Death Penalty

            Once convicted of a crime, people start to loose hope. This is especially true when statistically the odds are not in your favor. This could be due to race, geographical, or sex. For the case of David Keaton, this factor was race. Once released his brother says, “Growing up black in this state, you know, you really didn’t have a chance when it came to a crime. You know, they say that justice is blind, but justice really isn’t blind.” This shows how because of race, the specific race looses hope in the equality of the justice system. Race in a case, while is not supposed to be a factor, does impact a case decision in some instances.

            There is a statistic that 80% of people who have been executed was for the murder of a white victim. There were two studies conducted by the Death Penalty Information Center. These two studies concluded:

RACE OF DEFENDANTS EXECUTED IN THE U.S. SINCE 1976

BLACK: 393 (34.6%) 

HISPANIC: 78 (6.87%) 

WHITE: 643 (56.6%) 

OTHER: 22 (0.62%) 



Source: Death Penalty Information Center

RACE OF VICTIMS* SINCE 1976

 

BLACK: 239 (14.2%) 

HISPANIC: 82 (4.87%) 

WHITE: 1324 (78.67%) 

OTHER: 38 (1.96%)

           This shows while there might be more white victims, the number of white people executed does also exceed the number of black people executed, making the statistic sound more proportionate. This effect may cause people to misinterpret how skewed the results really are.  By no means am I saying there is no bias in race through the eyes of the blind justice system. Something to be said on why low-income people are more likely to be sentenced to death is these people may not be able to afford a proper attorney. Without proper representation the defendant may not have a chance of life without parole, instead of someone who has more money to afford a proper attorney.