The justice system in our country aspires to be fair and unbiased in its administration of the death penalty. Many people, however, have suggested otherwise through the years. Recent studies showing that the death penalty does not serve as a deterrent to crime, along with protests that it is extremely difficult to administer the death penalty fairly, have perennially called the death penalty into question (Bonner & Fessenden). Many people believe that the death penalty is administered unfairly to minorities and the poor, and this has prevented some states from adopting a death penalty (Bonner & Fessenden). E. Michael McCann, the Milwaukee district attorney for the past 32 years, says, ôIt is rare that a wealthy white man gets executed, if it happens at allö (Bonner & Fessenden). McCann went on to write that ôblacks get the harsher hand in criminal justice and particularly in capital punishment casesö (Bonner & Fessenden). According to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, 43% of the people on death row across the country are African-Americans (Bonner & Fessenden). It has also been posited that the death penalty has been employed much more often when the victim was white; 82% of death row inmate victims were white, although only 50% of all homicide victims were white (Bonner & Fessenden). This paper will examine these contentions on the basis of Bureau of Justice statistics and the Sourcebook of criminal justice statistics Online to determine the validity of the accusations.
According to the Sourcebook of criminal justice statistics Online, the total number of prisoners in the United States on July 1, 2005 who were under the death sentence was 3,415, of whom 1,553 were white, 1,432 were black, 350 were Hispanic, 40 were Native American, and 39 were Asian (ôTable 6.80.2005ö). According to this statistic, 45% of death row inmates were white, 42% were black, 10% were Hispanic, 1% were Native American, and 1% were ...