The relationship between race and capital punishment in the United States has been studied extensively. As of 2014, 42% of those on death row in the United States were black. However, this is an under-representation relative to the proportion of convicted murderers; 52.5% of all homicide offenders between 1980 and 2008 were black. According to the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Reports, between the early 1960s and the late 1970s, the rate of homicides doubled. For every 100,000 U.S residents, the homicide victim rate elevated from 4.6 to 9.7. The homicide victim rate per 100,000 U.S. residents has heightened at 10.2 in 1980 and dropped in 1984 to 7.9. In 1992, homicide victim rate decreased drastically again from 9.3 to 4.8 in 2010. Since 1999 the rate of homicide victims have retained a steady range. The number of homicides peaked at 24,703 in 1991 and then dwindled to 15,522 in 1999. The rate of homicides consistently elevated between the years of 1950 and 1970. Since 1999 the rate of homicide victims have retained a steady range. In 1999, the rates were at 15,552 and slowly increased to 17,030. In comparison to the 24,703 disclosed in 1991, these numbers have gradually declined and become more consistent.
Baldus studies
In 1983, David Baldus co-authored a study that found that capital punishment in Georgia since the decision in Furman v. Georgia was handed down 1972 had been applied unevenly across race. Specifically, his and his colleagues' study found that only 15 out of 246 murder cases where the victim was black resulted in a death sentence, as compared with 85 out of 348 of such cases when the victim was white. This study led to Warren McCleskey's death sentence being challenged due to allegations that it was racially biased. Those allegations resulted in the Supreme Court's 1987 decision in McCleskey v. Kemp that statistical evidence of bias in the criminal justice system is insufficient to overturn an individual's sentence. In 1998, Baldus published another study which concluded that black defendants in certain types of murder cases in Philadelphia were almost four times as likely to be sentenced to death than were their white counterparts.
Kleck
In 1981, Gary Kleck published a literature review that declared that all states, except the Southern United States, found that African Americans were less likely than white Americans to be sentenced to death or executed. The review also found that cases with black victims were less likely than those with white victims to result in the death sentence, possibly as a result of the devaluing of black crime victims.
Radelet
A 1981 study by Michael Radelet found that murder cases involving white victims were more likely to result in a death sentence than were those involving black victims, mainly because those accused of murdering whites were more likely to be indicted for first-degree murder. The same study found that after controlling for the race of the victim, there was no clear evidence that the race of the defendant predicted how likely they were to receive a death sentence.
A 1988 study by Sheldon Ekland-Olson found that in the first decade after Furman, criminal cases in Texas involving white victims were more likely to result in a death sentence than those involving either black or Hispanic victims.
A 1990 Government Accountability Office analysis of 28 studies, in 82% of these studies, found that murder cases with white victims were more likely than those with black victims to result in a death sentence. The report described this relationship as "remarkably consistent across data sets, states, data collection methods, and analytic techniques."
Sorensen & Wallace
A 1995 study by Jonathan Sorensen and Donald H. Wallace found evidence of a racial bias in capital punishment in Missouri, mainly in regards to the race of the victim. The study found that cases with white victims were more likely to result in death sentences, and that cases with black victims were less likely to result in such sentences. The study also reported that these disparities were largest when "prosecutors and jurors are freed from the seriousness of the cases to consider other factors." A 1999 study by the same authors found that murder cases with black defendants and white victims were more likely than those with any other combination of defendant and victim races to "result in first-degree murder charges, to be served notice of aggravating circumstances, and to proceed to capital trial."
Eberhardt
A 2006 study led by Jennifer Eberhardt found that even after numerous other factors were controlled for, defendants who looked more stereotypically black in death penalty cases with white victims were more likely to be sentenced to death. People tend to see Black physical traits as directly related to criminality. The synthesis supported a strong race of victim influence.
Alesina and La Ferrara
A 2014 study by Alberto Alesina and Eliana La Ferrara found evidence of racial bias in capital sentencing in that error rates tended to be higher in capital cases involving minority defendants and white victims. However, this pattern was only seen in Southern states.
