ZOMBIE FORUMS

I cannot feel sorry for people who put themselves into situations. I think Bill Cosby would agree that a large reason there are a huge number of black people on death row is that they put themselves there by commiting the crime. Twenty-plus year old testiments of racism in isolated cases does not mean the entire system is biased.

Wait a minute, a few entries back, your point was OMG, George Bush killed these poeple.

Make up your mind mr. moore wannabe.

icy: that doesnt mean the rules are wrong, just that the individuals that enforce them are flawd, as people usually are.
im not saying thats ok, im just saying you should consider that.

His point was this, though: Did you just give up on your previous standpoint? Thats what it seems like when you change the subject.

Anywho, after a little research at an actual government website and not just some third party, it would seem that more whites are being executed on death row. This goes back to 1976, and since then, whites have numbered more than half.

<a href=http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/drrace.htm>Click here for a nice little chart.</a>

<a href=http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pubalp2.htm#cp>And here's my root source.</a>

Now can we drop this death penalty is racist issue, as obviously, the whites are getting the shot more than anyone.

It has been discussed and shown time and again that black people are simply more likely to commit the crime. Its not racist if its fact.

The motivation for the crime DOES NOT MATTER ICY

Anyone can climb out of povery if they try. If they chose instead to perpetuate the cycle of violence and murder people for $20 or a fistful of herion then they no longer deserve to be a part of our society and are therefor removed for either a period of time or forever. I mean.. its so fucking basic, Icy. What you people strive for is racial equality.. HOW can you achive that when you are constantly playing the 'omg white, omg black' bullshit to everything. It achieves nothing. It is in fact counterproductive. Stop eating up Moore's bullshit, think for yourself. Its the social climate and culture that is leading to these people commiting crimes, being arrested, being sentanced to death more than people from another culture and social climate.

For the last time, Icy... RACE IS A NON-ISSUE. (Unless of course you just want to be black, so you can actually look cool being an internet nerd)

OK, how about "It doesn't stop being a crime" then. Except you knew thats what I ment already. Unless I am crediting you with too much intelligence.

Black violent crimes are generally inspired by poverty. However, the type of violent crime inspired by poverty is usually something along the lines of murder-for-money or gang warfare where the objective generally is just to kill the victim, and the victim is often not entirely innocent themselves. Most crimes that warrant the death penalty, on the other hand, usually have complications involved such as child rape or torture before death...

All the rest of it was "Omg Omg lifes not fair!!"

Well, no shit. Thats no excuse to give up.

I think I am clever

I think I am being taken seriously.

As fot [sic] your crap about afirmative [sic] action, yeah.

Icy was trying to excuse the crime of the 'black community' cause they continue to exist in a self-inflicted culture of poverty. Thats bullshit. If you steal my car cause your poor, bored and stupid doen't make it any less of a crime. ITS. STILL. A. CRIME. FUCKTARD.

You were, and are, attempting to ignore the point: we're talking about the death penalty. You'll notice that it has been said repeatedly that in deciding whether or not a case deserves the death penalty, motive (e.g. whether the murderer shot the old man for his wallet or cut the little girl so he could watch her bleed to death) is always considered. You denied that this mattered. Icy stated blacks in the US primarily committed crime because of poverty. Most courts do not kill you for such an offense. Yet, more blacks (in proportion to their number) are sentenced to death.

Now, since I already said all that, and it went right over your head, I'll point out what I should not have to: I am not debating whether or not blacks are poor because "the man" or because they are generally incapable of ending the cycle of poverty and ignorance. I am not saying a crime commited because of poverty is not a crime. I am saying your missing or ignoring the point, stuck in a cycle more pitiful than that of the minority we're discussing.

The first step in determining the presence of racial discrimination in the death penalty is to look at the raw data: from among the eligible homicides, how often are black defendants sentenced to death and how often are others sentenced to death?

The raw data of death sentences in Philadelphia between 1983 and 1993, provide the first piece of disturbing evidence that race discrimination may be operating. The rate at which eligible black defendants were sentenced to death was nearly 40% higher than the rate for other eligible defendants. A sentencing rate is simply a ratio of the number of death sentences for a particular group compared to the total number of cases of that group which would be eligible for a death sentence. In the chart below, a death sentencing rate of .18 for blacks means that for every 100 eligible black defendants, 18 will be sentenced to death. For other defendants, only 13 out of 100 will be similarly sentenced.



Racial disparities can result through prosecutorial selection of which cases "deserve" the death penalty, or from the action of juries in determining the final sentences, or from both. But before a disparity due to race can be established, a researcher must measure the race effects for crimes of similar severity committed by defendants with similar criminal histories.

In order to determine whether race influences death sentencing, the researchers turned to the same techniques used in medical research to determine whether cigarette smoking causes cancer, or frequent exercise and good diet reduces heart attacks. Murder cases become death eligible through the existence of certain aggravating factors which make one murder "worse" than another. In deciding whether the death penalty should be sought, the prosecutor is supposed to consider the presence of such factors as whether a murder was committed with grave risk to the life of others, whether the murder was committed in the course of another serious crime such as robbery or rape, whether torture was used in the commission of the murder, or whether the defendant had a significant violent history. The jury is similarly told to consider such factors when deciding whether the sentence should be life or death, once a guilty verdict is rendered.12

Through an analysis of murders in which the death penalty could have been sought, it is possible, through an analysis of the defendants that were and were not sentenced to death, to assign a predictive score, or coefficient, to various aggravating factors to measure how heavily each influences the likelihood of a death sentence. The researchers screened hundreds of factors, statutory and non-statutory, to develop models to explain how the system works. All statutory factors, and those non-statutory factors which significantly correlated with the outcome were included.

Comparing the coefficients permits an average assessment of how much reliance was placed on the factor by the decision-makers. For example, the fact that the murder was committed in the course of another felony has less impact than the fact that the defendant caused great harm, fear or pain. Statistically, in this study committing another felony had a relative predictive value of 0.8. On the other hand, if the murder was accompanied by torture, that factor was very significant and registered a predictive value of 1.9. A murder committed with grave risk of death to others had a relatively high predictive value of 1.5. A factor which had no apparent effect would have a value of 0. The study looked at a large class of such variables. 12



The race of the defendant is not supposed to influence whether a person is sentenced to death, but in Philadelphia it clearly does. (See Chart above.) Murders by blacks are treated as more severe and "deserving" of the death penalty because of the defendant's race. Being a black defendant merits a score of 1.4 in predicting whether a death sentence will ultimately result. This extra burden for black defendants is comparable to such legitimate aggravating factors as torture or "causing great harm, fear or pain," which earned scores of 1.9 and 1.0 respectively, in predicting the sentence. Stated differently, in Philadelphia, the capital sentencing statute has operated as though being black was not merely a physical attribute, but as if it were one of the most important aggravating factors actually justifying the death penalty.

The race of the defendant is a much stronger predictor that a case will result in a death sentence than the fact that the crime was committed along with another felony (0.8) or that the defendant killed with multiple stab wounds (0.9). Either when the prosecutor decides to seek the death penalty in a particular case, or when the jury decides that death is the appropriate sentence, on average, black defendants are considered "worse," regardless of the other factors in their case.