Process
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Highlights
id596988517
In 1987, the Supreme Court considered a case involving the racial disparities in the infliction of the death penalty in Georgia. The evidence in that case showed that if the victim in the case was white, there was a much greater likelihood death would be imposed if the defendant was Black, and if you had a case, like the one that was before the court, involving a black defendant accused and convicted of a crime against the white victim, the likelihood was much greater that you would get the death penalty. It was a very close case, with the majority opinion five to four. Justice Powell wrote for the majority: if we deal with racial disparities in the infliction of the death penalty, wouldn’t we have to deal with racial disparities in all the other kinds of crimes and the criminal courts? And Justice Brennan, in his dissent, said this was a “fear of too much justice.” That explains a lot of things besides just the tolerance of racial discrimination, not only in the death penalty but in jury selection and other kinds of cases. Our argument is that that’s what the court should be doing. We should be dealing with those issues and deciding them rather than being afraid to tackle them.
✏️ This quickly speaks to how ingrained systemic racism is in the US. The Supreme Court disregards racial concerns in death penalty cases because it would mean having to consider racial disparities in all crimes, not just death penalty ones. A fear of too much justice. 👓 injustice racism 🔗 View Highlight