News
Dashay Berry-Purnell - Student Scholars Day
April 11, 2018
Title: Similar Crime, Different Color: A Look at Race, the Death Penalty, Childhood-Past & Clemency Reports
Type: Oral and/or Visual Presentation
Abstract
Researchers have long known that racism plagues the death penalty. However, little research has been done on how race matters in the context of death penalty appeals. This study seeks to fill that gap by qualitatively analyzing clemency reports issued for Black and White offenders sentenced to death. Specifically, I explored how race was communicated in the findings of the clemency boards. I found that clemency reports mentioned the significance of one’s childhood past much more commonly for Black offenders than Whites. Moreover, when a Black offender’s upbringing was discussed, reports used coded racism, drawing heavily from problematic ideologies of the “pathological” Black family, plus coded racism in turns equal a cycle of institutional racism. The contribution of this study is to show yet another way in which the cycle of institutional racism is perpetuated in capital punishment, thus providing a stronger case for the abolishment of the death penalty.