The Death Penalty is Racist– and it Must Go

Written by Anjana Murthy

The death penalty in the United States must be banned in all 50 states due to its blatantly racially biased and arbitrary nature. Reported by the Equal Justice Initiative, in the state of Washington, Governor Inslee signed a bill in 2018 that removes the death penalty from state law due to it being held unconstitutional by the Washington Supreme Court. The court declared the death penalty unconstitutional on the basis that it is imposed in an arbitrary and racially biased manner, amidst statistics pointing to black defendants being four and a half times more likely to be sentenced to death than white defendants. However, the racially biased manner of the death penalty is not limited to the state of Washington and is reflected across the nation. Thus, I believe that the United States should strike down the death penalty in all 50 states based on its failure to protect defendants and victims of all racial backgrounds equally under the law. 

The death penalty in the United States has long been used to seek justice for the victims of the most severe crimes. Advocates argue that the only way to seek justice for these severe crimes is to take away the life of the perpetrator. However, if we look into the history and demographics of the people put on death row, we can observe that the death penalty causes more injustice than it seeks to bring justice. 

According to the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), the death penalty is a historical descendant of lynching and was even temporarily struck down by the Supreme Court in 1972 for resembling lynch law. There is a strong case that the death penalty was created to replace lynching law and disguise the unjust killing of minority populations as a legal practice. While African Americans make up 13% of the population, they make up 42% of people on death row and 34% of those executed. The disproportionate number of African Americans on death row shows us the racially biased nature of the death penalty and its similarity to lynch law. 

It is also stated by the EJI that a person convicted of killing a white person is 17 times more likely to be executed than a person convicted of killing a black person. A mode of “justice” should equally protect victims regardless of their skin color. The idea that only white victims should receive the “greatest” extent of justice is inherently a discriminatory practice that dehumanizes brown and black people. The death penalty in this way deems white lives more worthy of receiving justice than people of color, which fails to protect everyone equally under the law and contradicts constitutional values. 

 The unfair practices of the death penalty have also not improved with time. According to journalists at The Intercept, the death penalty is becoming more and more racially biased. In recent years, in multiple states, the percentage of people of color being sentenced to death is greater than in the decade following Gregg v. Georgia, the Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty. In states like Texas, California, and Florida specifically, the percentage of people of color on death row has significantly increased from the decade following the Gregg decision, showing us that this is an issue that will not resolve itself and instead grow worse over time.

The death penalty’s issues with racial discrimination is not a one-off problem that the criminal justice system has. The racial biases of the death penalty is rooted in the overarching racial biases of the criminal justice system. While banning the death penalty is not a fix-all solution to ending racial violence and discrimination in society, it is a major step because it recognizes the racial bias that is entrenched in capital punishment, and also spares the lives taken or lives threatened to be taken on death row as a result of racial bias.

The modern death penalty is reminiscent of the racial violence of the past and does not seek justice for everyone equally. We should not have a justice system that uses a punishment that is so blatantly discriminatory, and we must remove this practice from the judicial system altogether in the United States. Banning the death penalty serves as a great start to repairing our justice system on a national level.

Sources

Equal Justice Initiative. (2019). Death Penalty | Equal Justice Initiative. Equal Justice Initiative. https://eji.org/issues/death-penalty/#Racial_Bias

Segura L. Smith J. (2019). Counting the Condemned. By Any Measure, Capital Punishment Is a Failed Policy, The Intercept. https://theintercept.com/2019/12/03/death-penalty-capital-punishment-data

Urell, A. (2023, April 26). Washington Abolishes the Death Penalty. Equal Justice Initiative. https://eji.org/news/washington-abolishes-the-death-penalty/