The Death Penalty with African American Males Vs Minorities - Research Proposal Example

The Death Penalty with African American Males VS Minorities Abstract Numerous empirical studies show that ethnic and racial discriminations are dominant in capital sentencing process in many states. The research and studies have shown that African American Males are at greater risk of suffering capital punishment specifically when considered from the perspective of victimization process. Black Americans are much more likely to receive the death penalty than white Americans. Further research has shown that other minority groups such as Native Americans and Hispanics are overrepresented in U.S criminal justice system but not as much as African Americans. The issue of whether the justice system of the United States is flawed with racial or ethnic discrimination is controversial and continues to spark varied opinions from individuals and human rights groups. THESIS The application of penalty of death in the U.S. tends to be skewed; targeting the male African Americans more than Native Americans, Hispanics and other Whites. According to the (Deathpenaltyinfo.org, 2014), African Americans, despite their small percentage they constitute in the total U.S. population, make up a disproportionately high percentage of the total death row prisoners. This paper aims to critically analyze the United States’ Criminal Justice System particularly on the issue of the death penalty. Introduction What is death penalty? The death penalty refers to a legal process where individuals are sentenced to death by a state for their crime actions. For many years, crime and death punishment have been the most powerful indicators of the American population schism. Research from different scholars and human rights groups have put forward that African Americans, despite their small percentage they constitute in the total U.S. population, make up a disproportionately high percentage of the total death row prisoners. The research has further shown that other minority people of colors such as Hispanics and Native Americans are also overrepresented in the criminal system of justice, but African Americans are the hard hit. My preference for this topic was motivated by the concern that more African American Males than their white counterparts in U.S serve a jail term in their lives and sometimes convicted to death thereby jeopardizing their auspicious professional lives. I’m specifically interested in finding out whether there is a correlation between being an African American or from a minority group and the risk of being convicted to death by the U.S. system of justice. LITERATURE REVIEW African Americans Males Receive the death penalty at a higher rate as opposed to other whites, Asia, Hispanic, and Native Americans because the courts system is biased towards African Americans Males. Being impoverished causes African American to commit crimes and combine with their ignorance of the law it makes them a direct target for the judicial system. Thus, crime and death sentence have been the most powerful symbols of division in the United States population. The minority groups, particularly the African Americans express lack of confidence in the criminal system of justice (Swafford, 2011). The general belief is that African Americans are more likely to be found guilty and be convicted to death for murdering a white American. All over the United States, the minority races were largely tried by purely white juries in white dominated courtrooms hence creating the general feeling is that the judiciary will easily convict to death an African American for murdering a white but will rarely convict to death a white for murdering an African American as depicted by the recent case in Ferguson, Missouri where police shot dead an unarmed black man, Michael Brown (Feagin, 2014). Further, since the infamous O.J Simpson criminal case, whenever a black man is arraigned in court for a capital offense, the African Americans view the whole trial as a platform, not for seeking justice for the victims but for determining whether an African American can find justice in the majority white designed judicial system because the criminal justice system is polluted with discrimination by race and Ethnicity (Feagin, 2014). The research found that in 1910, African-American constituted a mere 11 % of the United States’ population but constituted 31 % of the U.S prison population. Thus, this is enough evidence that sentencing laws were prejudiced with the severest sanctions given to African Americans who victimized white Americans (Deathpenaltyinfo.org, 2014). In addition, an evaluation of the findings of post-Furman case empirical studies of the death sentencing process found that 23 of these findings concluded that the victim’s race influenced the probability of the suspect being convicted of capital murder or being sentenced to death. Those who killed whites were at the highest risk of being prosecuted for murder offences and being convicted to death. On the other hand, defendants of either race who were charged with murder of African Americans were less likely to suffer death punishment (Bachman & Schutt, 2015). Not even the legally essential variables such the defendant’s criminal history, the number of the victims and seriousness of the crime could explain these disparities (Swafford, 2011). According to Levinson (2009), it is sheer pretense to assert that our system of criminal justice is clean. Courtrooms are full blatant racism which influences the decision of who lives & who dies. In death punishment cases, use of derogatory slurs ignites flames of bias and allows the jury judging those they wish to use as a scape goat for the crime problem harshly. The article uses a few illustrations. While preparing for the penalty stage of a black American defendant, a Florida white judge remarked that, “Since the nigger mom & dad are here anyway, why don’t we go ahead & do the penalty phase today lieu having to subpoena them back at a cost to the state” (Deathpenaltyinfo.org, 2014). The jury sentenced the defendant, Anthony Peek to death and the Florida Supreme court that was reviewing Peek’s claim of racial bias upheld the decision in 1986. Proposed Research There are a number of factors that have been cite to justify why African Americans Males receive the penalty of death often as opposed to other whites, Asia, Hispanic, and Native Americans. In the context of this study, some of the factors that research have shown to influence include poverty and ignorance of the law. I hypothesized that although other racial groups get the death penalty, the African American get the sentence more often. In addition, selected my independent variables. For my dependent variables, I selected one variable & its attributes. However, for my independent variables I selected one variable and four attributes. My dependent variables was the death penalty and its attribute were Yes/No while my independent variable was race and the attributes consisted of African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics and Whites. In my research methodology the survey technique would be my level of measurement through the use of a questionnaire. My population will be the males of African American origin. I will choose my sample from Georgia African American Males who I will interview to collect the relevant data for my research to justify my topic that, more African American males get the death penalty more frequent than the Native Americans, Hispanics and other Whites. I intend to use the questionnaire outlined below to gather my data to enable me justify my hypothesis: 1.) I think African Americans get the death penalty more than any other race? Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree 2.) I think the death penalty is targeted at African American, Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americans because of poverty? Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree 3.) African Americans are more likely do get the death penalty because there ignorance of the law? Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree CONCLUSION More African American Males than their white counterparts in the U.S are jailed and convicted to death, thereby, jeopardizing their auspicious professional lives. The minorities claim racial bias in administration of the penalty of death, and this is a major cause of the divide in America’s population. Most of the research findings show that African American males and other minority races are at higher risk of being arrested, charged and convicted to death for capital offenses even though some research findings however dispute the race bias in administration of the penalty of death and attribute the high number of minorities’ overrepresentation to racial differentials such as economic status that influence individual’s like-hood to commit crime. The element of racial bias is evident in administration of the penalty of death, and this fact can only be overlooked at America’s peril. Therefore, policy makers must be hasty to address the cancerous historical racial bigotry permanently. LIST OF REFERENCES Bachman, R., & Schutt, R. K. (2015). Fundamentals of Research in Criminology and Criminal 3rd edition. Justice. Sage. Deathpenaltyinfo.org, (2014). The Death Penalty in Black and White: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides | Death Penalty Information Center. Retrieved 26 September 2014, from http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-penalty-black-and-white-who-lives-who-dies-who-decides Feagin, J. R. (2014). Racist America: Roots, current realities, and future reparations. Routledge. Levinson, J. D. (2009, March). Race, Death, and the Complicitous Mind. In DePaul Law Review, Symposium on Media, Race, and the Death Penalty (Vol. 58, p. 599). Swafford, A. T. (2011). Qualified Support: Death Qualification, Equal Protection and Race. Am. J. Crim. L., 39, 147. Read More