Capital punishment is racist, biased vs. poor peoples

Katz is a first-year history student.

By Erin N. Katz

In this imperfect world it is hard to believe that people still
cling to an institution like capital punishment, a system that has
proven time and again to be faulty and racist. Capital punishment
is threatening to undermine the justice we seek in criminal
cases.

Although I believe it is morally wrong for people to kill each
other, having the state perform an act it considers so inhuman and
disgusting is a far greater iniquity. While many may disagree with
the previous statement, few it seems would support a system that is
biased toward the wealthy Caucasian. The following is an
examination of the current problems surrounding the death penalty
in the United States, and the daily injustices it has created.

Last year, republican Gov. George Ryan of Illinois enacted an
indefinite moratorium on the death penalty in the state after 13 of
the 25 people on death row were exonerated for murders they
allegedly committed. That means that 50 percent of the inmates
sitting on death row in the state of Illinois were innocent.

The new wave of exonerations has come thanks to the DNA testing
now available. Despite this news, 85 people in the nation were
still executed last year.

One of these was a man named Gary Graham, who was convicted of
murder in Texas by the testimony of only one witness. His story was
highly publicized for he stood as the poster child of so many
seemingly flawed cases in the United States. On June 22 he was
executed by lethal injection amid much controversy.

According to the book, “In Spite of Innocence” by
Michael L. Radelet, between 1900 and 1992, there have been 416
documented cases of innocent persons who have been convicted and
sentenced to death. Of these, 23 have already been killed.

One might ask, how does such a thing happen? How are innocent
people convicted of crimes they did not commit? Or in other cases,
why do some people get the death penalty and some do not? Two major
factors play into the equation: race and poverty.

About eight months ago Gary Trudeau’s Pulitzer Prize
winning comic strip, Doonesbury made a daring and controversial
statement. The strip featured then-Presidential candidate George W.
Bush taking questions from the media. There is question asked about
how someone makes it through the criminal justice system, to which
Bush replies: “Don’t be black. Don’t be
poor.” What was meant to be a satirical political jab at
Bush, also demonstrates the way that many view the criminal justice
system.

The current population on death row in the United States is
roughly 3,500. Of these 3,500, 42 percent are black. African
Americans make up only 12 percent of the United States population.
Since 1976, only 10 executions out of 687 have involved a white
defendant who killed a black victim (www.aclu.org).

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, almost all
death sentences (82 percent) in this country involve white victims.
The ACLU also notes that in the state of Georgia, over 60 percent
of murder victims since 1972 have been African American, but 20 of
the 22 people executed during this period

murdered white victims.

Georgia prosecutors seek the death penalty in 70 percent of
cases involving crimes committed by blacks against whites, but they
seek the death penalty in less than 35 percent of cases involving
other racial combinations. These startling facts show the racial
disparity present in the justice system in the United States. Such
injustice cannot be tolerated.

Along the same lines, there is a striking amount of evidence
supporting the notion that impoverished people have a better chance
of receiving the death penalty than wealthier people who commit
similar crimes.

The American Bar Association has concluded that it is not the
evidence of a crime, but the quality of legal representation that
dictates whether or not the death penalty is imposed. In
California, where 513 people are currently on death row, fewer than
2 percent of them were represented at trial by retained counsel. In
most cases in the country, court-appointed attorneys are underpaid
and therefore often do a substandard job in defending their
client.

Former President Clinton, in 1996, cut government funding to 20
legal resource centers, which had provided attorneys to low-income
defendants who couldn’t afford one. Since the budget cut, all
of these centers have closed (www.nodeathpenalty.org/fiveReasons.html).

It would be foolish to say that there is nothing wrong with the
system and that no injustice has befallen many who have the wrong
skin tone, the wrong amount of money, or who have simply slipped
through the cracks of justice.

Every person either executed or awaiting execution for these
reasons has been wronged, and it is our job as citizens of the
United States to stand up against the system and demand it be
substantially reformed before another person falls victim to its
inconsistency and unfair ways.

Gov. Ryan of Illinois has opened the doors for us and showed us
the way with his extremely courageous move to impose a moratorium
on all scheduled executions in Illinois. It is time for the United
States to take the next step and impose a federal moratorium.

We cannot be accountable for the occurrence of further
injustice.