Racial Bias and the Death Penalty

A North Carolina judge has overturned a death penalty conviction after concluding from statistical research that the prosecution focused on removing African Americans from the pool of potential jurors. The New York Times reports on this important decision here: http://nyti.ms/HSQZNC

One of the many reasons for opposing the death penalty is racial bias in its implementation. From the research on this issue, the most pervasive form of racial bias appears to involve the race of the victim. Simply put, when whites are victims of homicides, prosecutors are more likely to seek the death penalty, and jurors are more likely to decide on a sentence of death, then when African Americans are victims. In effect, prosecutors and jurors are placing more importance on the life of a white person than on the life of a black person.

When hearing about this type of evidence, students sometimes wonder whether prosecutors and jurors are deliberately making their decisions on the basis of the victim’s race. We may never know the answer to this question, but much research shows that people often take someone’s race into account when making decisions without necessarily being aware of their racial biases.  Scholars refer to this bias as “implicit racism” or “unconscious racism.” Thus even though prosecutors and jurors may feel they are acting without racial bias, their racial prejudices may be unwittingly affecting their decisions in capital cases. The bottom line remains: the imposition of the death penalty is often racially discriminatory.