Annotated Bibliography on Race, Death, & Justice

Beckett, Katherine, and Heather Evans. "Race, Death, and Justice: Capital Sentencing in Washington State, 1981-2014." Columbian Journal of Race and Law 6 (2016): 77.

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The article highlights the controversies surrounding capital punishment in the United States. The authors acknowledged that while the number of executions has considerably declined over the last decades, the issue of the death penalty is subject to discussion. The source identifies the role of race in the implementation of capital punishments. This factor influence capital punishment decisions and hence making it an acrimonious issue in the criminal justice system. The authors are against death penalties in the 21st century. The arguments against it are a high cost of administration, evidence that supports the claims that the system is fraught with errors and arbitrariness of its application, to mention a few.

Unnever, James D., Francis T. Cullen, and Cheryl Lero Jonson. "Race, racism, and support for capital punishment." Crime and Justice 37.1 (2008): 45-96.

The source explores the arguments against and in support of capital punishment. The study indicates that racial divide plays critical roles in the debate about the death penalty in the US. In this regard, African Americans are against the sanction while the Whites are in favor of it. The support of the Whites is consistent with the conflict theory and the concept of social threats posed by ethnic, racial and immigrant groups.

Stichter, Matt. "The Structure of Death Penalty Arguments." Res Publica, vol. 20, no. 2, 2014, pp. 129-143.

The author weighs the advocates' arguments against and in favor of capital punishment. While advocates advance their arguments with evidence, it is no doubt that both sides do not prove decisive. The opposing sides fail to defend their positions to abolish or retain a death sentence. The reason behind this situation is that many of the issues surrounding capital punishment are interconnected and hence the arguments cannot be treated separately. The author, however, supports the abolitionists since evidence in their cases have underlying advantages.

Dezhbakhsh, Hashem, Paul H. Rubin, and Joanna M. Shepherd. "Does capital punishment have a deterrent effect? New evidence from post-moratorium panel data." American Law and Economics Review 5.2 (2003): 344-376.

The article brings to light the arguments and issues surrounding an acrimonious debate on capital punishment and its implementation. The researchers explored a deterrence hypothesis using both post-moratorium panel and county-level data. The objective, in this case, was to use simultaneous equations to determine the condition. The test shows that the capital sentence has a strong deterrence effect. One execution plays critical roles in controlling crimes rate at an average of 18 fewer murders.

Mocan, H. Naci, and R. Kaj Gittings. "Getting off death row: Commuted sentences and the deterrent effect of capital punishment." The Journal of Law and Economics 46.2 (2003): 453-478.

The researchers utilized the death sentence data for executions done between 1977 and 1997. The aim, in this case, is to determine the effects of capital punishments on homicide. Evidence from the study indicates that a death sentence has a deterrence effect. While the source supports the execution of capital punishment, it is in favor of an argument that race is its determinant in making death penalty decisions. The authors further assert that the US Supreme Court has remained unconvinced that race shapes decisions on the imposition of capital punishment. Given the concerns, the article concludes that a stand to support or abolish capital punishment requires decision makers to approach the issue with caution.

Sunstein, Cass R., and Adrian Vermeule. "Is Capital Punishment Morally Required-Acts, Omissions, and Life-Life Trade-offs." Stanford Law Review. SSRN Electronic Journal 58 (2005)703

This article weighs the evidence that capital punishment is not morally required in the present-day world. The authors argued that while the death penalty has a significant crime deterrence effect, it is not necessarily a sound approach. It undermines the sanctity of human life, has irreversible punishment, potential errors in law, and severe high arbitrariness. The source further points out incidences where people were wrongfully convicted and subjected to the capital punishment. Therefore, the death penalty has far-reaching implications that require policymakers to review to enhance the effectiveness of criminal and civil law.

Steiker, Carol S., and Jordan M. Steiker. "The seduction of innocence: The attraction and Limitations of the focus on innocence in capital punishment law and advocacy." Journal Of Criminal Law and Criminology 95 (2004): 587

The article highlights the essence and the detrimental effects of capital punishment. The authors, however, view the death penalty as a principle of the old regime and thus the needs for revolution in thoughts and actions. The source primarily focuses on evidence in the literature that indicates that many innocent citizens have faced death rows though they were innocent. A sound criminal justice system according to the authors, have ethical values and serve the interests of the people. Therefore, the capital punishment system has questionable benefits since it supports the punishing of innocent people. The source supports the advocates of death penalty abolition besides calling for urgent reforms to end errors in law.

Marcus, Paul. "Capital punishment in the United States and beyond." Melbourne University Law Review. 31 (2007): 837

The article explores the controversies of capital punishment. The focus is primarily the United States, which is among the few countries that have maintained the system. The author agrees that the criticism both domestically and internationally implies that the death penalty as currently constituted, has multiple problems. The critical points addressed in the article are the morality of capital punishment, its uneven application, and effectiveness in crime deterrence. The source further highlights the procedural problems that call for an immediate overhaul of the system. The author, however, acknowledged that other democracies such as Singapore and China still have the death penalty system.

Joubert, Jerry. "Capital punishment and race: Racial culture of the south." Undergraduate Review 8.1 (2012): 111-119

This article presents evidence for the policymakers to weigh whether capital punishment is necessary for the US. The author used statistics to support and refute controversial issues that have marred the death penalty system. Currently, 16 states have abolished the death penalty while 34 are practicing it. The author cites the data by the Death Penalty Information Center that shows that the country has recorded 1,276 cases of capital punishment since 1976. Out of 1,276 executions, 1,048 were recorded in the South. The African American inmates awaiting death rows as at 2012 accounts for 42%. The author used this evidence to support an argument that racial discrimination that dates back to the era of Jim Crow in the south play a role in the system. The review by the Death penalty Information Centre further shows that 96% of the states that subjected its citizens to capital punishment have patterns of racial bias. The African Americans are three times likely to face death rows for killing a White. The author concludes that capital punishment should be reconstructed.

Chambliss, William J. Key issues in crime and punishment. Sage, 2011

The article compares capital punishment in the US with other industrialized nations. Currently, only 60 countries use the death penalty in their criminal justice system. The author explores critical issues such as efficacy, ethics and policy implications of capital punishment. The US is the only jurisdiction in the developed countries that regularly use the death penalty. The source highlights the historical developments of capital punishments, the number of executions and whether it is morally right. However, the author argued that the system has its backgrounds in the Mosaic laws and hence it is justified for the state to take life for offenders that commit capital crimes. The source, however, raises concerns that there is a lack of proof that capital punishment reduces the crime rate. It concludes that the death penalty causes social inequality since most of the executions involve economically and politically-disadvantaged classes besides innocent people suffering unnecessarily.