A Study of the Capital Punishment - Research Proposal Example

Running head: A Study of the Capital Punishment A STUDY OF THE CAPITAL PUNISHMENT of the _________________________________Student ID No.: _____ Program: _________________________________________ (course or educational curriculum) Specialization: ____________________________________________ Faculty Mentor/Professor: Name of school ___________________________________________ Abstract Subtly, race is observed to be a reviving high-emotion issue. There is apparently an innuendo that it has even encroached upon the matter of capital punishment where life is at stake. After its return to the criminal justice landscape, the death penalty is again becoming an object of heated debates especially on the aspect of bias founded on some variables such as race or ideology. While the claims cannot as yet be exactly and precisely substantiated, an early analysis may be helpful to ferret out the fundamental truth without first jumping to a possibly wrong conclusion. A Study of the Capital Punishment Introduction and General Data There is a perceived intense revival of the issue of racism in the United States of America. Ironically, it has come at a time when the president of the country is an African-American who was thought to have been elected without the intervention of color, race or ethnic origin. This is somewhat manifest in two households in Orangeburg, South Carolina. The white Bolen family has antique wooden clocks on the wall. Coca-cola memorabilia decorate the house. They did not watch when President Obama delivered his health-care speech on television because they believe he is a liar. The congressman representing them is Joe Wilson, the Obama heckler. Some blocks away is the Elmore home where a portrait of civil rights movement activist Martin Luther King, Jr. is prominent. Obama campaign keepsakes are all around one of which says "Yes, We Did." The Elmore family is black; so is their representative in congress, James E. Clyburn, a top ranking Democrat who initiated the moves to punish Wilson for the heckling. Orangeburg appears to be booming and is attractive to investors. In one fundraiser for a local technical school, people were talking about race. One state senator opined that Joe Wilson's inappropriate misdeed had nothing to do with race. This local legislator who made the comment about Wilson is a white but is supported by both black and white voters. (Tucker, Philip. In S.C., One Road Divides Two Ways of Thinking. September 22, 2009. The Washington Post. [internet]. With the above-cited circumstances, it is not easy to answer any question pertaining to whether or not there is a racist divide in the south or whether or not there is bias against the blacks in that part of the United States. This can be a more particular concern if the subject of analysis is capital punishment which involves the fate of human life. Capital punishment is not imposable in all the states of America. Even in those jurisdictions where there is a statutory provision for the death penalty, carrying it out is rare. A look at the number of executions will give a preliminary guide. Thirty seven convicts were executed in 2008 in nine states broken down according to location as follows - Texas 18 Virginia 4 Georgia 3 South Carolina 3 Florida 2 Mississippi 2 Ohio 2 Oklahoma 2 Kentucky 1 Of the aforementioned thirty seven, twenty (20) or fifty four per cent (54%) were white and seventeen (17) or forty six per cent (46%) were black. All of them were men. All of the nine states included above except for Ohio are situated in the south or in the nearest south. As of the end of the year 2006, there were 3,233 prisoners with pending death sentences in thirty five (35) states and the federal prison system while there were only 3,220 such prisoners as of the end of 2007. That is a reduction of thirteen (13) prisoners under sentence of death. The United States Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. On record from that time until date, more than one half of the inmates with death sentence are white. This is not to advance the emphasis that there is no reason to claim bias but this is being presented to lay down the factual premises. It must even be admitted beforehand that these prefatory data could not be immediately made as basis to define the relative statistical dynamics and variables. For instance, the executed blacks or whites were not reckoned as to the numbers that bear to their respective shares in the population of each specific state. Incidentally, the reason is that these were not supplied by the materials sourced. In 2007, the number of prisoners belonging to the death row was 3,220. According to race, the figure is comprised of: White 1,804 or 56%, Black 1,345 or 42%, Asian 35 or 1%, American Indian 26 or .8 %, and Unknown 10 or .3 %. (Capital Punishment Statistics. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Office of Justice Programs. U. S. Department of Justice. [internet]) In the accompanying details of the foregoing figures from the Department of Justice, the following were extracted. Data as to percentage YEAR WHITE BLACK OTHER RACES TOTAL 2005 56 42 2 100 2004 56 42 2 100 2003 56 42 2 100 Data as to number YEAR WHITE BLACK OTHER RACES TOTAL 2005 1,822 1,367 65 3,254 2004 1,856 1,392 66 3,314 2003 1,889 1,418 67 3,374 For the purposes of this paper, the top five states on the basis of executions and current number of death row inmates have been selected. The first four states are located in the south while the last one, Missouri, is not. State Executions Current death row inmates Texas 440 372 Virginia 103 21 Oklahoma 91 84 Florida 68 388 Missouri 67 48 (Capital punishment in the United States. Wikipedia. [internet]) At this juncture, it may be worthy to note that there are several instances of miscarriage of justice. In a very recent incident, the United States Supreme Court allowed the review of the case involving one Troy Davis, black man and death row convict. Some witnesses who previously testified against him had recanted. It may however be better classified as an isolated case and a rare exception. This fact is being mentioned because people at times react passionately over things that do not regularly or commonly happen. (U. S. Supreme Court Orders Historic Hearing on Innocence Claim in Troy Davis Case. DPIC Death Penalty Information Center. [internet]) It is though confessed that there is some basis in the claim of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) which continues to fight against capital punishment without connecting the crusade to the color of the felons. ACLU posits that one hundred thirty five (135) innocent convicts had already been wrongfully executed. (Death Penalty. Unequal Justice. ACLU American Civil Liberties Union. [internet]) It is to be noted, however, that the movement of the ACLU on the propriety of the punishment itself. Incidentally, this study is more comparative than general, that is, it will try to see if there are distinctions drawn along race and ideological considerations. Methodology The proposition in this paper hinges on the sentencing of the capital punishment and its being carried out more in the south and against the black defendants. The only process to validate the theory of bias is by the use of comparative analysis and utilizing the existence of variables if these can necessarily be connected to the perceived prejudice. The crime indexes of the six significant and pertinent states cited above are given hereunder for the year 2008. Crime index per 100,000 population Texas, with a population of 24,300,000 4,492.5 Virginia, with a population of 7,769,089 2,773 South Carolina, with a population of 4,470,800 4,963.9 Florida, with a population of 18,328,340 4,828.7 Oklahoma, with a population of 3,642,361 3,968.1 Missouri, with a population of 5,911,605 4,168.1 Upon the other hand, the federal or national crime index per 100,000 population for the United States is 3,667.0 for the same year. This shows that all the six states except Virginia have crime indexes per 100,000 population higher that the national figure. It may be opined that the tough criminal system of Virginia as show in part by the number of executions it carried out must have helped deter crimes and reduce the state crime index. (United States Crime Rates 1960-2008. [internet]) Please note that the sub-links for the individual specific states are not cited here anymore as those were referenced at the bottom of the page for the United States statistics. The crime index information in part explains the incidence of capital punishment. Discussion If what is to be debated upon is that the death penalty finds a welcoming home in the southern states, there appears no substantial basis. As the crime index data and information demonstrate, the only possible reason why there are more convicts sentenced to death in a those states is the bare fact that there are more crime incidents therein. As to the adjunct perception that the capital punishment is being used against the felons in the black community, it cannot be supported by facts. There are more whites in the death rows than there are blacks as borne by the records exhibited earlier. The numbers must have been different years ago, say in the 1950's to the 1960's, when segregation was still allowed and not yet a totally despised notion. But times have changed. In 2003, a white man was executed via lethal injection in Texas for having murdered a black. That was the case of Larry Allen Hayes. (Discriminatory Justice: Flawed death penalty system values whites over blacks. OPINION Editorials. dallasnews.com. [internet) In Mississippi, there was another case of two innocent black men sentenced to die but were later on exonerated after newly discovered evidence proved that they were not guilty. (Falsely Accused: Prosecutor, Forensic Experts Take Heat for Mississippi 'Disaster'. THE FORENSIC EXAMINER. [internet]) But, again, this is not the common happening. This is more of an exception than a general occasion. The regularity of official functions must always be presumed and be given the benefit of the doubt unless in extra-ordinary cases. Investigators, policemen, prosecutors, members of the jury and judges are all humans. They commit mistakes. The precise reason of the advancement of technology is to assist man in whatever endeavor or cause he is in. The new dimensions in DNA utilization for the detection of crimes now play a significant role in the criminal justice system. In sum, the issue of color should be out in any serious treatise on capital punishment. While it may be true that racial discrimination still exists in pockets in the United States of America, it is no longer as significant as it was during Lincoln's ear or during Martin Luther King's time. As a matter of fact, it is strongly opined that it has very little significance. Barack Obama would not have taken his oath to take over the White House if the American people or majority of them saw him as a black president. As of 2006, there were still seventy four per cent (74%) white Americans in the United States, not counting yet the so-called white Latinos and the white Hispanics. (Demographics in the United States. Wikipedia. [internet]) Conclusion On the basis of the facts and information, the cases and the incidents, the statistics and the numbers, it is highly and unfairly erroneous to put forward the insinuation that the sentencing of the death penalty is more so in the southern states of America and stringently on black convicts. There are no hard proofs. That are no unequivocal evidence. This kind of accusation could probably be correct forty or fifty years ago. Nowadays, people no longer bother the color of other people nor are they so bothered. Except maybe for a few instances, black and white people in the southern states do business with one another, co-mingle with each other, interact and reach out among themselves. If such is the attitude in the general social framework, racist divide had long perished. Accordingly, it can be truer in capital punishment sentencing when the very life of the offender is in the balance. The study may better be shifted to posing the question of why there are relatively higher crime incident rates in the southern states than the others. Aside from color or race, sub-corollary queries may be added to include such variables and dynamics as substance abuse, age, educational attainment, family background and religious inclinations, among others. It will be a blind research and methodology if what is to be anchored upon in evaluating the factors of crime is dominantly and substantially on the basis of color, ethnicity or race. Man is universally either good or bad, whether he is white or black, yellow or brown. Works Cited Capital Punishment Statistics. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Office of Justice Programs. US Department of Justice. [internet] Accessed September 23, 2009. Available at: Capital punishment in the United States. Wikipedia. [internet] Accessed September 23, 2009. Available at: ) Death Penalty. Unequal Justice. ACLU American Civil Liberties Union. [internet] Accessed September 23, 2009. Available at: < http://www.aclu.org/capital/unequal/index.html> Demographics in the United States. Wikipedia. [internet] Accessed September 23, 2009. Available at: Discriminatory Justice: Flawed death penalty system values whites over blacks. OPINION Editorials. dallasnews.com. [internet] Accessed September 23, 2009. Available at: Falsely Accused: Prosecutor, Forensic Experts Take Heat for Mississippi 'Disaster'. THE FORENSIC EXAMINER. [internet] Accessed September 23, 2009. Available at: < http://www.theforensicexaminer.com/archive/summer08/10/> Rucker, Philip. In S.C., One Road Divides Two Ways of Thinking. September 22, 2009. The Washington Post. [internet]. Accessed September 23, 2009. Available at: U. S. Supreme Court Orders Historic Hearing on Innocence Claim in Troy Davis Case. DPIC Death Penalty Information Center. [internet] Accessed September 23, 2009. Available at: United States Crime Rates 1960-2008. [internet] Accessed September 23, 2009. Available at: < http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm> Read More