Sarah A. El Sayed, D. Boots, James W. Marquart, S. Sanford
{"title":"Death in Dallas: Sentencing patterns of pre-Furman capital offenders","authors":"Sarah A. El Sayed, D. Boots, James W. Marquart, S. Sanford","doi":"10.1080/15377938.2020.1729921","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Whether racial bias is intertwined with capital case dispositions continue to be a matter of contention. In 1972, Furman v. Georgia ruled capital punishment unconstitutional on the grounds of being capricious and arbitrary. To better understand this sociological phenomenon, the current paper examines capital punishment within a historical context. Specifically, the present study is an exploratory examination of county-level data consisting of offenders who received a death sentence between 1923 through 1972. Media accounts from a Dallas newspaper during that time period were also examined. Results indicate that Blacks were disproportionately sentenced to death compared to their White counterparts. Capital sentencing trends at the county level reflect national trends of racial bias that characterized this historical period.","PeriodicalId":45166,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2020-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/15377938.2020.1729921","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15377938.2020.1729921","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"CRIMINOLOGY & PENOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract Whether racial bias is intertwined with capital case dispositions continue to be a matter of contention. In 1972, Furman v. Georgia ruled capital punishment unconstitutional on the grounds of being capricious and arbitrary. To better understand this sociological phenomenon, the current paper examines capital punishment within a historical context. Specifically, the present study is an exploratory examination of county-level data consisting of offenders who received a death sentence between 1923 through 1972. Media accounts from a Dallas newspaper during that time period were also examined. Results indicate that Blacks were disproportionately sentenced to death compared to their White counterparts. Capital sentencing trends at the county level reflect national trends of racial bias that characterized this historical period.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice explores the prejudice that currently affects our judicial system, our courts, our prisons, and our neighborhoods all around the world. This unique multidisciplinary journal is the only publication that focuses exclusively on crime, criminal justice, and ethnicity/race. Here you"ll find insightful commentaries, position papers, and examinations of new and existing legislation by scholars and professionals committed to the study of ethnicity and criminal justice. In addition, the Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice presents the latest empirical findings, theoretical discussion, and research on social and criminal justice issues.