Racial Bias
Print
E-Mail
Share
Racial discrimination remains a dominant feature of criminal justice in the United States and Alabama. More than half of the over 3300 people on death row nationwide are people of color; nearly 42% are African American. Prominent researchers have demonstrated that a defendant is more likely to get the death penalty if the victim is white than if the victim is black. The key decision makers in death penalty cases across the country are almost exclusively white. Despite decades of evidence showing that the administration of the death penalty is permeated with racial bias, courts and legislatures’ refusal to address race in any comprehensive way reveals a fundamental flaw in America’s justice system.
Each year in Alabama, nearly 65% of all murders involve black victims, yet 80% of the people currently awaiting execution in Alabama were convicted of crimes in which the victims were white. Only 6% of all murders in Alabama involve black defendants and white victims, but over 60% of black death row prisoners have been sentenced for killing someone white.
Although black people in Alabama constitute 27% of the total population, none of the 19 appellate court judges and only one of the 42 elected District Attorneys in Alabama is black. Nearly 63% of the Alabama prison population is black. The State of Alabama disenfranchises more of its citizens as a result of criminal convictions than any other state in the country.
EJI litigates on behalf of criminal defendants whose convictions have been unlawfully obtained on the basis of racial discrimination. In the last ten years, 23 capital cases in Alabama have been reversed after it was proven that prosecutors illegally excluded black people from jury service.
News
Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection Remains Widespread, According to New EJI Study
June 22, 2010Update: Civil rights leaders, community organizations, and policymakers are responding to EJI's report calling for enforcement of anti-discrimination law in jury selection.
Nearly 135 years after Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to eliminate racial discrimination in jury selection, people of color continue to be excluded from jury service because of their race, especially in serious criminal trials and death penalty cases. EJI on June 1, 2010, released a new report, “Illegal Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection: A Continuing Legacy,” which is the most comprehensive study of racial bias in jury selection since the United States Supreme Court tried to limit the practice in Batson v. Kentucky in 1986.
EJI Honors George Kendall and Thomas Sager and Celebrates the Release of Diane Jones
March 25, 2010
EJI staff with honoree Diane Jones, second from left.
On March 23, 2010, EJI honored George Kendall, Director of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey's Public Service Initiative, and Thomas Sager, general counsel of the DuPont Company and DuPont's legal department, with its Equal Justice Award. The second annual award event celebrated the triumph of Diane Jones, the first woman in Alabama to be released from Tutwiler Prison after being sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Alabama Supreme Court Reverses Death Penalty Case After Finding Evidence of Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection
December 7, 2009On December 4, 2009, the Alabama Supreme Court reversed the case of Jason Sharp, who was sentenced to death following a trial tainted by the State's discrimination against African Americans during jury selection.
New North Carolina Law Aims to Combat Race Bias in Death Penalty
August 12, 2009On August 11, 2009, North Carolina Governor Beverly Purdue signed into law the Racial Justice Act. The legislation recognizes the potential for racial bias in the administration of the death penalty and seeks to limit the influence of race-based discrimination in capital cases.
EJI Honors Kenneth Frazier and Randy Hertz and Celebrates the Release of Bo Cochran and Phillip Shaw
April 7, 2009
Kenneth Frazier (left) won the release of James "Bo" Cochran, who spent 19 years on Alabama's death row for a crime he did not commit.
"Death In Dixie"
New film featuring former First Lady Rosalynn Carter explores race and the death penalty and profiles three Alabama wrongful conviction cases. Watch the preview and purchase the DVD.
Racial Discrimination and Jury Selection
Fact sheet on race and the impact of racial discrimination on juries.
Coming Soon
"Race to Execution"
EJI worked with Emmy Award-winning film maker Rachel Lyon on “Race to Execution,” a documentary that explores the relationship between race and capital punishment in the United States. The film examines the case of an Alabama inmate for whom EJI tried to provide last-minute assistance. EJI distributed information about this important new documentary, which aired on PBS television on March 27, 2007.
Bryan Stevenson on Race and the Death Penalty
Video excerpt of EJI Director Bryan Stevenson’s speech on the death penalty at The New School in New York in April 2007.