A Journey Through Blogging: Analysis

The nature of the different parts of racism towards blacks in America is complicated as is the relationship between the parts.Even the term "black" people is relatively new and some might feel that African-American is more appropriate, which I now agree with the latter term. The term African-American is more "politically correct." No matter what you refer to these people as, the point is that they are sentenced to the death penally at statistically disproportional rate.
For inspiration I looked to quotes from the late Martin Luther King Jr. His injustice quote, was the one I found that stood most relevant. Martin Luther King Jr. saw these problems first hand during the civil rights movement, a time when racial tension was at its highest. Content towards African-Americans then, and throughout history, is the root of this problem.
I then had to address the distinction between racism being a social issue and not a biological issue. A social issue is created by society. This social injustice was addressed by one of my colleagues, kelly , in her blog.
The McCleskey v. Kemp case provides substantial evidence to support my case that African-Americans are treated unfairly. The "raw numbers" were collected by Professor Baldus for his article entitled "Equal Justice and the Death Penalty." "The Baldus Study" indicate that defendants charged with killing white persons received the death penalty in 11% of the cases, but defendants charged with killing blacks received the death penalty in only 1% of the cases. Baldus also noted that "the raw numbers also indicate a reverse racial disparity according to the race of the defendant: 4% of the black defendants received the death penalty, as opposed to 7% of the white defendants." These statistics provided support for my position.
After reading about these studies I looked into any measures that would resolve these issues, in order to see this issue with more unbiasedness, and maybe see this issue in a different light. DNA testing is believed by many to eliminate any claims to racism in death penalty cases. DNA evidence is very accurate and sophisticated crime scene analysis provide clear information. This seemed like a viable answer, but does DNA evidence protect against racial bias any better?
Then I realized, the real unanswered what rights are we protecting in the first place? What specific constituional rights were these courts in volation of? I saw that it was the 14th amendment that entitled all people to have "equal protection under the law."
I stumbled on the "Racial Justice Act" and before the McCeskey v Kemp case and after it. This act was proposed as the "Racial Justice Act of 1990" before, but not until a similar case came up in Kentucky did the Georgia ruling in the McCeskey V Kemp case change. This act supported my view, and felt that it protected
against racial bias.
This isn't to say that racial bias is the only problem with the death penalty. There is the differences in the support of the death penalty by different races, or Why White People Support the Death Penalty?do. Imran points out that there are other elements, such as economic and social status, that are involved. He also notes the injustices that we watched in the documentary film Paradise Lost: the Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. This proves that theres all kinds of problems with the death penalty, and that racial issues are just a specific issue.Without socioeconomic problems, what many feel was the West Memphis 3 mistrial, could not have happened.

The overall process in researching for this blog involved learning about different analysis on racial disparities in legal cases, and then putting the parts together to form a thesis..I feel that race in criminal justice system should be further studied because there should be more information made available on this topic. Some interesting research is being made that suggests that one day the death penalty will be abolished.