{"id":12853,"date":"2011-02-16T16:02:36","date_gmt":"2011-02-16T21:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=12853"},"modified":"2011-02-16T16:05:47","modified_gmt":"2011-02-16T21:05:47","slug":"racial-disparities-in-the-federal-death-penalty-uncovering-the-key-role-of-geography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2011\/02\/racial-disparities-in-the-federal-death-penalty-uncovering-the-key-role-of-geography\/","title":{"rendered":"Racial Disparities in the Federal Death Penalty: Uncovering the Key Role of Geography"},"content":{"rendered":"

The federal death penalty is plagued by two important types of disparity. \u00a0One is racial: as of last year, nearly half of federal death row inmates (28 of 57) were black. \u00a0The other is geographic: out of the 94 federal districts, just 16 have produced 75 percent of the death sentences, and\u00a0nine have produced nearly half. \u00a0Although both disparities have been much commented on separately, it seems they are actually connected. \u00a0Or so argue G. Ben Cohen and Robert J. Smith in an interesting new paper, \u201cThe Racial Geography of the Federal Death Penalty,\u201d 85 Wash. L. Rev. 425 (2010).<\/a><\/p>\n

Their thesis is simply stated. \u00a0A vastly disproportionate number of federal death sentences come from counties with high minority populations that are located in districts that are heavily white overall. \u00a0Think diverse urban cores surrounded by lily-white suburbs. \u00a0Given that federal juries are typically drawn from the entire district, this means that capital trials in these districts are apt to involve minority defendants being judged by white-dominated juries. \u00a0Having minimal racial diversity on the jury means that black defendants have little protection from the unconscious racial biases that most of us carry around.\u00a0 This, in turn, drives both the racial and geographic disparities in federal death sentences.<\/p>\n

The patterns are striking.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

For instance, both federal districts in Missouri display the racial demographics that are of interest to Cohen and Smith (racially diverse urban county surrounded by heavily white suburban counties), and Missouri has returned more federal death sentences than New York, California, and Florida combined<\/em> (p. 436). \u00a0In fact, Cohen and Smith contend that all eight of the districts that have returned more than two federal death sentences exhibit pronounced county-district racial disparities.<\/p>\n

By contrast, the three districts in which it has been hardest for the feds to get a death sentence are all majority-minority: District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Southern District of New York.\u00a0\u00a0“These three federal districts account for 55 of the 460 death-authorized cases but are not responsible for a single death sentence” (465). \u00a0Expanding the view to the ten districts in which it has been hardest to get a death sentence, eight have “similar demographic profiles between the federal district and the most populous county.”<\/p>\n

Cohen and Smith have uncovered a fascinating pattern, although it surely does not tell the whole story. \u00a0What about the Eastern District of Wisconsin, for instance? \u00a0While the largest city in the District, Milwaukee, is 37 percent black<\/a>, the District as a whole is only nine percent black<\/a>. \u00a0This disparity would seem to put the District at considerable risk for the racial dynamics that are of concern to Cohen and Smith, but we have no death sentences. \u00a0In fact, the numbers for Milwaukee and the Eastern District of\u00a0Wisconsin are almost identical to the numbers for Kansas City and the Western District of Missouri, which leads the nation in federal death sentences.<\/p>\n

Indeed, while I haven\u2019t cranked the numbers, I strongly suspect there are a great many other death-free districts with similar profiles to these two. \u00a0High county-district racial disparities may be necessary for federal death sentences, but\u00a0I doubt they are\u00a0sufficient.<\/p>\n

Even at that, what Cohen and Smith have uncovered should heighten concerns about the role of racial bias in the administration of the federal death penalty. \u00a0For that reason, their reform proposals (especially drawing the venire for federal capital trials from the county of the offense, as federal law mandated prior to the Civil War) deserve attention.<\/p>\n

I wonder, too, if the race-geography dynamics they have uncovered are apparent more broadly in federal criminal trials. \u00a0If racial bias is a problem in capital trials in some districts, why would it not also be a problem in noncapital trials? \u00a0As federal law enforcement has become more oriented to responding to street crime, which is really a local problem, it makes sense for federal juries to be drawn on a more local basis, too.<\/p>\n

Cross posted at Life Sentences Blog.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The federal death penalty is plagued by two important types of disparity. \u00a0One is racial: as of last year, nearly half of federal death row inmates (28 of 57) were black. \u00a0The other is geographic: out of the 94 federal districts, just 16 have produced 75 percent of the death sentences, and\u00a0nine have produced nearly 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