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Race and the Death Penalty in Arkansas

By standdown

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports, "Study indicates pattern in sentences."Frank Williams Jr. and the three other people who have been sentenced to death in the judicial district that includes Lafayette County have this in common: All of them are black, and their victims were white. As part of a study commissioned by Williams? attorney, University of Iowa law professor David Baldus examined 124 murder cases filed in the district from 1990 to 2005. He found that, even after adjusting for factors such as the killer?s criminal history and the circumstances of the crime, blacks who killed whites were more likely than others to be charged with capital murder and sentenced to death. ?It suggests to us that there?s a real risk that race may have been a factor in this case,? Baldus said last week...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on September 08, 2008 (boomark / email).