NCJ Number
116429
Journal
New England Journal on Criminal and Civil Confinement Volume: 14 Issue: 2 Dated: (Summer 1988) Pages: 351-377
Date Published
1988
Length
27 pages
Annotation
In its decision in McCleskey v. Kemp in 1987, the United States Supreme Court ignored its obligations under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution and left intact Georgia's racially disparate system of sentencing in capital cases.
Abstract
The Court upheld the death sentence of McCleskey, a black man convicted of the murder of a white police officer in May 1978. In his Federal action for habeas corpus relief, McCleskey alleged that the Georgia capital sentencing process was administered in a racially discriminatory manner and that this discrimination resulted in the violation of his Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. To support his theory, McClesky offered the Baldus study. This comprehensive statistical study analyzed data on more than 2,000 murder cases in Georgia in the 1970's. The data showed a striking disparity in the imposition of the death sentence based on the victim's race and, to a lesser extent, the offender's race. Unadjusted for mitigating or aggravating factors of several types, the data showed that offenders killing white victims were 11 times more likely to receive a death sentence than those killing black victims. In addition, black murderers of whites received death sentences nearly three times as often as white murderers of whites. These data, coupled with Georgia's history of racial discrimination and the finality of the death penalty, obligated the Supreme Court to protect McClesky from a death sentence tainted by racial animus. The Court failed to meet its obligation, however. Tables and 171 footnotes.