Death

Death Pro & Con: The Death Penalty in Black and White by Dudley Sharp Thursday, June 24, 1999 Comments: 159 posts I don't know about you, but when I get into a discussion about the death penalty, my first thoughts go to the victim and to the brutality of the murder. That is the foundation of the just nature of the death penalty. Too often these days, however the death penalty is discussed in different terms. Inevitably, with the racial history of this country, the effect of race in the application of the death penalty has become a central part of the death-penalty discourse. This is particularly true as some politicians are making the case for a death-penalty moratorium, in part to consider whether the death penalty is inherently racist. All too often, however, those arguments are spurious. In the death penalty debate, it should be the facts, and not the hype, that are in be black and white. A closer look at the statistics Often such discussion begins with the obvious: the race of the defendant. The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) reports that black murderers represent 35% of those executed, white murderers 56%. As the argument goes, this must be evidence death, penalty, whites, blacks, within, white, murderers, murder, crimes, victims, executed, black, been, about, times, study, statistics, sentenced, race, likely, death-penalty, circumstances, capital, should, ratio, racism, racial, often, murders, find, cases, based, united, supreme, robbery