User:Carrington24/Capital punishment in the United States

GROUP 5 SANDBOX

[lead paragraph of entire article ---> add italicized sentence in later at correct place separate from "Among Races" section]

.....Although it is a legal penalty in 27 states, only 20 states have the ability to execute death sentences, with the other seven, as well as the federal government, being subject to different types of moratoriums. However, the unique nature of capital punishment being removed and reinstated into law throughout American history at different points in time is related to and aligns with the United States' racial history and its enslavement then prejudice towards Black Americans. Along with Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, the United States is one of five advanced democracies and the only Western nation that applies the death penalty regularly. .....

Among races

Main article: Race and capital punishment in the United States

Race has been proven to be a major factor in relation to incarceration in the United States. African Americans in the United States are disproportionately incarcerated in the prison system compared to white Americans. The proportion of African Americans on death row compared to white Americans is no different.

Racial Demographic of Death Row inmates in the U.S.

Racial Demographic of District Attorneys in states that practice the Death Penalty in the U.S.

Statistics

African Americans make up 41% of death row inmates. This is an alarming statistic because African Americans only make up 13.6% of the total population of people in the United States. African Americans have made up 34% of those executed since 1976, while people of color have made up 43% of total executions since that time. Twenty-one white offenders have been executed for the murder of a black person since 1976, compared to the 302 black offenders that have been executed for the murder of a white person during that same period. Most individuals in charge of determining the verdict in death cases are white, as they make up 98% of all decision-makers regarding any death cases. There are 1,794 white district attorneys in U.S. death penalty states, while there are only 22 black district attorney's in these same states. A supporting fact discovered through examinations of racial disparities over the past twenty years concerning race and the death penalty found that in 96% of these reviews, there was "a pattern of either race-of-victim or race-of-defendant discrimination or both."

Approximately 13.5% of death row inmates are of Hispanic or Latino descent. In 2019, individuals identified as Hispanic and Latino Americans accounted for 5.5% of homicides. The death penalty exhortation rate for Hispanic and Latino Americans is 8.6%.

Approximately 1.81% of death row inmates are of Asian descent.

Black Americans and Capital Punishment

Capital punishment in the United States has a strong correlation with the history of slavery and lynchings in the United States. States where slavery was legal before the Civil War also saw high numbers of lynchings of Black people by white mobs throughout the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century. These states include, but are not limited to Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. These states are also a part of the group of Southern states who introduced and accepted a new criminal justice system with Black Codes that would give them the power to control Black people after slavery was abolished in 1865. These same states with the highest accounted lynchings, statistically also have the highest rates of capital punishment sentences and executions today.

The Racial Relationship Between Lynchings and Capital Punishment

Once white plantation slaveowners lost full ownership of Blacks following the Emancipation Proclamation and then officially with the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865, they used lynchings, both legally under the security of Black Codes and illegally, to maintain their white dominance and threateningly prevent Blacks from challenging their subordinate place in society. Many Black men, women, and even kids, were sent to jail to participate in slave-like work while some others even faced capital punishment, often in the form of lynching, for their crimes because of these Black Codes and other unjust laws.  These lynchings were able to be carried out particularly because many former Confederate soldiers held positions within southern police forces, as state officials, and even as judges.

Even after the passing of the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which weakened the strength of Black Codes and supported the 14th Amendment, the lynching of Blacks by whites saw an increase in numbers. This is primarily due to the fact that during this Reconstruction time period, the terrorist hate group, the Ku Klux Klan (K.K.K.) was secretly created in 1865 by former Confederates and carried out mass terrorizations and lynchings of Black people.

After the end of the Reconstruction in 1877, when federal troops were removed from southern states in which they assisted in upholding the 14th Amendment's promises of equal protection, Jim Crow laws began to gain traction within southern states and enforced segregation and the oppression of Black Americans in all facets of life. These Jim Crow laws were considered legal under the Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Ferguson, and allowed for the unfair treatment and protection of lynchings all the way up until the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

During and following the Civil Rights era, different acts and laws prevented as many illegal lynchings by the general public from occurring in the United States, capital punishment became a popular, newly legalized way for racist white populations to control Black people and install fear in their daily lives. The death penalty is often considered as a way whites could still get away with committing the same murders of Black people in an institutionally hidden way. Thus, in 1972, the Supreme Court ruled in Furman v. Georgia that capital punishment was unconstitutional. This decision only led to once again an increase in the illegal lynchings of Black people by the general public.

Therefore, in 1976 the Supreme Court decision in Gregg v. Georgia upheld the death penalty and overturned Furman v. Georgia based on the fear that lynchings by the public would rise if the death penalty did not remain in place. Historical lynchings disproportionately affected Black people and capital punishment today still disproportionately effects Black people. Groups like the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund (LDF) have continuously worked and continue to work on abolishing capital punishment based on its historically racist associations and its disproportionate impact on racial minority communities.

Sentences Racial Breakdown by State

Capital punishment is still active in 27 states, which including the following: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wyoming. Of these, Oklahoma, Texas, Delaware, Missouri, and Alabama make up the top five states with the highest rate of executions per capita. However, Texas, Oklahoma, Virginia, Florida, and Missouri are the top five states with the highest number of executions–Texas alone has imposed 570 executions since 1976.

The racial makeup of the people executed reveals more about the capital punishment system, especially when considering individual states.

Texas

Currently, the death row population in Texas–the state with the most executions since 1976–is 46% Black people, 26% Hispanic people, and 25% white people. When compared with the racial composition of the general population of Texas where Black people only make up about 13%, capital punishment in Texas and its disproportionate application of the death penalty towards people of color, particularly Black people, is clear.

Oklahoma

Capital punishment in Oklahoma–the state with the second most number of executions since 1976–is significant since it is the only state with 4 methods of execution: lethal injection, nitrogen hypoxia, electrocution, and firing squad. Black people make up 46% of death sentences in Oklahoma County, though only make up 16% of the county’s total population.

Alabama

As the death penalty declines among states across the U.S., capital punishment in Alabama continues to rise and the state continues to have one of the nation’s highest rates of death sentences per capita. As of April 1, 2022, there are currently 80 Black people and 84 white people on death row. Though the Black and white populations are both about half of the total death row population in Alabama, Black people are represented at a disproportionately high number considering they make up only 27% of Alabama's general population.

Virginia

Though it has remained a state with one of the most executions since 1976, capital punishment in Virginia came to an end on March 24, 2021 when the state became the first Southern state to abolish the death penalty.

Exonerations

Exonerations, in relation to the death penalty, are defined as the absolving of someone from their previous verdict of guilty and sentencing of death. Since January 1, 1973, 103 out of the 190 total exonerations in the U.S. are African Americans. This accounts for about 54% of all exonerations. This is further evidence that black Americans are more likely to be wrongfully convicted of a crime than white Americans.

Discrimination in Mass Incarceration and Capital Punishment

During the middle of the 20th century, a period of mass incarceration occurred in the United States. The United States became the country with the highest incarceration rate which caused the prison population to become heavily Black by the 1990s whereas it was mainly only white in previous years. White people accounted for 51% of the prison population while Black people accounted for 47% of the entire prison population during the 1990s. Even though Black people made up of around half the jail inhabitants, they only were 12.1% of the United States population and white citizens made up 80.3% of the total population during that time. The prison population had increased from 196,441 people in 1970 to 1.6 million by 2008. This discrepancy of races in the prison population related to the overall demographics of the United States has to do with the inconsistency of police arrests on citizens. Moving into 2015, Black people still made up only 12.1% of the total population but made up 18% of people who were stopped by police on the road. This led to the increase of disproportionate demographics in local jails and prison systems. By 2018, 592 Black people were in local jails per every 100,000 people and 2,271 Black men were incarcerated in federal prisons per 100,000 people. On the other hand, white people were incarecerated at a rate of 187 per 100,000 people in local jails and white men, at the federal level, were incarcerated at a rate of 392 per 100,000 people. This dramatic increase in Black arrests caused America's prison population to boom was which was all due to this long lasting period of mass incarceration that is still going on today.

Mass incarceration has been increasing and there are many factors sustaining its rise. From over-policing to disproportionately long prison sentences, Black people have been targeted in mass incarceration and as a result, more susceptible to capital punishment.

Cases

With the United States' operation based on the U.S. Constitution, federalism allows the state government to share powers with the federal government. Under the various capacities, different court cases are heard in the national and state court systems. A defendant can be inflicted with the death penalty if they are found condemned of capital offenses, like first-degree murder, murder with special circumstances, treason, or genocide.Because capital offenses are criminal cases, the state court systems are responsible to hear the majority of them. The Supreme Court and state courts' discretion in keeping the death penalty option are separate for the most part, if not appealed to the Supreme Court. According to the Legal Information Institute, “ it is not necessary that the actual punishment imposed was the death penalty, but rather a capital office is classified as such if the permissible punishment prescribed by the legislature for the offense is the death penalty.” After Roper v. Simmons in 2005, the federal court deemed if the defendant was under 18 years old at the time of the crime, they can not be sentenced to death because it violates the 8th Amendment.

George Stinney Jr.

Before the Roper v. Simmons ruling, black, 14-year-old George Stinney Jr. was the youngest person in the United States to be sentenced to death on June 16, 1944. Stinney was initially found responsible for the bludgeoning of two, white girls to death. He died by electrocution. Although his case and death happened during the span of about 80 days in 1944, his convictions were annulled 70 years later in 2014.

His exoneration was on the grounds that his 6th amendment was violated. After close examination it was found there was faulty interrogation that included coercion, absence of counsel and parental guidance. With Stinney’s treatment, the persecutor relied heavily on an unsigned, off-the-record confession. Impartial evidence was absent for Stinney’s defense like witness testimonies from his family members that were with him during the time of the crime and community members. The culprit who is suspected of committing the crime against the two girls comes from a white affluent family, where the father happens to have served as the jury’s manager for Stinney’s case.

Exonerated Five

The systemic issue of biased investigation conduct is also seen in the Exonerated Five case. The Exonerated Five are made up of four black boys, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, and Korey Wise. They are formerly known as the Central Park Five and the Jogger Case. The boys received mixed convictions for assault, robbery, riot, rape, sexual abuse, and attempted murder of a white woman in 1990.

The boys faced intense, un-recorded interrogations for at least seven hours in the absence of legal counsel with video confessions following, beside Salaam. Wise additionally had no parent present during questioning and confessing. The five boys later pleaded not guilty and recanted their statements because they were produced under intimidation. Despite no DNA evidence linking any of the boys to the crime scene, they were sentenced to 5 to 15 years. After 12 years, the sole perpetrator Matias Reyes, confessed to the crime while providing a DNA match to the only DNA selection found at the scene. Their false confessions were recognized for inconsistencies and their convictions were vacated in December 2002. They later sued the state and the city for reparations and received about $44 million in a settlement.

"The full-page advertisement was taken out by Trump in the May 1, 1989, issue of the Daily News." Donald Trump spent $85,000 in submitting the ad across four New York City newspapers.

During the 1990 trial, former president Donald Trump (a real-estate character at the time) bought full-page ads voicing his reaction to the Central Park case. In the ad, Donald Trump says the following:

“I want to hate these muggers and murderers. They should be forced to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes. They must serve as examples so that others will think long and hard before committing a crime or an act of violence.”

The boys were ranging from the ages of 14-16 years when the ad was released. In an archival interview with Larry King, Trump feels his belief is a common feeling because he received 15,000 letters of praise following the ad. In retrospect, Salaam reflects in an 2021 interview with PBS MetroFocus, saying:

“I look at what Donald Trump as being the nails that sealed us in the coffin. And then what happened after that, they published our names, our addresses, and phone numbers in the New York City newspapers. When you think about Donald Trump’s ad, it was a whisper into society to have someone come to our homes to drag us from our beds, and to do to us what they had done to Emmett Till.”

Because the boys were minors, their identities were supposed to remain confidential. Salaam shares that his family received an insurgence of death threats following Trump's advertisement, culminating in a climate of aggressive hate. A Central Park Five representative comments that Trump's ad influenced public opinion, possibly further tainting the impartiality of potential jurors "who [already], had a natural affinity for the victim."

As of 2019, Donald Trump has refused to apologize and retract his statements despite the exoneration of the men.

Lena Baker

Lena Baker was a Black woman who was wrongfully convicted of the murder of her abuser in 1945. In Georgia, Baker served as a maid for a handicapped, white man where she faced regular sexual and physical abuse from him. Despite the town terrorizing Baker to leave the relationship, her abuser would equally threaten her with violence if she ever left. Weeks before his death, he started holding Baker prisoner in the mill for numerous days. Baker was able to escape the mill, but when she came back her owner threatened her with an iron bar. After a struggle, Baker took a hand of his pistol and shot the man in self-defense.

The all-white, all-male jury did not empathize with Baker’s case of self-defense as a survivor of his slave-like conditions, including sexual and physical abuse. In less than a day, the jury found Baker guilty of capital murder which happens to result in an involuntary death sentence at the time. After failed appeals, reviews, and the abandonment of her legal representation, Lena Baker was executed by electrocution in 1945. After 60 years following Baker’s death, her family with the help of the Prison and Jail Project requested a posthumous pardon. Their efforts succeeded in 2005 when Baker was granted a full and unconditional pardon because there was a lack of evidence to demonstrate Baker’s intent to kill. If the justice system had been careful with the evidence, they would have noted Baker’s conviction does not qualify as capital murder which could have resulted in a fate other than the death penalty.