Racial Discrimination



Racial Discrimination

Introduction

"Sometimes racial prejudice can be a factor motivating juries ? leading to the execution of ethnic minorities in higher than average number ?"(Alex Woolf23). In another case ? William Henry Hance was convicted for the murder of a prostitute. During his trail ? there was reason to believe that his sentencing was affected by racial prejudice.

Discussion

Patrice Lemay was a jury for his trail and said other jury's "deliberations were marked by ugly racial comments." "Ms. Lemay ? who is white ? said comments by jurors included references to Mr. Hance as a "typical nigger" involved in a murder and "just one more sorry nigger that no one would miss." She said one juror remarked that executing Mr. Hance would result in "one less nigger to breed." “Justice Blackmun's reading of the case did not help Mr. Hance because the full court voted 6 to 3 to deny the request for a stay. Mr. Hance was electrocuted on March 31 ? 1994. "Herbert ? Bob ? "Who Gets the Death Penalty?" New York Times ? May 13 ? 2002. You can see that many think some people are better of died which is wrong ? and may have affected their sentencing in that case.

A 1986 study in Georgia showed that persons who killed "whites were four times more likely to be sentenced to death than convicted killers of non-whites." The sex of the convicted criminal also affects the judge's final punishment. In 2003 ? there were only 48 women on the death row in the U.S.A. That makes up only 1.5 percent of the total number of criminals on death row. Also ? since 1962 ? there have only been 10 women executed in the U.S compared to the 870 men executed since 1976. You can tell that judges ...