STUDY: Missouri Study Finds Significant Racial and Geographic Disparities in Application of Death Penalty

A new study by Professor Frank Baumgartner of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill finds stark racial and geo­graph­ic dis­par­i­ties in the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty in Missouri.

A major­i­ty of Missouri’s exe­cu­tions came from just 2.6% of the state’s coun­ties, mir­ror­ing nation­al trends, as 2% of U.S. coun­ties have pro­duced 52% of all exe­cu­tions since 1976. St. Louis County — the home of Ferguson, Missouri — has car­ried out more exe­cu­tions than any oth­er Missouri juris­dic­tion. A per­son con­vict­ed of homi­cide in that coun­ty is three times more like­ly to be exe­cut­ed than some­one con­vict­ed of the same crime else­where in the state and is 13 times more like­ly to be exe­cut­ed than for hav­ing com­mit­ted the same crime in neigh­bor­ing St. Louis City. 

Baumgartner also found sig­nif­i­cant racial dis­par­i­ties, par­tic­u­lar­ly relat­ing to the race of vic­tims. Homicides involv­ing white vic­tims were 7 times more like­ly to result in exe­cu­tions than those involv­ing black vic­tims. Although 60% of mur­der vic­tims in Missouri are black, 81% of peo­ple exe­cut­ed in Missouri had been con­vict­ed of killing white vic­tims. Cases involv­ing white female vic­tims were 14 times more like­ly to result in exe­cu­tion than those involv­ing black male victims. 

“If left unad­dressed, these racial, gen­der, and geo­graph­ic dis­par­i­ties may erode judi­cial and pub­lic con­fi­dence in the state’s abil­i­ty to fair­ly admin­is­ter the ulti­mate pun­ish­ment,” Baumgartner con­cludes. ​“A pun­ish­ment that is so arbi­trar­i­ly and unfair­ly admin­is­tered could rea­son­ably be deemed uncon­sti­tu­tion­al.” (Click here to enlarge image.)