Race and the Death Penalty in California

RACE AND THE DEATH PENALTY IN CALIFORNIA

A recent study to be pub­lished in the Santa Clara Law Review found that the race of the vic­tim in the under­ly­ing mur­der great­ly affect­ed whether a defen­dant would be sen­tenced to death.

Generally, there are more Hispanic and African American vic­tims of mur­der in California:


–California Murder Victims 1990 – 1999 — Office of Vital Statistics; based on mur­ders where race of vic­tim was known; Whites, African American, and Other are non-Hispanic mem­bers of those races.

But in death penal­ty cas­es, there are many more white-vic­tim cas­es than Hispanic or African-American-vic­tim cas­es:

–Victims of mur­der in California where the defen­dant was sen­tenced to death 1990 – 1999; based on 263 death sen­tences where there was a sin­gle mur­der vic­tim.

Conclusions from the study:
Although more Hispanics and African Americans are vic­tims of mur­der in California, white-vic­tim cas­es are the ones most like­ly to end in a death sentence:

• Those who kill non-Latino whites are more than three times more like­ly to be sen­tenced to die as those who kill African-Americans.

• Those who kill non-Latino whites are more than four times more like­ly to be sen­tenced to die as those who kill Latinos.

• A per­son con­vict­ed of the same crime is more than three times more like­ly to be sen­tenced to die sim­ply because the crime was com­mit­ted in a pre­dom­i­nant­ly white, rur­al com­mu­ni­ty rather than a diverse, urban area.

G. Pierce & M. Radelet, ​“The Impact of Legally Inappropriate Factors on Death Sentencing for California Homicides, 1990 – 1999,” 46 Santa Clara Law Review _​_​_​(2005 forth­com­ing)). See also Race and Arbitrariness.