The Effects of Race on Sentencing in Capital Punishment Cases
Throughout history, minorities have been ill-represented in the criminal
justice system, particularly in cases where the possible outcome is death. In
early America, blacks were lynched for the slightest violation of informal laws
and many of these killings occurred without any type of due process. As the
judicial system has matured, minorities have found better representation but it
is not completely unbiased. In the past twenty years strict controls have been
implemented but the system still has symptoms of racial bias. This racial bias
was first recognized by the Supreme Court in Fruman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238
(1972). The Supreme Court Justices decide that the death penalty was being
handed out unfairly and according to Gest (1996) the Supreme Court felt the
death penalty was being imposed "freakishly" and "wantonly" and "most often on
blacks" Several years later in Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153 (1976),......
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