Specifically, the race of the victim matters in death penalty charging decisions and death sentences.
"Disparity seen in death penalty," is the title of Michael Hewlet's report in today's Winston-Salem Journal.
A new study examining the death penalty in North Carolina over a 28-year period makes the same point other studies have made over the years: The race of the victim is a factor in who gets the death penalty.
According to the study, the odds of a death sentence for those suspected of killing whites are three times higher than for those suspected of killing blacks.
And that racial disparity remained, the study found, even taking into consideration whether the person is charged with killing multiple people or with killing someone while committing another felony, such as rape or robbery.
The study was done by Michael Radelet, a professor of sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Glenn Pierce, a research scientist in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northeastern University in Boston. The study will be published next year in the N.C. Law Review.
The findings come on the heels of the passage last year of the Racial Justice Act, which allows defendants to use statistics and other evidence to prove racial bias in the application of the death penalty.
People already on death row have until next month to file appeals based on the law. This study as well as another study being done by two Michigan State University professors will provide data that defendants will likely use in their claims.
Other studies over the years have pointed to a clear link between race and the application of the death penalty. A major 2001 study by two UNC professors showed that people convicted of murdering white victims are 3.5 times more likely to be given the death sentence than those convicted of murdering black victims.
But Radelet said this study is the most comprehensive one done on the death penalty and race because it covers a 28-year period between 1980 and 2007. Radelet and Pierce examined 15,281 homicide cases. Out of those, they examined 352 cases in which someone was sentenced to death.
What the study can't explain is why the racial disparity exists, Radelet said.
Anne Blythe writes, "Victim's race skews death penalty," for the News & Observer of Raleigh.
Someone accused of killing a white person in North Carolina is nearly three times as likely to get the death penalty than someone accused of killing a black person, according to a study released Thursday by two researchers who looked at death sentences over a 28-year period.
The findings come as many in North Carolina are focusing on the death penalty and race. Death-row inmates have only a few more weeks to file challenges to their sentences under the Racial Justice Act approved by the legislature last year.
For the study, touted as one of the most comprehensive examinations to date of the modern administration of the death penalty in North Carolina, Michael L. Radelet, a sociology professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and Glenn L. Pierce, a research scientist in the Northeastern University school of criminology and criminal justice in Boston, examined 15,281 homicides in the state between Jan. 1, 1980, and Dec. 31, 2007. Of those, 368 resulted in death sentences.
The researchers looked at many factors, such as the number of victims and whether other crimes such as burglaries and robberies were committed during the homicide. They also tried to consider similar homicide cases.
Executions in North Carolina have been on hold for roughly three years. A push to stop doctors from assisting in executions, and a lawsuit filed by some death row inmates challenging the use of lethal injections as cruel and unusual punishment, have created a de facto moratorium.
And last summer, the legislature passed the Racial Justice Act, one of only two laws of its kind in the nation. The law allows judges, for the first time, to consider statistical evidence that suggests race was a key factor in prosecutors' seeking, or a court's imposing, the death penalty on a disproportionate number of people from a racial group.
Current death row inmates have until Aug. 10 to file their challenges.
The Daily Camera of Boulder, Colorado carries, "CU-Boulder researcher: Victim's race matters in death penalty." It's written by Brittany Ana.
The odds of a death sentence for those suspected of killing white people are about three times higher than those accused of killing blacks, according to a new study from a University of Colorado professor who combed through death sentences in North Carolina over a 28-year period.
The study, which will be published in the North Carolina Law Review next year, was conducted by Michael Radelet, a sociology professor at CU's Boulder campus, and Glenn Pierce, a research scientist in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northeastern University in Boston.
"It's just kind of baffling that in this day and age, race matters," Radelet said.
Radelet, one of the nation's leading experts on the death penalty, said the study will be used in appeal cases.
Leading up to the study, legislators in North Carolina had raised concern about the racial disparities of those on death row -- but there was no hard evidence.
"It confirmed the worst fears," Radelet said.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1987 that statistical evidence of racial bias could not be considered in individual cases, but that states could pass their own legislation to do so.
North Carolina has one of the nation's largest death rows, with 155 men and four women now facing execution. The state became the second in the nation, following Kentucky, to allow murder suspects and those already on death row to present statistical evidence of racial bias.
The law is intended to make sure that the race of the defendant or victim doesn't play a key role in sentencing. The study by Radelet and Pierce is the first to be released since North Carolina passed the Racial Justice Act.
Radelet and Pierce examined 15,281 homicides in North Carolina between 1980 and 2007, of which 368 resulted in death sentences for those convicted.
Related posts are in the race index.
Related posts are in the race index.