User:Carrington24/Capital punishment in the United States

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moratoriums. However, the unique nature of capital punishment being removed and reinstated into law throughout American history at different points in time is related to and aligns with the United States' racial history and its enslavement then prejudice towards Black Americans. Along

Among races

Main article: Race and capital punishment in the United States

Certain races within the United States are disproportionately incarcerated at higher rates than others. African Americans in the United States are disproportionately incarcerated in the prison system at higher rates compared to white Americans. The proportion of African Americans on death row compared to white Americans is no different.

Racial Demographic of Death Row inmates in the U.S.

Racial Demographic of District Attorneys in states that practice the Death Penalty in the U.S.

Statistics

African Americans make up 41% of death row inmates. This displays the racial disproportionality of African Americans because African Americans only make up 13.6% of the total population of people in the United States. African Americans have made up 34% of those executed since 1976, while people of color have made up 43% of total executions since that time. Twenty-one white offenders have been executed for the murder of a black person since 1976, compared to the 302 black offenders that have been executed for the murder of a white person during that same period. Most individuals in charge of determining the verdict in death cases are white, as they make up 98% of all decision-makers regarding any death cases. There are 1,794 white district attorneys in U.S. death penalty states, while there are only 22 black district attorney's in these same states. A supporting fact discovered through examinations of racial disparities over the past twenty years concerning race and the death penalty found that in 96% of these reviews, there was "a pattern of either race-of-victim or race-of-defendant discrimination or both." 80 % of all Capital cases involve white victims. 72.8% of all black death row inmates have a prior felony conviction as well as a 59.2% of black death row inmates who have some type of legal status at the time of their offense.

Approximately 13.5% of death row inmates are of Hispanic or Latino descent. In 2019, individuals identified as Hispanic and Latino Americans accounted for 5.5% of homicides. The death penalty exhortation rate for Hispanic and Latino Americans is 8.6%.

Approximately 1.81% of death row inmates are of Asian descent.

Some Organizations Against the Death Penalty for Racial Equity

ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project

The ACLU's Capital Punishment Project (CPP) is an anti-death penalty project that works toward the repeal of the death penalty in the U.S. through advocacy and education. The project highlights the racial discriminatory aspects regarding capital punishment and promotes both abolition and systemic reform of the death penalty through direct representation, strategic litigation, and systemic reform.

Equal Justice USA

Equal Justice USA is a national organization dedicated to healing, racial equity, and community safety in relation to criminal justice and violence. Their efforts spread wide and involve fundraising and hosting conventions to support communities of color. The organization is aimed towards people of color who have been disproportionately impacted by the death penalty. Some of their efforts include advocacy to end the death penalty, which they have helped to abolish in nine states.

Black Americans and Capital Punishment

Capital punishment in the United States has a strong correlation with the history of slavery and lynchings in the United States. States where slavery was legal before the Civil War also saw high numbers of lynchings of Black people by white mobs throughout the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century. These states include, but are not limited to Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. These states are also a part of the group of Southern states who introduced and accepted a new criminal justice system with Black Codes that would give them the power to control Black people after slavery was abolished in 1865. These same states with the highest accounted lynchings, statistically also have the highest rates of capital punishment sentences and executions today.

The Racial Relationship Between Lynchings and Capital Punishment

Once white plantation slaveowners lost full ownership of Blacks following the Emancipation Proclamation and then officially with the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865, they used lynchings, both legally under the security of Black Codes and illegally, to maintain their white dominance and threateningly prevent Blacks from challenging their subordinate place in society. Many Black men, women, and even kids, were sent to jail to participate in slave-like work while some others even faced capital punishment, often in the form of lynching, for their crimes because of these Black Codes and other unjust laws. These lynchings were able to be carried out particularly because many former Confederate soldiers held positions within southern police forces, as state officials, and even as judges.

Even after the passing of the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which weakened the strength of Black Codes and supported the 14th Amendment, the lynching of Blacks by whites saw an increase in numbers. This is primarily due to the fact that during this Reconstruction time period, the terrorist hate group, the Ku Klux Klan (K.K.K.) was secretly created in 1865 by former Confederates and carried out mass terrorizations and lynchings of Black people.

After the end of the Reconstruction in 1877, when federal troops were removed from southern states in which they assisted in upholding the 14th Amendment's promises of equal protection, Jim Crow laws began to gain traction within southern states and enforced segregation and the oppression of Black Americans in all facets of life. These Jim Crow laws were considered legal under the Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Ferguson, and allowed for the unfair treatment and protection of lynchings all the way up until the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

During and following the Civil Rights era, different acts and laws prevented as many illegal lynchings by the general public from occurring in the United States, capital punishment became a popular, newly legalized way for racist white populations to control Black people and install fear in their daily lives. Based on the disproportionate number of Black Americans sentenced to death during the early and mid-20th century, often as a result of petty or unproved crimes, it became evident that capital punishment was a way whites could still get away with committing the same murders of Black people in an institutionally hidden way. Thus, in 1972, the Supreme Court ruled in Furman v. Georgia that capital punishment was unconstitutional. This decision only led to once again an increase in the illegal lynchings of Black people by the general public.

Therefore, in 1976 the Supreme Court decision in Gregg v. Georgia upheld the death penalty and overturned Furman v. Georgia based on the fear that lynchings by the public would rise if the death penalty did not remain in place. Historical lynchings disproportionately affected Black people and capital punishment today still disproportionately affects Black people.

Although the lynchings of Black people decreased in the late 1900s and early 2000s with the legality of capital punishment reinstated, lynching did not become a federal crime until 2022 under the Emmett Till Antilynching Act when President Biden signed it into law, over a hundred years after it was originally proposed. 21st century legal scholars, Civil Rights lawyers, and advocates, like Michelle Alexander, often refer to both past and modern police officers and officials of the United States' criminal justice system's as legalized, modern lynch mobs because they have the ability to sentence one to life in prison or with the death penalty under the law but with the jurisdiction of potentially incorporating their personal, racial biases. The ability for a Black person to be convicted to death, with the potential that racial bias was used in their sentencing, was upheld during the McCleskey v. Kemp court case in Georgia. Groups like the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund (LDF) have continuously worked and continue to work on abolishing capital punishment based on its historically racist associations with enslavement and lynching, and also its disproportionate impact on racial minority communities.

Sentences Racial Breakdown by State

Capital punishment is still active in 27 states, which including the following: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wyoming. Of these, Oklahoma, Texas, Delaware, Missouri, and Alabama make up the top five states with the highest rate of executions per capita. However, Texas, Oklahoma, Virginia, Florida, and Missouri are the top five states with the highest number of executions–Texas alone has imposed 570 executions since 1976.

The racial makeup of the people sentenced to death reveals a disproportionate representation of Black people. Consider the following states with the highest execution rates per capita (defined as executions per 100,000 residents):

Top Five States with the Highest Rates of Execution Per Capita

State	Rate of Execution Per Capita (per 100,000 residents)	Number of Executions*	Total Population	% of Black People in State Population	% of Black People Currently on Death Row
Oklahoma	2.83	112	3,986,639	7.8	40.5
Texas	1.97	570	29,527,941	13.2	45.2
Delaware**	1.64	16	1,003,384	23.6	--***
Missouri	1.47	90	6,168,187	11.8	30
Alabama	1.37	67	5,039,877	26.8	48.2

*since 1976

**Death penalty is now abolished.

***Not applicable since the death penalty was abolished.

Texas

Capital punishment in Texas: Texas is the state with the highest number of cumulative executions since 1976. Black people make up about 45% of the current death row population in Texas, though only make up about 13% of the state's general population.

Oklahoma

Capital punishment in Oklahoma: Oklahoma is the state with the second highest number of cumulative executions since 1976. Black people make up 46% of death sentences in Oklahoma County, though only make up 16% of the county’s total population.

It is also the only state that has 4 methods of execution, while most others only have 1 or 2 methods. These methods of execution include: lethal injection, nitrogen hypoxia, electrocution, and firing squad.

Alabama

Capital punishment in Alabama: Alabama's death penalty sentences persist as it declines among many other states in the U.S. The state continues to have one of the nation’s highest rates of death sentences per capita. As of April 1, 2022, there are currently 80 Black people and 84 white people on death row. Though the Black and white populations are both about half of the total death row population in Alabama, Black people are represented at a disproportionately high number considering they make up only 27% of Alabama's general population.

Virginia

Capital punishment in Virginia: Though it has remained a state with one of the most executions since 1976, the death penalty in Virginia came to an end on March 24, 2021 when the state became the first Southern state to abolish the death penalty.

Exonerations

Exonerations, in relation to the death penalty, are defined as the absolving of someone from their previous verdict of guilty and sentencing of death. Since January 1, 1973, 103 out of the 190 total exonerations in the U.S. are African Americans. This accounts for about 54% of all exonerations. This is further evidence that black Americans are more likely to be wrongfully convicted of a crime than white Americans.

Discrimination in Mass Incarceration and Capital Punishment

This page is about discrimination in the justice system. For the relationship between race and crime, see Race and crime in the United States.

During the middle of the 20th century, a period of mass incarceration occurred in the United States. The United States became the country with the highest incarceration rate which caused the prison population to become heavily Black by the 1990s whereas it was mainly only white in previous years. White people accounted for 51% of the prison population while Black people accounted for 47% of the entire prison population during the 1990s. Even though Black people made up of around half the jail inhabitants, they only were 12.1% of the United States population and white citizens made up 80.3% of the total population during that time. The prison population had increased from 196,441 people in 1970 to 1.6 million by 2008. This discrepancy of races in the prison population related to the overall demographics of the United States has to do with the inconsistency of police arrests on citizens. Moving into 2015, Black people still made up only 12.1% of the total population but made up 18% of people who were stopped by police on the road. This led to the increase of disproportionate demographics in local jails and prison systems. By 2018, 592 Black people were in local jails per every 100,000 people and 2,271 Black men were incarcerated in federal prisons per 100,000 people. On the other hand, white people were incarcerated at a rate of 187 per 100,000 people in local jails and white men, at the federal level, were incarcerated at a rate of 392 per 100,000 people. This dramatic increase in Black arrests caused America's prison population to boom was which was all due to this long lasting period of mass incarceration that is still going on today.

Mass incarceration has been increasing and there are many factors sustaining its rise. From over-policing to disproportionately long prison sentences, Black people have been targeted in mass incarceration and as a result, more susceptible to capital punishment.

Cases

With the United States' operation based on the U.S. Constitution, federalism allows the state government to share powers with the federal government. Under the various capacities, different court cases are heard in the national and state court systems. A defendant can be inflicted with the death penalty if they are found condemned of capital offenses, like first-degree murder, murder with special circumstances, treason, or genocide.Because capital offenses are criminal cases, the state court systems are responsible to hear the majority of them. The Supreme Court and state courts' discretion in keeping the death penalty option are separate for the most part, if not appealed to the Supreme Court. According to the Legal Information Institute, “ it is not necessary that the actual punishment imposed was the death penalty, but rather a capital office is classified as such if the permissible punishment prescribed by the legislature for the offense is the death penalty.” After Roper v. Simmons in 2005, the federal court deemed if the defendant was under 18 years old at the time of the crime, they can not be sentenced to death because it violates the 8th Amendment.

George Stinney Jr.

Before the Roper v. Simmons ruling, black, 14-year-old George Stinney Jr. was the youngest person in the United States to be sentenced to death on June 16, 1944. Stinney was initially found responsible for the bludgeoning of two, white girls to death. He died by electrocution. Although his case and death happened during the span of about 80 days in 1944, his convictions were annulled 70 years later in 2014.

His exoneration was on the grounds that his 6th amendment was violated. After close examination it was found there was faulty interrogation that included coercion, absence of counsel and parental guidance. With Stinney’s treatment, the persecutor relied heavily on an unsigned, off-the-record confession. Impartial evidence was absent for Stinney’s defense like witness testimonies from his family members that were with him during the time of the crime and community members. The culprit who is suspected of committing the crime against the two girls comes from a white affluent family, where the father happens to have served as the jury’s manager for Stinney’s case.

Exonerated Five

The systemic issue of biased investigation conduct is also seen in the Exonerated Five case. The Exonerated Five are made up of four black boys, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, and Korey Wise. They are formerly known as the Central Park Five and the Jogger Case. The boys received mixed convictions for assault, robbery, riot, rape, sexual abuse, and attempted murder of a white woman in 1990.

The boys faced intense, un-recorded interrogations for at least seven hours in the absence of legal counsel with video confessions following, beside Salaam. Wise additionally had no parent present during questioning and confessing. The five boys later pleaded not guilty and recanted their statements because they were produced under intimidation. Despite no DNA evidence linking any of the boys to the crime scene, they were sentenced to 5 to 15 years. After 12 years, the sole perpetrator Matias Reyes, confessed to the crime while providing a DNA match to the only DNA selection found at the scene. Their false confessions were recognized for inconsistencies and their convictions were vacated in December 2002. They later sued the state and the city for reparations and received about $44 million in a settlement.

"The full-page advertisement was taken out by Trump in the May 1, 1989, issue of the Daily News." Donald Trump spent $85,000 in submitting the ad across four New York City newspapers.

During the 1990 trial, former president Donald Trump (a real-estate character at the time) bought full-page ads voicing his reaction to the Central Park case. In the ad, Donald Trump says the following:

“I want to hate these muggers and murderers. They should be forced to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes. They must serve as examples so that others will think long and hard before committing a crime or an act of violence.”

The boys were ranging from the ages of 14-16 years when the ad was released. In an archival interview with Larry King, Trump feels his belief is a common feeling because he received 15,000 letters of praise following the ad. In retrospect, Salaam reflects in an 2021 interview with PBS MetroFocus, saying:

“I look at what Donald Trump as being the nails that sealed us in the coffin. And then what happened after that, they published our names, our addresses, and phone numbers in the New York City newspapers. When you think about Donald Trump’s ad, it was a whisper into society to have someone come to our homes to drag us from our beds, and to do to us what they had done to Emmett Till.”

Because the boys were minors, their identities were supposed to remain confidential. Salaam shares that his family received an insurgence of death threats following Trump's advertisement, culminating in a climate of aggressive hate. A Central Park Five representative comments that Trump's ad influenced public opinion, possibly further tainting the impartiality of potential jurors "who [already], had a natural affinity for the victim."

As of 2019, Donald Trump has refused to apologize and retract his statements despite the exoneration of the men.

Lena Baker

Lena Baker was a Black woman who was wrongfully convicted of the murder of her abuser in 1945. In Georgia, Baker served as a maid for a handicapped, white man where she faced regular sexual and physical abuse from him. Despite the town terrorizing Baker to leave the relationship, her abuser would equally threaten her with violence if she ever left. Weeks before his death, he started holding Baker prisoner in the mill for numerous days. Baker was able to escape the mill, but when she came back her owner threatened her with an iron bar. After a struggle, Baker took a hand of his pistol and shot the man in self-defense.

The all-white, all-male jury did not empathize with Baker’s case of self-defense as a survivor of his slave-like conditions, including sexual and physical abuse. In less than a day, the jury found Baker guilty of capital murder which happens to result in an involuntary death sentence at the time. After failed appeals, reviews, and the abandonment of her legal representation, Lena Baker was executed by electrocution in 1945. After 60 years following Baker’s death, her family with the help of the Prison and Jail Project requested a posthumous pardon. Their efforts succeeded in 2005 when Baker was granted a full and unconditional pardon because there was a lack of evidence to demonstrate Baker’s intent to kill. If the justice system had been careful with the evidence, they would have noted Baker’s conviction does not qualify as capital murder which could have resulted in a fate other than the death penalty.

Bibliography

• Rigby, David, and Charles Seguin. “Capital Punishment and the Legacies of Slavery and Lynching in the United States.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 694, no. 1 (March 1, 2021): 205–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027162211016277.
  • Rigby and Seguin’s article is immensely helpful in comprehending the relationship between the United States’ history of enslavement and lynching with capital punishment. They follow the United States’ legal history and its ties to the persecution and rights of Black Americans. This source not only provides accurate historical and current data about lynchings and capital punishment in the United States, but it also provides clarifying reasonings for how the two are correlated.

• Death Penalty Information Center. “Racial Demographics.” Accessed December 15, 2022. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-row/overview/demographics.
  • This source displays the racial demographics of the inmates currently in death row. This was important in showing the high percentage of African Americans in death row compared to the overall African American population in the U.S.*
• “Death Penalty Information Center Facts about the Death Penalty.” Death Penalty Information Center, December 15, 2022. https://documents.deathpenaltyinfo.org/pdf/FactSheet.pdf.
  • This source provided majority of the information used in the statistics section. It contains a lot of the information regarding the unjust racial biases that are present within death penalty cases across the country.
• “U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: United States.” Accessed December 15, 2022. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/RHI225221#RHI225221.
  • This source provided the statistics of the U.S. population. It allowed me to gather the racial demographics of the entire U.S. population which enabled me to draw a comparison between the U.S. population and the population of the inmates on death row in regard to race.
• Death Penalty Information Center. “The Death Penalty in Black and White: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides.” Accessed December 15, 2022. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/dpic-reports/in-depth/the-death-pe nalty-in-black-and-white-who-lives-who-dies-who-decides.
  • This source provided information regarding the racial disparities concerning race and the death penalty. It also discussed the significant difference in the race of the decision makers within these cases.
• American Civil Liberties Union. “Race and the Death Penalty.” Accessed December 15, 2022. https://www.aclu.org/other/race-and-death-penalty.
  • This source talked about the significant amount of cases involving white victims where the defendant was found guilty.
• Death Penalty. “Death Row Inmates - Death Penalty - ProCon.Org.” Accessed December 15, 2022. https://deathpenalty.procon.org/death-row-inmates/.
  • Using this source, you could place a connection on the mass incarceration aspect of black people in America and the percentage of all black death row inmates with a prior felony conviction or other form of legal conviction.
• Death Penalty Information Center. “NEW RESOURCES: Hispanics and the Death Penalty.” Accessed December 15, 2022. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/new-resources-hispanics-and-the-death-penalty.
  • This source discusses the information regarding hispanic death row inmates and exonerations within the hispanic racial demographic.
• Death Penalty Information Center. “Exonerations by Race.” Accessed December 15, 2022. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/innocence/exonerations-by-race.
  • This source discusses the exonerations by race throughout the U.S. This contains further evidence that black Americans are more likely to be wrongfully convicted of a crime than white Americans.
• Fins, Deborah. “Death Row U.S.A. Spring 2020.” Quarterly. Deborah Fins: NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., April 1, 2020. https://www.naacpldf.org/wp-content/uploads/DRUSASpring2020.pdf
  • This source was used for information regarding the death row inmates who are of Asian descent. However, it also contains information regarding other races of death row inmates as well.
• “Capital Punishment.” American Civil Liberties Union, July 19, 2022. https://www.aclu.org/issues/capital-punishment.
  • This source was used to summarize the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project and its mission statement.
• “The ACLU's Capital Punishment Project.” American Civil Liberties Union, n.d. https://www.aclu.org/other/aclus-capital-punishment-project.
  • This source was used to expand on the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project and their specific services.
• “About Us.” Equal Justice USA, August 23, 2022. https://ejusa.org/about-us/.
  • This source was used to summarize the Equal Justice USA organization’s mission statement.
• “Accomplishments.” Equal Justice USA, January 22, 2020. https://ejusa.org/about-us/accomplishments/.
  • This source was used to expand on the Equal Justice USA’s specific accomplishments.
• Jacobs, David, Jason T. Carmichael, and Stephanie L. Kent. “Vigilantism, Current Racial Threat, and Death Sentences.” American Sociological Review 70, no. 4 (n.d.): 656–77. https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240507000406.
  • These authors explicitly relate the United States’ past racial history with lynching to modern capital punishment. They explain how states in which the lynching of Black people used to be common, is still the same states where rates of capital punishment are still high today—especially as it pertains to the execution rates of Black people. They follow the legal history of the United States legislation and relate the killings of Black people by lynch mobs or the government to the laws in place surrounding lynching or capital punishment. They expose how these laws have always been in place in order to make Black people afraid and keep them in their subordinate place in society in comparison to whites.
• “Libguides: Mass Incarceration: Understanding Racial Disparities.” Understanding Racial Disparities - Mass Incarceration - LibGuides at The Westport Library, https://westportlibrary.libguides.com/MassIncarceration.
  • This source provided racial disparities in mass incarceration from the beginning of Black codes after slavery was abolished. It is important because it provided information on how the justice system has been against Black people since the beginning.
• “Jim Crow Laws: Definition, Facts & Timeline - HISTORY.” Accessed December 15, 2022. https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws.
  • This article gives a timeline of the different racialized laws that were in place following the Civil War. It begins with discussing the role that Black Codes played after the war’s end, then explains the Klu Klux Klan’s power during the Reconstruction time period, and lastly finally covers the extent of the Jim Crow laws post-Reconstruction all the way until the Civil Rights era. Further, this article details former-Confederate soldiers’ role in the post-Civil War government in the South and how they were able to control the legal and justice system by holding positions of power.
• “The Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws | National Geographic Society.” Accessed December 6, 2022. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/black-codes-and-jim-crow-laws.
  • This National Geographic article details the challenges, discrimination, and overall inequality that Black Americans experienced in the South following the end of the Civil War and also Reconstruction. It explains Black Codes, different voting restrictions, and the separation of public spaces along racial lines—including public schools.
• Death Penalty Information Center. “The History of the Death Penalty: A Timeline.” Accessed December 15, 2022. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/stories/history-of-the-death-penalty-timeline.
  • This source just gives a chronological order of the history of the death penalty within the United States. It was useful in understanding the United States’ history of capital punishment as it related to other significant racial events, tragedies, or statistics. Additionally, the source gives short descriptions for why a certain law or case was signed into law.
• Death Penalty Information Center. “More Than a Century After It Was First Proposed, President Biden Signs Historic Law Making Lynching a Federal Crime.” Accessed December 15, 2022. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/more-than-a-century-after-it-was-first-proposed-president-biden-signs-historic-law-making-lynching-a-federal-crime.
  • This article from the Death Penalty Information Center explains the legal history of the Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act and when it was finally signed into law. It further provides background on the history of lynching in the United States and context to how that relates to modern day racial violence and injustices.
• Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow. New York, New York: The New Press, 2010.
  • Alexander’s book is immensely helpful in understanding why the United States’ past racial history is still so relevant to and present in to today’s society and systems. She gives context of past Supreme Court cases that upheld the constitutionality of racial bias in sentencing people to capital punishment. She ties together the past with the present in order to convey the necessity to reconsider the current legal and incarceration systems.
• Oyez. “McCleskey v. Kemp.” Accessed December 15, 2022. https://www.oyez.org/cases/1986/84-6811.
  • This particular page from Oyez gives the legal details behind the McCleskey v. Kemp Supreme Court case. It provides crucial information on how the Georgia court ruled that a Black man may be sentenced to death despite the racist biases used against him in court due to the problems of racial prejudice that exist within many American laws and the court’s inability to challenging one without changing them all.
• Steiker, Carol S., and Jordan M. Steiker. “The Rise, Fall, and Afterlife of the Death Penalty in the United States.” Annual Review of Criminology 3, no. 1 (January 13, 2020): 299–315. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-criminol-011518-024721.
  • In the Steikers’ article on capital punishment within the United States, they detail the racial history of the death penalty and how it relates to white supremacy, enslavement, and American exceptionalism. This source conveys the colonial roots that remain within the United States’ systems of law and how they are still disproportionately impacting Black Americans as it relates to capital punishment.
• “State by State.” Death Penalty Information Center. Accessed December 15, 2022. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/state-by-state.
  • This source was used to find out which states currently have the death penalty.
• “State Execution Rates (through 2020).” Death Penalty Information Center, December 26, 2021. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/stories/state-execution-rates.
  • This source was used to find out which states have the highest execution rates per capita.
• “U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: United States.” Accessed December 15, 2022. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045221.
  • This source was used to find out each state’s total population.
• “Texas Death Penalty Facts.” TCADP. Accessed December 15, 2022. https://tcadp.org/get-informed/texas-death-penalty-facts/#:~:text=According%20to%20TDCJ,%20Black%20individuals,the%20current%20death%20row%20population.
  • This source was used to find out the racial demographics of the current death row population in Texas.
• “U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Texas.” Accessed December 15, 2022. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/TX/PST045221.
  • This source was used to get statistics on the racial demographics of Texas.
• “Deeply Rooted: How Racial History Informs Oklahoma's Death Penalty.” Death Penalty Information Center. Accessed December 15, 2022. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/dpic-reports/dpic-special-reports/deeply-rooted-how-racial-history-informs-oklahomas-death-penalty.
  • This source was used to contextualize Oklahoma’s racial history with the current racial demographics of its death row population.
• “Alabama's Death Penalty.” Equal Justice Initiative, July 29, 2022. https://eji.org/issues/alabama-death-penalty/.
  • This source was used to contextualize Alabama as a state that continues to have the death penalty.
• “U.S. Census Bureau Quickfacts: Alabama.” Accessed December 16, 2022. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/AL/PST045221.
  • This source was used to get statistics on the racial demographics of Alabama.
• Carlisle, Madeleine. “Why It's So Significant Virginia Just Abolished the Death Penalty.” Time. Time, March 24, 2021. https://time.com/5937804/virginia-death-penalty-abolished/.
  • This source was used to contextualize Virginia as the first southern state to abolish the death penalty.
• “American History, Race, and Prison.” Vera Institute of Justice. Accessed December 15, 2022. https://www.vera.org/reimagining-prison-web-report/american-history-race-and-prison.
  • This article provided information on the period of mass incarceration that happened during the 20th century. It is important because it showed how the United States became the country with the largest incarceration because of discrimination towards Black people.
• “Home.” Bureau of Justice Statistics. Accessed December 15, 2022. https://bjs.ojp.gov/.
  • This page contains statistics dealing with the justice system as a whole and the demographics of the people incarcerated. This is important to show how many Black people and what percentage were incarcerated in jail compared to other races.
• “Your Source for Iowa Data.” Home :: Iowa State Data Center. Accessed December 15, 2022. https://www.iowadatacenter.org/.
  • This table contained the number and percentage of each race present in each state. This table was important for research since it helped compare how little the Black community is in the United States tox the high percentage of Black people incarcerated.
• “Visualizing the Racial Disparities in Mass Incarceration.” Prison Policy Initiative. Accessed December 15, 2022. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/07/27/disparities/.
  • This article contained information on racial disparities in jails. This was important because the graphs and tables showed that Black people were pulled over and  arrested at higher rates than white people.
• “Mass Incarceration: The Cause and Effect on Hunger.” Move For Hunger: Everyone Can Fight Hunger, https://moveforhunger.org/blog/mass-incarceration-cause-and-effect-hunger.
  • This source was important because it explains how mass incarceration affects society. It also gave statistics that were helpful.
• "Comparing Federal & State Courts". 2022. United States Courts. https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/court-role-and-structure/comparing-federal-state-courts.
  • The article organizes the distinction between federal and state courts. They highlight the difference between court structure, selection of judges, and types of cases heard. The definitions clarified how the death penalty is traced throughout the judicial system.
• Capital Offense". 2022. LII / Legal Information Institute. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/capital_offense.
  • The article provides a general overview of capital offenses and what they consist of. The qualifications provide a clearer connection to the charges and capital punishment with our specific cases.
• “Sentencing.” The United States Department of Justice, October 7, 2020. https://www.justice.gov/usao/justice-101/sentencing.
  • The source talks about the judge’s role in the carrying out of the sentence of the death penalty. The death penalty can only be inflicted to those who are convicted to a capital offense and it is up to the jury.
• "Roper V. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005)". 2022. Justia Law. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/543/551/#tab-opinion-1961711.
  • The landmark case decision in 2005 settled that sentencing someone to capital punishment when the respective crime was committed when they were 18 or younger is a violation of the 8th amendment. This case was highlighted because it contrasted heavily with George Stinney Jr. at the age of 14, emphasizing the courts discretion
• Bever, Lindsey. “It Took 10 Minutes to Convict 14-Year-Old George Stinney Jr.. It Took 70 Years after His Execution to Exonerate Him.” The Washington Post. WP Company, October 26, 2021. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/12/18/the-rush-job-conviction-of-14-year-old-george-stinney-exonerated-70-years-after-execution/.
  • The news article was a great source to learn about the general overview of George Stinney while highlighting significant checkpoints. The Washington Post is a bit more opinionated and can explicitly address the racist justice system which helped with staying neutral in the presentation of the case.
• "George Stinney - Wikipedia". 2022. En.Wikipedia.Org. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Stinney&oldid=1125936119.
  • The wiki page provided neutral background on the case with specific attention to his age and mode of capital punishment. Unlike other articles, the page offered insight on how the true suspected perpetrator worked through the system to help convince the community that George was guilty.
• "South Carolina Vacates The Conviction Of 14-Year-Old Executed In 1944". 2022. Death Penalty Information Center. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/south-carolina-vacates-the-conviction-of-14-year-old-executed-in-1944.
  • The information center covered those close to George Stinney and how they were affected. Big focus on the aftermath of the conviction and the steps taken to get Stinney’s case reviewed.  
• "The Central Park Five". 2022. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/topics/1980s/central-park-five.
  • The history article provides a general timeline of the case including recent reflective testimonies of some of the exonerated. The article contributes the majority of its focus on the role of media in the case.
• "Central Park Jogger Case - Wikipedia". 2022. En.Wikipedia.Org. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Central_Park_jogger_case&oldid=1126357315.
  • The wikipedia page is very extensive, so it helped orient further research into specific parts like the media's role and the investigations conducted.
• Margaritoff, Marco. 2021. "This Serial Rapist Brutalized The 'Central Park Jogger' — But Five Black Teens Were Blamed". All That's Interesting. https://allthatsinteresting.com/matias-reyes.
  • The article goes into detail about the background of Matias Reyes, the sole perpetrator of the = rape and attempted murder of Trisha Meili. Not only does it go into his upbringing, it highlights the time of events leading up to the crime with supplementary interviews spread throughout to illustrate the situation.
• "Convictions And Charges Voided In '89 Central Park Jogger Attack (Published 2002)". 2002. Nytimes.Com. https://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/20/nyregion/convictions-and-charges-voided-in-89-central-park-jogger-attack.html.
  • The New York Times article goes into detail about the convictions of the exonerated five cases. In addition to the details of the logistics of the charges, they provide quotes reacting to the verdict from those on the defendant’s side at the time.
• "The Central Park Five: ‘We Were Just Baby Boys’ (Published 2019)". 2019. Nytimes.Com. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/arts/television/when-they-see-us.html.
  • A more recent New York Times article, uplifts the reflections of the  exonerated five’s journey, now men, in view of the 2019 release of ‘When They See Us’ on Netflix. The five and their respective actors playing them in the series reflect on the telling of the story.
• Donald Trump And The Central Park Five: The Racially Charged Rise Of A Demagogue". 2016. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/17/central-park-five-donald-trump-jogger-rape-case-new-york.
  • This article showcases the underlying racist remarks done by Donald Trump in an archival interview following the submission of his infamous advertisement. The article talks about the media’s representation of the boys, which aggregated to the hateful environment. All of which played in their disfavor in the courtroom.
• "File:Trump Bring Back Death Penalty Ad 1989.Jpg - Wikimedia Commons". 1989. Commons.Wikimedia.Org. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trump_Bring_Back_Death_Penalty_ad_1989.jpg.
  • Donald Trump’s advertisement voicing his feelings in 1990 in response to the central park investigation. Although in-explicitly racist, his request reveals how covert racism is intertwined with character stereotypes.
• Andrew Kaczynski, Jon Sarlin. 2016. "Trump In 1989 Central Park Five Interview: "Maybe Hate Is What We Need" | CNN Politics". Cnn.Com. https://www.cnn.com/2016/10/07/politics/trump-larry-king-central-park-five/index.html.
  • The CNN article also presents an archival interview of Donald Trump expressing his hate toward the boys. His tone is much calmer in this video than the other interview. In his statement, he shares his belief that he is talking for others as well who agree with him.
• Franklin, Jane. 2021. "Yusef Salaam On Exoneration, Prison Reform & Racial Justice". Chasing The Dream. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/chasing-the-dream/stories/central-park-5-yusef-salaam/.
  • The article presents an interview with Yusef Salaam in 2021. In the interview he talks about how he finds peace in his everyday activism and new book “Better not Bitter”. He reflects on the environment in which his conviction took place.
• "Trump Digs In On Central Park 5: 'They Admitted Their Guilt'". 2019. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-digs-central-park-5-they-admitted-their-guilt-n1019156.
  • Despite the awareness of the miscarriage of justice in the Exonerated Five case as illustrated in the new Netflix series “When They See Us”, Donald Trump rejects to apologize. The article highlights his justification in sticking with his 1990 statements.
• "Lena Baker - Wikipedia". 2022. En.Wikipedia.Org. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lena_Baker&oldid=1125049240.
  • Since Baker’s case is historical, the existing wikipedia page helped with the direction of sources. It was a great source to gain a sense of the general timeline.
• “Lena Baker Case - New Georgia Encyclopedia.” Accessed December 15, 2022. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/lena-baker-case/.
  • The encyclopedia source provided more context on the specifics that lead to the struggle between Baker and her abuser. The context is important to present her case as a miscarriage of justice, because it was obvious it was an act of self-defense.
• "Lena Baker Is Executed". 2022. African American Registry. https://aaregistry.org/story/lena-baker-executed/.
  • The article talked especially about how Baker’s abuser found himself calling for Baker’s services, since he was handicapped. They highlight the historical power dynamic of the white master and black slave, as it prevailed in with Baker and her abuser. They highlight the lack of a respectable burial process.
• "The Black Commentator - The Lena Baker Story: Execution In A Small Town - Issue 40". 2022. Blackcommentator.Com. https://blackcommentator.com/40/40_guest_commentary.html.
  • The article provides more details about the relationship between Baker and her abuser before his death. The author also goes into detail about the judicial conduct during the conviction and post-conviction as she was housed next to the execution chamber. The process of appeals was short-lived for Baker.
• “In Honor of Lena Baker (Posthumously).” Congressman Sanford Bishop, December 20, 2011. https://bishop.house.gov/media-center/congressional-record-statements/in-honor-of-lena-baker-posthumously.
  • Mr. Bishop pays tribute to Lena Baker as her family chooses to lay her to rest at his church. He provides an overview of her struggles with the selective justice system. He concludes by addressing the posthumous pardon she received after death.