It is unconstitutional for racial bias to play a part in the selection of an individual for capital prosecution, in the prosecution itself, and/or in the imposition of sentence of death. Nevertheless, racial discrimination permeates the capital punishment system.
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Features
Race and the Death Penalty Blog Series: April 2012 marks the 25th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in McCleskey v. Kemp, in which the Court ruled that a defendant cannot rely upon statistical evidence of systemic racial bias to prove his death sentence unconstitutional, no matter how strong that evidence may be. McCleskey has been roundly condemned as a low point in the quest for equality that begs to be revisited. To mark the occasion, we ran this blog series about McCleskey and its legacy.
North Carolina Racial Justice Act: The North Carolina Racial Justice Act (RJA), which passed in August 2009, requires that courts enter a life sentence for any death row defendant who proves that race was a factor in the imposition of his or her death sentence. The law allows capital defendants, for the first time, to use statistical evidence to show bias in the death penalty.
Actions
End the Death Penalty in Your State (2011 map): The state of Georgia has executed Troy Davis, despite serious concerns that he was wrongly convicted in 1989 of killing a police officer. This case makes clear that the death penalty system in the United States is broken beyond repair. It is arbitrary, discriminatory and comes at an enormous cost to taxpayers, and it must be ended.
Cases
North Carolina v. Robinson (2011 case): The ACLU and co-counsel are challenging Robinson’s sentence under the North Carolina Racial Justice Act (RJA), which allows capital defendants to present evidence, including statistical evidence, to show that racial bias was a factor in the imposition of the death penalty. The ACLU charges that North Carolina’s capital punishment system is plagued by racial discrimination.
Petitions Filed Under North Carolina’s Historic Racial Justice Act: On August 3, 2010, five North Carolina death row inmates filed claims under the RJA Act. Their cases are based on specific incidents of racial bias as well as statistical evidence from three new comprehensive studies of the death penalty in North Carolina.
Luong v. State of Alabama (2010 case): The ACLU filed an appeal in the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals challenging the conviction and death sentence of Lam Luong. In this extraordinarily high profile capital case which captivated the Mobile, Alabama, area, the trial judge refused to change the venue to a location outside Mobile, despite a flood of prejudicial, pretrial publicity.
Most Popular
ACLU Calls Execution of Troy Davis Unconscionable and Unconstitutional (2011 press release)
I am Troy Davis (2011 blog post)
Review of Unfair Death Penalty Sentencing as Important as Innocence (2011 blog post)
Teresa Lewis Execution Underscores Shocking Unfairness Of Death Penalty (2010 blog post): 41-year-old Teresa Lewis was unjustly put to death by lethal injection at 9 p.m. September 23, 2010 at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Va. Her final appeal was blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier that week.
Death Penalty Maintains Racial Inequality (2009 blog post)
ACLU Outlines Unfair Trials and the Death Penalty at Human Rights Meeting (2008 blog post): In October 2008, Jamil Dakwar represented the ACLU at the annual Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation of Europe (OSCE) in Warsaw, Poland. The OSCE is an intergovernmental organization consisting of 56 "participating states," including the United States, Canada, European countries, and Central Asia.
Arbitrary and Capricious Application of Death Penalty Persists Three Decades After Furman v. Georgia (2003 press release)
ACLU Finds Serious Flaws in Ashcroft Death Penalty Bias Report, Calls for Independent Review of Federal System (2001 press release)