Discrimination and the Death Penalty

Discrimination and the Death Penalty

The death penalty is a law that violates the most fundamental human right right to life. It is essential to have such regulations to ensure that people respect the rule of law and are afraid of committing fatal crimes. However, the people making the judgment and passing the death penalty have to ensure that there is equality in terms of race, gender, or religious affiliation. For a long time now, the U.S. has been accused of being the country where a person’s skin color affects the kind of penalty that they receive in a court of law (Bessler, 2016). Ever since the introduction of the death penalty, there have been more black people executed and awaiting execution than white people. Therefore, this is no longer an accusation but the truth. In the 20^th century, 89% of the killings in the country involved black people (Garrett et al., 2017). This paper focuses on George Stinney’s case as a case study for the death penalty and discrimination.

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George Stinney was a 14-year-old African American boy who was accused and convicted of the rape and murder of two young girls while they were out playing. His innocence was proven, and the ruling was overturned in 2014, but it was too late since Stinney was already dead. Looking at the facts of this case, Stinney, a 14-year-old boy, was a bit young to have committed such hideous crimes without any assistance. Therefore, the prosecution should have looked into this area and assessed his capabilities. The only incriminating factor, in this case, is that Stinney was the last person to see the two girls alive (Johnson et al., 2017). The other fact that points towards discriminatory practice, in this case, is Stinney’s age and the pressure that law enforcement put on him to confess. Such a young boy would have readily admitted to the crime if he had committed it with just a little coercion from law enforcement. However, Stinney denied the claims until the suffering was unbearable, and he decided to confess to a crime he did not commit.

After Stinney was accused of first-degree murder, the trial did not take long. There was barely any presentation of evidence to prove his guilt. Additionally, the jury that passed the judgment was all white, and they took only about 10 minutes to give it (Johnson et al., 2017). An all-white jury passing a decision on a black boy whose accusation is the murder of a white girl raises some questions. There is bound to be some stereotype when it comes to the judgment by the jury. It is as if ‘two of their own’ had lost lives in the hands of the young boy standing in front of them. They couldn’t see reason and view the young boy as just another average person who would enjoy equal treatment. If the accused person were white, the jury would not have been so fast in passing such a judgment. The court would even have requested a mental examination of the victim- a privilege that Stinney did not have — looking at this case away from the race. What if the accused was a young black girl? From a personal perspective, the suspicions of a murder would have been lighter on them. Perhaps the jury would have recommended imprisonment instead of the electric chair. Thus, an illustration of discrimination based on gender on the death penalty.

Today, there are laws to exempt juveniles such as Stinney from the death penalty. Therefore, he would have survived the ordeal of being in an electric chair and facing death at such a young age. While this is a relief for criminals under the legal age, it does not still stop the discrimination, which is evident in the death penalty, especially in terms of race (Kappeler et al., 2005). The judiciary should put correctional measures for these by ensuring that jurors come from all races. Failure to implement such strategies will be a recipe for disaster in America’s judicial system.

References

Bessler, J. (2016). The Inequality of America’s Death Penalty: A Crossroads for Capital Punishment at the Intersection of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, 73 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. Online, 73(1)

Garrett, B., Jakubow, A., & Desai, A. (2017). The American Death Penalty Decline. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 107(2)

Johnson, S., Blume, J., & Freedman, H. (2017). The Pre-Furman Juvenile Death Penalty in South Carolina: Young Black Life Was Cheap. South Carolina Law Review 331

Kappeler, V., Blumberg, M., & Potter, G. (2005). The mythology of crime and criminal justice. Waveland’s Press

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Case Study – Discrimination and the Death Penalty

Students will read chapters 13 and 14 of the Kappeler and Potter text, The Mythology of Crime and Criminal Justice.

Discrimination and the Death Penalty

Upon completion of the weekly Kappeler and Potter chapter reading assignment, students will then submit a two-page case study outlining discrimination and the death penalty. The summation should include either the crime rate in the United States from Chapter 12 and/or the juvenile death penalty from Chapter 13.

The weekly summation will not require a title page, so focus on your essay portion for your case study. Ensure that factual information provided in your essay is supported by listing your references at the end of your case study and citing your references within your essay. Points will be taken off for lack of content, spelling, composition, grammatical errors, and/or for a late submission.