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Justice A. Davis
Laurie Oberg
Language Arts 11
5 November 2015
Death Penalty: Does race affect it?
The death penalty is a widely debated subject around the world. Few countries use the
death penalty and many more have outlawed it. In America in the past few years the number of
death sentences carried out have been decreasing, though, of those carried out 80% are
defendants that killed white victims. Within courts, whether it is obvious racism or unconscious
racism, it affects the sentencing of the death penalty. With the amount of caucasian prosecutors
and the non white defendants on death row there is a racial bias problem in our courts.
With the amount of defendants being sentenced with the death penalty that have white
victims it could just be that they are committing harsher crimes where there are more caucasian
people. Just because it seems like the courts are being swayed by the race of the defendant or the
victim doesnt mean that this is why they are given the death sentence. Roger Clegg states,
Randall Kennedy, an African-American Harvard Law School professor, and Professor Michael
Tonry, a leading liberal expert on sentencing, acknowledge the high rate of black street crime.
This is saying that that there is a higher percentage committed by African-Americans and that it
isnt unconscious biases in the U.S. courts.
Most people say they arent racist, though they show they are unconsciously.
Unconscious racism happens in everyday life whether you notice it or not, so who is to say that it
doesnt happen in our courts. Statistics done on the U.S. show that 94.5% of elected prosecutors
in death penalty states are caucasian (N. Fados), and most people with the death penalty have had

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white victims. This is showing that with the numbers of caucasian prosecutors are favoring white
victims. And 50% of those currently on federal death row are African-American [NAAPC]. This
is showing that no matter the victim, if you are of African-American descent you are more likely
to be given the death penalty.
Racial biases do affect the punishment of the death penalty. In a study done at the
University of Washington, it shows that jurors in Washington are three times more likely to
recommend a death sentence for a black defendant than for a white defendant in a similar case
[Death Penalty Info]. This is showing that with with the state prosecutors being majority
caucasian it is all ready against anyone of color. Over all cases that involve someone that isnt
caucasian the tables arent in their favor from the start. The come into the courtroom with white
prosecutors thinking that they should go to jail to receive the death sentence because they are bad
or they deserve it, but many caucasian defendants have done the same thing yet received less
harsh punishments. The ACLU found that people of color have accounted for 43% of the
executions carried out since 1976. With these findings it is showing that people of color are
being placed first in executions carried out to the rest of the people on death row. The ACLU
also show that 55% of the people on death row are also colored. Racial biases affect the cases
involving the death penalty and cases in general that involve colored people or caucasian
victims.
In conclusion racial biases affect death sentences in the courts. With all the cases and
studies that have been done it shows plain as day that if you are not white or you had a white
victim you are more likely to be given the death penalty and it be carried out.

Work Cited

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N. Fandos, "A Study Documents the Paucity of Black Elected Prosecutors: Zero in Most States,"
The New York Times, July 7, 2015
Von Drehle, Davis. Death Penalty Walking. Time. Jan 2008. Web.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAAPC). Does a Person's
Race Affect the Likelihood of Him/Her Receiving the Death Penalty? procon.org. Web. June
27, 2014
The Role of Race in Washington State Capital Sentencing, 1981-2012. deathpenaltyinfo.org.
Web. January 27, 2014
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Race and the Death Penalty, aclu.org. Web.
February 26, 2003