On June 13, 2011, law pro­fes­sor and not­ed researcher David Baldus died in Iowa City, IA. Professor Baldus had been a pro­fes­sor at the University of Iowa since 1969 and taught crim­i­nal law, anti-dis­crim­i­na­tion law, and cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and fed­er­al crim­i­nal law. He was nation­al­ly rec­og­nized for his research on the death penal­ty. Professor Baldus con­duct­ed many stud­ies regard­ing the imple­men­ta­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the United States. One well-known study, con­duct­ed in 1983, exam­ined the pres­ence of racial dis­crim­i­na­tion in cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing in Georgia. Baldus’s research found that the odds of defen­dants receiv­ing the death penal­ty were 4.3 times greater if they were accused of killing white vic­tims than if they were accused of killing black vic­tims. Professor Baldus received nation­al recog­ni­tion when his stud­ies were cit­ed in McCleskey v. Kemp, a U.S. Supreme Court case regard­ing racial bias in the imple­men­ta­tion of the death penal­ty. ​“He was one of the nation’s out­stand­ing law pro­fes­sors and a great cit­i­zen of the uni­ver­si­ty,” said Sandy Boyd, for­mer pres­i­dent of the University of Iowa. ​“He had a great warmth and con­cern for others.”

(T. Mehaffey, ​“Long time UI law pro­fes­sor dies Monday after bat­tle with colon can­cer,” Eastern Iowa News Now, June 13, 2011; Photo from University of Iowa College of Law). See Race and U.S. Supreme Court.

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