Supreme Court Justice William Brennan wrote that ôThe evidence shows that there is a better than even chance in Georgia that race will influence the decision to impose the death penalty,ö (Stevenson, 1996, p. 18). In fact, Brennan continued to criticize a majority of members on the Supreme Court for upholding the constitutionality of a punishment ôàin which race more than likely plays a role,ö (Stevenson, 1996, p. 18). Therefore, the inglorious history of race bias in the capital-sentencing system means that the period after Furman v. Georgia has not witnessed improvements by states in meting out such sentences in a fair and unbiased manner.
The current scenario of capital-sentencing demonstrates even greater race bias than in the past, especially du
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