In the 35 years since McCleskey v Kemp, death penalty abolitionists have made extraordinary strides in the political arena.
on all Georgia murder cases decided during the period 1973 to 1979. It was carried out by law professor David Baldus and his colleagues.Among its key findings was that, taking into account all other factors that might explain death sentences, there was still a powerful race of the victim effect. People who murdered white victims were 4.3 times more likely to get a death sentence than those who killed Black victims regardless of their race.
In a remarkable decision, the court accepted the validity of the Baldus study, but found no constitutional problem with the Georgia death sentencing system.Justice Lewis Powell, who wrote the majority opinion, said that McCleskey had not proven that there was discrimination incase. Powell even acknowledged that in this country there is always “some risk of racial prejudice influencing a jury’s decision in a criminal case” but said that America would have to live with that risk.
at the time the decision was handed down, “the Court chose to close its eyes. It effectively condoned the expression of racism.”
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