|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ACLU
Says New Report Raises Questions of Fairness About Death Penalty
|
|
|
WASHINGTON
- June 4 - The American Civil Liberties Union today
welcomed a new report on race and the death penalty, saying that it contains important
findings that should cause every American to question the fairness of the administration
of capital punishment in this country.
The report -- "The Death Penalty in Black and White: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who
Decides" -- was issued today by the Death Penalty Information Center. It contains
conclusive information from two new studies that underscore the persistent racial bias
that characterize the application of capital punishment in the United States.
The first study definitively demonstrates that being black in Philadelphia is an
"aggravating factor" that makes receiving a death sentence more likely. The
second study found that only 1 percent of the nation's 1,838 district attorneys -- who are
responsible for deciding whether to seek the death penalty against any individual
defendant -- are African American. Hispanic district attorney's comprise another 1
percent; an overwhelming 98 percent of district attorneys are white.
"The American public has been delivered a wake-up call today," said Diann
Rust-Tierney, the Director of the ACLU's Capital Punishment Project. "We once again
have incontrovertible proof that the use of the death penalty in America is deeply and
inherently racially biased."
Proof of such pervasive racial discrimination in housing or employment, Rust-Tierney said,
has previously led to a moral and political consensus for legislative solutions. "But
with the death penalty," she said, "clear evidence of discrimination has gone
uncorrected."
Rust-Tierney expressed concern that African Americans and other people of color are
deliberately excluded from the decision-making roles -- at all levels -- in determining
who receives the death penalty. Examples from the report include:
Of 16 first-degree murder cases in Philadelphia, an Assistant District Attorney Jack
McMahon removed black jurors 4 times as often as other jurors; black women were removed
from juries six times as often as non-African American males. Overall, the report found,
Philadelphia prosecutors removed 52 percent of all African American jurors but only 23
percent of other potential jurors.
A district attorney in Alabama had a policy to use preemptory challenges to strike as many
African Americans as possible from death penalty juries.
In Georgia's famed Chattahoochee case, prosecutors used 83 percent of their preemptory
strikes against African Americans. In that case, six black defendants were tried by
all-white juries.
"Today's reports demonstrate once again that our criminal justice system treats
defendants differently based on whether they are black or white," Rust-Tierney said.
"Today's reports show once again that we must - at a minimum -- establish a
moratorium on further executions while seeking a color-blind and consistent system of
justice."
###
|
|
|
Common Dreams NewsCenter is a non-profit news service
providing breaking news and views for the Progressive Community.
The
press release posted here has been provided to Common Dreams NewsWire by
one of the many progressive organizations who make up America's Progressive Community.
If
you wish to comment on this press release or would like more information,
please contact the organization directly.
*all times Eastern US (GMT-5:00)
Making News?
E-mail us your news release! news@newscenter.org
© Copyrighted 1997-2000
All Rights Reserved. Common Dreams. www.commondreams.org
|
|
Share This Article With A Friend