Statistics on African-Americans and the death penalty in America
by the volunteer staff of Justice for All

While supporters of the death penalty argue that this method of punishment satisfies the need for justice in the case of heinous crimes like murder, things are not so cut-and-dried in the American justice system.

Punishment meted out for blacks and whites vary. Also, the severity of retribution seems to depend on the color of the victim.
For example, since 1988, the US Attorney-General has authorized the death penalty against 199 defendants,103 of whom were black.

In contrast, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, of the 232 executions carried out in the US since 1977, only one white person has been put to death for the murder of a black person.

Consider these harrowing statistics from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers:

• In Florida, a defendant's odds of receiving the death penalty are nearly 5 times higher if the victim was white, than if the victim was black in similarly aggravated cases. In Kentucky, as of 1996, 100% of death row inmates had been convicted of murdering a white victim -- none were there for the murder of a black victim, despite the fact that over 1,000 African-Americans were killed since instatement of the death penalty.
• In counties using the death penalty in America, nearly 98% of the chief district attorneys are white, and only 1% are African-American.
• In a recent study, it was found that blacks in Philadelphia were nearly 4 times as likely to get the death penalty as other defendants under similar circumstances.
• Approximately 90% of those whom US Prosecutors seek to execute are African American or Latino.
• Historically, more than 80% of those executed were convicted of killing whites, although people of color comprise more than half of all homicide victims in the United States.
• A 1991 Florida study showed that people who kill whites are 3.4 times more likely to get that death penalty than those who kill blacks.
• The death row population is approximately 42% African American, although African Americans make up only 13% of the general population of the US
  

Amnesty International, an internationally renown human rights organization, released a report last year entitled "Killing With Prejudice: Race and the Death Penalty in the USA".

This 21-page report cites statistics, case summaries, and other facts to document the racial disparity in the use of the death penalty in the United States.

The report concludes the American criminal justice system is clearly prejudiced against minorities, especially African-Americans. Here are some excerpts.

• African-Americans are afforded less competent counsel, and punished more severely than whites charged with the same crimes.
• African-Americans are stopped more frequently, charged with higher level offenses  
• defense attorneys and judges are "sources of potential racial discrimination in a capital trial."
• Of the 500 prisoners executed between 1977 and 1998, over 80% were convicted of murdering a white person, even though blacks and whites are the victims of homicide in almost equal numbers nationwide.

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