Trawally1

Lasana Trawally
Oberg
English 11
Racial Discrimination in the Administration of the Death Penalty
Does race have a factor when it comes to a capital punishment? How discrimination does
affect the Capital Punishment? Death Penalty also known as Capital Punishment is a legal
process where a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime. The death is
morally based on race and what was the race of the victims murdered. Discrimination can mean
lots of thing like gender, race, religion, and place of origin. Shouldnt everyone get a fair trial for
a crime that he or she committed? What I was taught was that everyone should get a fair trial no
matter what color he or she is, where they are from and what gender the person is.
50 percent of the current people on death row are black. 82% of studies show those who
murders whites are mostly like to get a severe punishment than those who kill blacks. There is
about the same percent of whites on the death row as black. A recent study done by Professor
Katherine Beckett states that jurors in Washington are three likely to give a black defendant a
death sentence than a white defendant in a similar case. This means whites killers on the death
row are more likely to escape Capital Punishment than blacks or Latinos. 80 percent of the 845
people executed since the United States starting using the death penalty were put to death for
killing white people. The real proposed of the death is primarily to protect whites, instead of
protecting the citizens of U.S. its use to protect the white race. Killing a white and being on the
death row basically means you are going to get punished but killing another race and being on
the death row gives a lower chance of being punished.

Trawally1
Blacks make up 12 percent of the population in the United States. 41 percent of those on
the death row and 35 percent executed between 1977 and 2001 were black. Between 1996 and
2000, about three-fourths of those facing punishment were minorities. There is a lot of factors
that plays into the Capital punishment, but Discrimination is one of the important things and
need to looked into. As stated by Barack Obama "In the application of the death penalty in this
country, we have seen significant problems - racial bias, uneven application of the death penalty,
situations in which there were individuals on death row who later on were discovered to have
been innocent because of exculpatory evidence." Capital Punishment isn't really a bad thing, it
just need to be used fairly, just because you're black or Latino doesn't mean you need to get a
severe sentence for killing a white man or women. To improve the Capital Punishment we need
to get rid of racial discrimination so everyone can get a fair trial. Being a different race shouldnt
determine that type of punishment someone should get. Instead of using Capital punishment to
protect the public, its being used to protect the white race and many people dont see that way.
From what I believe the death penalty isnt really based on discrimination by the fact that
there are more Whites on death row than blacks and Latinos, it becomes a problem when blacks
or other race gets a severe punishment from the same crime as a white person, it becomes unfair.
It may be a warning to the other races Dont kill whites because if you do you have a higher
chance of being killed than whites who kill blacks or Latinos. I feel like the death penalty is not
getting rid of killers I believe its making killers who are of different ethnicity because their
family members are not getting the right sentence that he or she deserved because they are either
black or Latinos. I think everyone should a trial and punishment just right for the crime that he or
she did and not based on gender or skin color of the person.

Trawally1

Bibliography
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/race-death-row-inmates-executed-1976#defend
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/death-penalty-discrimination/
http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/death-penalty/us-death-penalty-facts
http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=001187
http://www.deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=54
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/24/AR2005092400529.html