Facts from
Virginia on
racial bias and the
death penalty. These come from a study on Virginia death penalty cases between 1978 and 1997. These are from a different section of the
ACLU homepage so remember your source.
According to the FBI's Supplemental Homicide Reports for those years, 41 percent of victims of apparently capital crimes in Virginia were black. Yet of the 145 crimes for which a death sentence was imposed during the same period, only 19 percent involved black victims.
§ In robbery-murder incidents involving both white or black offenders in Virginia, FBI statistics show, the probability that the offender will be sentenced to death is about 2.5 percent if the victim is black. If the victim is white, the probability is about 8.3 percent--over three times greater. A black offender who robs and murders a white person in Virginia is four times more likely to be sentenced to death than a black offender who robs and murders a black person.
§ In rape-murder incidents involving whites or blacks, the probability that the offender will be sentenced to death in Virginia is about 19 percent if the victim is black. If the victim is white, the probability is 39 percent--over two times greater. Black offenders who rape and murder white victims in Virginia are over four times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who rape and murder black victims--70 percent versus 15 percent.
Later
preach it brother u. Great point on the Constitution and the death penalty caused yet another flip-flop in my own ever-changing internal capital punishment monologue.
mumia did it.