Lethal Effects of Intolerance

Barack Obama recently said he will not accept any mistake from the judicial system regarding discrimination on death penalty -there is clear evidence that courts have been arbitrary, discriminatory, and unfair in applying it. The world should abolish this extreme punishment.

Most Americans believe that racism is no longer a major factor in their society. The reality is different; many expressions of racial discrimination are still seen in almost all spheres of power. In the judicial system for instance, there have been cases based on both the race of the defendant and the race of the victim. The General Accounting Office (GAO) concluded that in over 80 percent of the studies carried out to analyze this phenomenon, the race of the victim is correlated with getting the death penalty. An exhaustive statistical study in Georgia showed that the average odds of receiving a death sentence among all indicted cases were 4.3 times higher in cases with white victims. It also reflected that the killing of a white is treated much more severely than the killing of a black. Other main reasons are the ineffectual and negligent representation provided by racist counsels.

There are many cases in which gender also determines whether a person must be executed or not. Disparity between the numbers of men and women executed and awaiting execution demonstrates a gross inequality. The United States recorded, over a period of 350 years, 533 executions of women whereas there have been 19,161 confirmed executions of men during this same span. In sum, less than three percent of the persons executed since 1608 have been women. Carolyn King, an inmate on Pennsylvania’s death row, is the only woman to have an execution date set this year. By contrast, there are presently 3,565 men on death rows across the country with just twenty-three impending executions among them.

Socio-economic class is another ingredient that influences court decisions. Maynard L. Erikson argued that poor individuals are more likely to be arrested, charged and sentenced than middle and upper-income individuals. Terence P. Thomberry found that juveniles from lower class families were more likely to be sent to juvenile court and less likely to receive probation than those from affluent homes. Approximately ninety percent of those on death row cannot afford to hire a good defense and just incompetent lawyers accept the case. Taking advantage of that, many Judges appoint attorney friends or political associates to gain easily. It is also well known that poor people and members of minority groups are more likely to be targeted because of prejudice and bigotry. Blacks for instance, are three times as likely to be poor as whites, it seems reasonable that race could serve to measure the impact of poverty on criminal charges, convictions, and sentencing. In 2006, 62 percent of black jail inmates had pre-arrest incomes below $3,000, compared with 38 percent of whites. In 2007, the median pre-arrest income of black jail inmates was $4,067 and that of white jail inmates was $9,312. About half of blacks in jail were unemployed before arrest and 36 percent of whites were.

Many states and organizations have conducted death penalty studies, looked at different types of data, used different types of analysis, and come to different conclusions. Opponents claim that the system is unreliable. Pro-death penalty supports, for their part, argue that it is necessary that the bereaved families to get some sort of closure while observing criminals paying with their own lives. The United States’ courts are making mistakes that may be taking innocent lives. Over the years, the U.S. has not been able to incorporate new mechanisms to reduce the system failures. One of them, incrusted at the heart of the American system, is intolerance. That is the real enemy and as it keeps deciding who deserves died and who does not, there will always be unfairness and lack of objectivity. If human being is unable to find objectivity, they should let God punish criminals under his own law.