Racial Disparities in Capital Punishment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Racial Disparities in Capital Punishment - Essay Example The study also established that the number of blacks on death row was higher compared to white defendants who had committed similar offenses. Scott (2008, pp 2-6), conducted another study on race and capital punishment in Harris County in the state of Texas, which hold the infamous reputation of being the capital of execution in the United States. The study was in agreement with the Philadelphia findings by establishing that the racial orientation of both the victim and defendant played a crucial factor in a meeting of capital punishments. In the study, Scott (2008, p5) found that the likelihood of imposing a death penalty on black defendant was higher than on white defendant. In addition, a death sentence was more likely to be imposed in cases where a white person was the victim than when the victim was black. Another important finding on race and capital punishments showed that District Attorneys were more racially prejudiced than the jury was (Baldus, et al. 1998, pp1680-89). These studies demonstrate that no matter the objection of legal technocrats, racial disparities exist in a determination of capital punishments in the United States. ` These findings bring to attention the ability of a judicial system to rise above the historical racial prejudices that purported superiority of white people over their black counterparts in the United States. In addition, they have also raised the question of whether the life of a certain race is more valuable than of another. Law courts in different states in the country have been consistently denying that the obvious racial disparities are not sufficient to prove racial biases in each particular case (David, & George 2003). This denial is of particular concern given that many states and federal governments in the US have passed legislation of addressing racial discrimination in employment and other areas such as housing.