Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 26, 2006 16:20:53 GMT -5
2 trials, unsettling outcome
The prosecutor described it as an unfortunate coincidence.
Ray Joseph Dandridge's life sentence last week in the slaying of 3 black
victims -- Percyell and Mary Tucker and Mary's daughter, Ashley
Baskerville contrasted with the death sentence recommended for accomplice
Ricky Javon Gray in the slayings of the Harvey children, Stella and Ruby,
who were white.
But at first glance, Corinna Lain wasn't so sure this was happenstance.
Lain, an assistant professor of law at the University of Richmond, is an
authority on the death penalty. She is well-versed in the historical
racial disparities surrounding capital punishment.
"My initial reaction was, 'Oh my goodness, here's an example of that in
practice," she said Friday. But she has since taken a step back from that
position, "because the closer I look, those 2 trials were different."
Indeed, the prosecution's capital case against Dandridge appeared to be
tenuous. The plea bargain was a safe choice that leaves Dandridge in
prison for life, without hope of parole.
"And notice here that we have a black commonwealth's attorney," Lain said,
referring to Michael N. Herring. "So it seems preposterous to claim that
he believed one group of victims were less worthy than another based on
race."
Unfortunately, the history of capital punishment in America reinforces
that belief.
Concerns about the penalty's fairness led the Supreme Court to strike it
down in 1972. It was reinstated four years later, but inequities remain.
The so-called Baldus study of 2,400 homicide cases in Georgia showed that
cases with white victims were more than 4 times likely to result in
capital punishment than those with black victims, Lain said -- even after
accounting for more than 200 variables. This issue came to a head in
McCleskey vs. Kemp. In this 1987 ruling, the Supreme Court's majority said
it's not enough to show general discrimination; defendants must show
actual bias in their case.
The swing vote was Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. of Richmond, "who later
stated that he regretted his vote in McCleskey," Lain said.
Despite all this, capital punishment remains popular.
According to Lain, support for the death penalty peaked at 80 % in 1994
and is currently at 67 %. Only one segment of the population --
African-Americans -- is under 50 %. Politicians are well-aware of these
numbers. And politics influences capital punishment's application.
"The general feeling is that prosecutors are political beings," Lain said.
"And, unfortunately, there is more public pressure in murder cases when
the victim is white than when the victim is black."
If this is true, you have to wonder if a different decision would have
been made in the Gray case if prosecutors found themselves facing the same
dilemma.
"You can see prosecutors saying, 'You can't plead that,'" Lain said.
They weren't happy to plead the Dandridge case but felt they had no
choice. The result was the maddening inconsistency of application that has
dogged the death penalty.
Instead of closure in one of the most horrific murder rampages in local
history, we're left with a defensive prosecutor, grumbling neighbors and a
vague sense that our criminal-justice system remains too random for
comfort.
This unsatisfying dnouement only reinforces my opposition to the death
penalty.
(source: Michael Paul Williams, Richmond Times-Dispatch)
The prosecutor described it as an unfortunate coincidence.
Ray Joseph Dandridge's life sentence last week in the slaying of 3 black
victims -- Percyell and Mary Tucker and Mary's daughter, Ashley
Baskerville contrasted with the death sentence recommended for accomplice
Ricky Javon Gray in the slayings of the Harvey children, Stella and Ruby,
who were white.
But at first glance, Corinna Lain wasn't so sure this was happenstance.
Lain, an assistant professor of law at the University of Richmond, is an
authority on the death penalty. She is well-versed in the historical
racial disparities surrounding capital punishment.
"My initial reaction was, 'Oh my goodness, here's an example of that in
practice," she said Friday. But she has since taken a step back from that
position, "because the closer I look, those 2 trials were different."
Indeed, the prosecution's capital case against Dandridge appeared to be
tenuous. The plea bargain was a safe choice that leaves Dandridge in
prison for life, without hope of parole.
"And notice here that we have a black commonwealth's attorney," Lain said,
referring to Michael N. Herring. "So it seems preposterous to claim that
he believed one group of victims were less worthy than another based on
race."
Unfortunately, the history of capital punishment in America reinforces
that belief.
Concerns about the penalty's fairness led the Supreme Court to strike it
down in 1972. It was reinstated four years later, but inequities remain.
The so-called Baldus study of 2,400 homicide cases in Georgia showed that
cases with white victims were more than 4 times likely to result in
capital punishment than those with black victims, Lain said -- even after
accounting for more than 200 variables. This issue came to a head in
McCleskey vs. Kemp. In this 1987 ruling, the Supreme Court's majority said
it's not enough to show general discrimination; defendants must show
actual bias in their case.
The swing vote was Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. of Richmond, "who later
stated that he regretted his vote in McCleskey," Lain said.
Despite all this, capital punishment remains popular.
According to Lain, support for the death penalty peaked at 80 % in 1994
and is currently at 67 %. Only one segment of the population --
African-Americans -- is under 50 %. Politicians are well-aware of these
numbers. And politics influences capital punishment's application.
"The general feeling is that prosecutors are political beings," Lain said.
"And, unfortunately, there is more public pressure in murder cases when
the victim is white than when the victim is black."
If this is true, you have to wonder if a different decision would have
been made in the Gray case if prosecutors found themselves facing the same
dilemma.
"You can see prosecutors saying, 'You can't plead that,'" Lain said.
They weren't happy to plead the Dandridge case but felt they had no
choice. The result was the maddening inconsistency of application that has
dogged the death penalty.
Instead of closure in one of the most horrific murder rampages in local
history, we're left with a defensive prosecutor, grumbling neighbors and a
vague sense that our criminal-justice system remains too random for
comfort.
This unsatisfying dnouement only reinforces my opposition to the death
penalty.
(source: Michael Paul Williams, Richmond Times-Dispatch)