naacp has an entire legal department devoted to the defense of African Americans in the face of unjust laws, including the death penalty.
- The American Civil Liberties Union has been working against the death penalty for years. With the platform that the death penalty is largly depends on the race of the perpetrator and the victim, the ACLU has been involved in mulptiple capital cases and has lobbied against the capital punishment.
- The Sentencing Project is an organization that focuses on racial disparities in the justice system. The reports formulated by The Sentencing Project are used in United Nations screenings on racism and xenophobia in the United States, for lobbying congress, and other political endeavors.
- Because African Americans are more likely to be sentenced to death, they are also more likely to receive a wrongful death sentence. The Innocence Project has been working to overturn convictions that are believed to be false, many of which are convictions against African Americans.
There are various resources available that can help you learn more about the death penalty and the justice system. Consider checking out:
- The Innocence Files on Netflix
- Ghost of an Innocent Man: A True Story of Trial and Redemption, by Benjamin Rachlin
- The Death of Innocents, by Sister Helen Prejean
- Killing with Prejudice: Institutionalized Racism in American Capital Punishment, by R.J. Maratea
- Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
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