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Discrimination

Discrimination. Distorting with statistics I’ll use real data from the Baldus and Gross & Mauro studies of Georgia death sentences. (Studies used in Mccleskey v. Kemp 1984). Discrimination. Critics of the dp: “Blacks make up about 20% of the population of Georgia, but more

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Discrimination

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  1. Discrimination Distorting with statistics I’ll use real data from the Baldus and Gross & Mauro studies of Georgia death sentences. (Studies used in Mccleskey v. Kemp 1984)

  2. Discrimination Critics of the dp: “Blacks make up about 20% of the population of Georgia, but more than 50% of death sentences” Is this evidence of discrimination??

  3. Discrimination No -- Doesn’t take into account higher homicide rates among African Americans in Georgia 20% of population but 70% of homicides

  4. Discrimination Proponents of the dp: “Blacks commit about 70% of homs in Georgia but make up only about 50% of death sentences” Discrim against white defendants??

  5. Discrimination No -- doesn’t take into account who the homicide victims are: Georgia homicide offender/victim combinations: B/W % 8 W/W % 29 B/B % 60 W/B % 3

  6. Discrimination Now compare homicide proportions to death sentence proportions: HomsSent B/W % 8 39 W/W% 29 44 B/B% 60 14 W/B % 3 3

  7. Discrimination HomsSent B/W % 8 39 B/B % 60 14 Black defendant, white victim cases make up about 8% of homicides in Georgia but almost 40% of death sentences! Black defendant, black victim cases make up about 60% of homicides in Georgia but only 14% of death sentences!

  8. Discrimination Do these disparities prove that death sentencing in Georgia is discriminatory? Still - no!!! Could be differencess in homicides -- One more piece to fill in -- Case characteristics

  9. Discrimination Are B/W cases more aggravated?? Are B/B cases less aggravated?? This could explain differences in sentences! This has been the focus of much research -- and the answer is NO - differences in cases don’t explain the disparities.

  10. Discrimination Homs Sent B/W % 8 39 W/W% 29 44 B/B% 60 14 W/B % 3 3 These are basic patterns of discrimination!!

  11. Discrimination Most “debates” about dp discrimination involve misunderstandings on both sides about how racial discrimination works and what you have to know in order to reach accurate conclusions about whether discrimination is still present in death sentencing.

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