Sentencing Project 

EVIDENCE OF RACIAL BIAS IN TEXAS DEATH PENALTY CASES

Under Texas’s death penalty statute, juries may impose a death sentence only if they find that the defendant poses a future danger. As evidence that Duane Buck was a “future danger,” prosecutors elicited testimony that African Americans, like Mr. Buck, are more likely to commit future acts of violence. In September 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court halted Mr. Buck’s execution in light of arguments that his death sentence was racially influenced. His lawyers have petitioned the court to grant him a new hearing.

Mr. Buck was sentenced to death in Harris County, Texas. In their latest filing, his attorneys cite evidence of a history of racial bias and discrimination in Harris County’s schools, its political system, and its court systems. They also cite research showing that at the time Mr. Buck was sentenced to death, all else being equal, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office was three times more likely to seek the death penalty for African Americans than for whites in similar cases and that juries were twice as likely to impose the death penalty in cases involving blacks. 

RACIAL IMPACT STATEMENT LEGISLATION IN ARKANSAS AND OREGON

A bill is pending in Arkansas that would require a racial impact statement for any legislation that creates a new criminal offense; changes an existing offense or penalty for an existing offense; or changes existing sentencing, parole or probation procedures.  Similar legislation has also been introduced in Oregon.

In 2008, Iowa became the first state to pass a law of this kind. The premise behind racial impact statements is that policies often have unintended consequences that are best addressed before a policy is adopted. They can be likened to fiscal or environmental impact statements. Racial impact statements are particularly important in the case of criminal justice policy because of how difficult it is to reverse sentencing policies once they have been enacted.

ANOTHER EFFORT TO REPEAL NORTH CAROLINA’S RACIAL JUSTICE ACT

A Senate Judiciary panel in North Carolina recently approved a bill to resume executions after more than six years and to repeal North Carolina’s landmark Racial Justice Act. In its original form, enacted in 2009, the Racial Justice Act made it possible for inmates to have their death sentence commuted to life without parole based on statistical evidence of racial bias. After an unsuccessful attempt to repeal the Act, it was modified to require evidence of racial bias in the specific case under review.

Since the Racial Justice Act was enacted, four African-American death row inmates were resentenced to life without parole after proving that qualified African-Americans were intentionally excluded from their juries. Nearly all persons on North Carolina's death row filed appeals under the Racial Justice Act. Should the current bill to repeal the Racial Justice Act pass, courts will have to decide whether to hear the cases of those who filed appeals under the 2009 version of the law. 

RACIAL DIFFERENCE IN ARRESTS OF NEGLECTED YOUTH

A longitudinal study by Cathy Spatz Widom and colleagues followed groups of white, black, and Hispanic children through adulthood. The outcomes of children in each group who had experienced neglect were compared to those of matched controls of the same group who did not have histories of neglect. The study found that black and white neglected children were at increased risk for being arrested compared to matched controls of the same race. However, blacks who had been neglected were more than twice as likely to be arrested for violence compared to black children in the control group despite the fact that neglected black children were no more likely than their non-neglected counterparts to report violent acts. In contrast, white children who were neglected self-reported engaging in significantly more violence than non-neglected white controls, but were no more likely than white controls to be arrested.

RACIAL DIFFERENCE IN NEIGHBORHOOD ATTAINMENT AFTER INCARCERATION

Past research shows that members of minority groups are more likely than are whites to reside in disadvantaged neighborhoods following release from prison. A new study by Michael Massoglia and others examined whether this simply reflects differences that existed before incarceration. They found that, as a group, the neighborhoods blacks and Hispanics live in after release from prison are no more disadvantaged than the neighborhoods in which they resided prior to incarceration. Whites, on the other hand, lived in significantly more disadvantaged neighborhoods post-incarceration than pre-incarceration. The authors attribute their findings to racial differences in neighborhood inequality. As they explain, white offenders generally enter prison from more advantaged neighborhoods; therefore, they have further to fall in terms of neighborhood conditions.

RACE AND PRE- AND POST-ADJUDICATION OF YOUTH

A study by Michael Lieber examined predictors of pre- and post-adjudication detention for white youth and for black youth. The key finding was that black youth were less likely to be released to the community at early decision-making stages. At judicial disposition, however, black youth were less likely to be detained. The authors suggest that judges may be enacting a bias correction factor.

RACE AND TRAFFIC STOP OUTCOMES

A study by Rob Tillyer and Robin Engel assessed the influence of race on traffic stop outcomes in a Midwestern state. The results show that the combination of being young, black, and male had a stronger association with the increased risk of receiving a warning and with the reduced likelihood of receiving a citation beyond the effects of drivers’ age, race, and gender considered alone. In comparison, being Hispanic was associated with a reduced likelihood of receiving a warning and an increased likelihood of being issued a citation. Race was not significantly associated with the most serious possible outcome of traffic stops – arrest.