A new Ohio State University study has found that blacks con­vict­ed of killing whites are not only more like­ly than non-whites to receive a death sen­tence, but also more like­ly to be exe­cut­ed. Blacks on death row for killing non-whites are less like­ly to be exe­cut­ed than oth­ers on death row. ​“Examining who sur­vives on death row is impor­tant because less than 10% of those giv­en the death sen­tence ever get exe­cut­ed,” said David Jacobs (pic­tured), co-author of the study and pro­fes­sor of soci­ol­o­gy at Ohio State University. ​“The dis­par­i­ty in exe­cu­tion rates based on the race of vic­tims sug­gests our jus­tice sys­tem places greater val­ue on white lives, even after sen­tences are hand­ed down.” Jacobs notes that this is the first study to exam­ine how the race of vic­tims impacts the prob­a­bil­i­ty that an offend­er will be exe­cut­ed.

Jacobs con­duct­ed the study with Ohio State soci­ol­o­gy pro­fes­sor Zhenchao Qian, Jason Carmichael of McGill University, and Stephanie Kent of Cleveland State University. The group exam­ined the out­comes of 1,560 peo­ple sen­tenced to death in 16 states from 1973 to 2002. Their find­ings showed that there is more than a 2‑fold greater risk that an African-American who killed a white per­son will be exe­cut­ed than there is for a white per­son who killed a non-white per­son. Jacobs observed, ​“Overall, we found that our jus­tice sys­tem is not col­or­blind, even after offend­ers are put on death row. White lives are still val­ued more than black ones when it comes to decid­ing who gets exe­cut­ed and who does not.” The study is pub­lished in the August 2007 edi­tion of the American Sociological Review and the research was fund­ed by the National Science Foundation.
(Research News, Ohio State University, July 21, 2007). Read the arti­cle about the study. See Race and Studies.

Citation Guide