My comments entered as "Sharp:".
1) Blume, John H.; Eisenberg, Theodore; and Wells, Martin T., "Explaining Death Row's Population and Racial Composition" (2004), Cornell Law Faculty Publicationshttp://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/facpub/231
" . . . based on the number of murders, African Americans are sentenced to death at lower rates than whites."
" . . . African Americans commit more than 50 percent of the country's
murders yet they comprise 40 percent of death row. Furthermore, the excess of
the African-American percentage of murderers over the African-American
percentage of death row is greatest where the conventional wisdom would least
expect it - in the South."
"How can African-American underrepresentation on death row be reconciled with the well-documented racial effects in capital cases? One racial effect, disproportionate presence of minorities on death row, is an artifact of using the general population, rather than the murderer population, as the basis for comparison. If the focus is on the operation of the capital punishment system, the population of murderers is an arguably more appropriate starting point."
Sharp: It is the only starting point. Any claim of racism based upon a correlation of racial/ethnic population counts to death row population is a common and intended deception by death penalty opponents.
"The white defendant-black victim category is too small a portion of murders to materially influence the size of death row."
"If, however, black defendant-white victim murders increase black representation on death row, and the bottom line is underrepresentation of blacks on death row, some race of defendant-race of victim combination must decrease it. The strongest candidate is the black defendant-black victim combination due to the evidence of prosecutorial reluctance to seek death in "black on black" cases."
Sharp: Blume, et al, simply missed the data, here. Any death row population "imbalance" is based upon the fact that black on black murders are much less likely to be a capital murder than are black on white murders. That is the explanation.
"Texas sentences murderers to death at a rate below the national mean."
2) "Death Penalty Sentencing: No Systemic Bias"
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2009/07/death-penalty-sentencing-no-systemic.html
"After accounting for some of the many factors that may influence penalty decisions, neither race of the defendant nor race of the victim appreciably improved prediction of who was sentenced to death . . . ".
"After accounting for some of the many factors that may influence penalty decisions, neither race of the defendant nor race of the victim appreciably improved prediction of who was sentenced to death . . . ".
" . . .
legal variables, such as prior criminal history and the aggravated nature of
the murder, are the proven basis for imposition of the death penalty. The
black/white variation in sentencing has generally been reduced to zero when such
legal variables are introduced as controls. "
"There is no race of the offender / victim effect at either the decision to advance a case to penalty hearing or the decision to sentence a defendant to death given a penalty hearing."
"There is no sustained, statistically significant evidence that white victim cases are more likely than minority victim cases to result in imposition of the death penalty."
"As blacks represent 47% of murderers and whites 37%, we see that whites are twice as likely to be executed for committing murder as are their black counterparts."
3) "The Death Penalty and Racism The Times Have Changed", Washington Post reporter Charles Lane, The American Interest, Nov/Dec 2010,
3) "The Death Penalty and Racism The Times Have Changed", Washington Post reporter Charles Lane, The American Interest, Nov/Dec 2010,
"It would be naïve to suggest that racism has been eliminated in the United States; but it would be equally mistaken to suggest that nothing has changed. To the extent that death penalty foes do the latter, they are misinterpreting the data and misleading public opinion."
4) SMOKE AND MIRRORS ON RACE AND THE DEATH PENALTY
5) RACE, SENTENCING & THE DEATH PENALTY
http://prodeathpenalty.com/DP.html#C.Race
"The most vile strategy of death penalty opponents is their use of propaganda to nurture hatreds and mistrust between race and class."
"Bryan Stevenson, a well known opposition spokesman and attorney with Equal Justice Initiative, claims that the death penalty reflects the middle class’ desire to strike out at the poor and racial minorities. Sister Helen Prejean (Dead Man Walking) joins this hideous chorus, proclaiming that "(m)iddle-class and upper middle-class white people...are so much for the death penalty (to) ‘Keep those dangerous people (the poor and minorities) in their place.’ "
Sharp: Simply foul claims with nothing to back them up. Folks support the death penalty for the same reasons they support all sanctions - justice, a sanction commensurate with the harm of the crime. Gallup polling showed 81% support for the execution of mass murderer Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber. Support was consistent through all racial and economic groups.
6) McCleskey v Kemp, the infamous race based death penalty case decided by the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS)
Sharp: The US Supreme Court misunderstood the math involved. They ignorantly wrote: "defendants charged with killing white victims were 4.3 times as likely to receive a death sentence as defendants charged with killing blacks."
Totally inaccurate. It was by odds of 4.3 times, or an odds multiplier of 4.3, which can mean a difference as low as 2-4%, as opposed to the 330% difference represented by 4.3 times. SCOTUS blew it big time on this.
Furthermore, the database, which, allegedly supported McCleskey's charge of racism, did no such thing and was, completely, unreliable.
Furthermore, the database, which, allegedly supported McCleskey's charge of racism, did no such thing and was, completely, unreliable.
"The best models which (David) Baldus was able to devise (within McCleskey
v Georgia (Kemp)) which account toany significant degree for the major
non-racial variables, including strength of the evidence, produce no
statistically significant evidence that race plays a part in either [the
prosecutor’s or the jury’s] decisions in the State of Georgia." (1)
"After a thorough review, Judge Forrester concluded that “the (Baldus) data
base has substantial flaws and . . . petitioner has failed to establish by a
preponderance of the evidence that it is essentially trustworthy." (1)
" ... Baldus et al. failed to prove (and the State’s experts succeeded in
rebutting) the basic claims made in the Baldus study.45 They did not just fail;
they failed dismally. The Baldus study lay in shreds when Judge Forrester got
through with it." (1)
"The Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, sitting en banc, commended
the district court “for its outstanding endeavor” in analyzing the validity of
the Baldus study, and there is little doubt that a review of the factual finding
that the study was invalid would have been affirmed under the applicable
“clearly erroneous” standard." (1)
Read Federal District Court Judge Forrester's full rejection of Baldus' database for McCleskey.
A even more thorough review is provided by Joseph Katz, who did the methodological review of the Baldus database, which was rife with errors and problems. I have it, if you care to research.
Based upon experience, most, if not all law schools, wrongly confirm the Baldus database.
Based upon experience, most, if not all law schools, wrongly confirm the Baldus database.
These two articles, below, give a good explanation of some core problem with David Baldus, in the McCleskey case and another of his reviews.
I am unaware of Baldus making any efforts to correct these many misconceptions, over the many years that he should have.
I am unaware of Baldus making any efforts to correct these many misconceptions, over the many years that he should have.
A) "The Math Behind Race, Crime and Sentencing Statistics"
By John Allen Paulos, Los Angeles Times, July 12, 1998
B) See “The Odds of Execution” within “How numbers are tricking you”, by Arnold Barnett, MIT Technology Review October, 1994
and
7) Race, ethnicity and crime statistics.
For the White–Black comparisons, the Black level is 12.7 times greater than the White level for homicide, 15.6 times greater for robbery, 6.7 times greater for rape, and 4.5 times greater for aggravated assault.
For the Hispanic- White comparison, the Hispanic level is 4.0 times greater than the White level for homicide, 3.8 times greater for robbery, 2.8 times greater for rape, and 2.3 times greater for aggravated assault.
For the Hispanic–Black comparison, the Black level is 3.1 times greater than the Hispanic level for homicide, 4.1 times greater for robbery, 2.4 times greater for rape, and 1.9 times greater for aggravated assault.
Sharp: As the most common capital murders, those which are death penalty eligible, are rape/murders and robbery/murders, the disparities will most likely be even greater than the numbers, above.
Sharp: As the most common capital murders, those which are death penalty eligible, are rape/murders and robbery/murders, the disparities will most likely be even greater than the numbers, above.
From
REASSESSING TRENDS IN BLACK VIOLENT CRIME, 1980.2008: SORTING OUT THE "HISPANIC EFFECT" IN UNIFORM CRIME REPORTS ARRESTS, NATIONAL CRIME VICTIMIZATION SURVEY OFFENDER ESTIMATES, AND U.S. PRISONER COUNTS, DARRELL STEFFENSMEIER, BEN FELDMEYER, CASEY T. HARRIS, JEFFERY T. ULMER, Criminology, Volume 49, Issue 1, Article first published online: 24 FEB 2011
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2010.00222.x/pdf
(1) Rebutting the Myths About Race and the Death Penalty, Kent Scheidegger, 10 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 147 (2012).
(1) Rebutting the Myths About Race and the Death Penalty, Kent Scheidegger, 10 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 147 (2012).
