CJ202 Final Questions

CJ302 Final Exam

1. What is your response to the argument that the death penalty is disproportionately imposed on minorities and the poor? Consider the following: What was the finding of the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of McCleskey v. Kemp, and how has this case changed the approach used by defense attorneys in capital cases? Finally, state your opinion on the Supreme Courts’ holdings in McCleskey v. Kemp.

The death penalty is the ultimate punishment for a criminal offender but as with other aspects of the criminal justice system there is a potential bias for the minority. In fact critics of the death penalty find the death penalty is disproportionately imposed on minorities and they would be correct. It is a well known fact there are more minorities on death row and in fact in some states the difference in minorities and non minorities on death row is significant. For example in Texas 70% of criminal offenders on death row are minorities (Dieter, 2013). The problem is in Texas minorities make up less than 25% of the entire population.

In the case of McCleskey v. Kemp, McClesky claimed based on a quantitative study conducted by Professor David Baldus of the University of Iowa Law School the Georgia's death penalty is racially biased. The Supreme Court ruled the claim made by McCleksy was too broad and any racial discrimination must apply to his individual case with actors in the criminal justice system violating his constitutional rights. Based on this ruling a criminal defendant cannot claim a system-wide pattern of racial disparity but must instead prove a specific actor involved in their case caused the constitutional violation. This ruling is wrong because it is far more important to recognize a system-wide pattern of racial disparity.

Dieter, R. (2013). The Death Penalty in Black and White: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides. Retrieved June 26, 2013 from http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-penalty-black-and-white-who-lives-who-dies-who-decides

2. Name at least three unintended consequences of an ever-increasing prison population? Give concrete examples of each. Discuss the political and social effects of these consequences. Are they acceptable? Explain your reasoning.

America currently has the largest prison population in the world and as a result the prisons are extremely overcrowded. When prisons are overcrowded there is no room for criminal offenders. The prison will have to get creative in housing the criminal offender. In some cases prison inmates are warehoused in the common areas of the prison or they are crammed into two man cells (Howard, 2002). One consequence from the overcrowding is a reduction in safety for both the inmate and prison guard. The overcrowding makes it difficult for prison staff to properly control prisoners making their job more difficult.

The second consequence is poor living conditions. When prisons are overcrowded the correctional system just struggles to house the inmates. Providing medical care or mental health care becomes impossible and prisoners are forced to suffer in poor living conditions. When there is a large prison population there will be a lack of sufficient funding. The last consequence of prison overcrowding is the need to release dangerous criminal offenders back into society early in order to relieve the crowding. The result of prison overcrowding is the taxpayer is forced to pay for a large prison population but a lack of funding results in a lack of sufficient staff to properly supervise the growing population.

Howard, J. (2002). The Effects of Prison Overcrowding. Retrieved June 26, 2013 from

http://www.patrickcrusade.org/EFFECTS_OF_OVERCROWDING.html

3. Identify and describe at least three ways the criminal justice system operates to allow for an overrepresentation of African Americans and Latinos/as in the prisons. Be sure and give one example involving the police, one involving the courts, and one involving corrections.

The criminal justice system has been accused of being discriminatory and biased towards minorities. One way the criminal justice system operates to allow for an overrepresentation of African Americans and Latinos/as in the prisons is through racial profiling. Police are often times accused of selecting criminal suspects in society based on their race or ethnicity instead of a reasonable suspicion they are engaging in criminal behavior. The result is a high number of minorities coming into contact with police. In the courts the overrepresentation of African Americans and Latinos in prison is the result of bias by members of the court. For example since prosecutors decide over 90% of cases through plea deals any overrepresentation is there fault. Lastly in corrections parole boards are far more likely to release non minorities early over the minority increasing the minority population.

4. African Americans and Latinos/as are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. Discuss the social and political consequences of this fact

When African Americans and Latinos/as are overrepresented in the criminal justice system the system is not equal and it is not fair. It also results in the development of stereotypes that all minorities are criminals which will further exasperate the problem. Instead of being looked at as regular people the minority is labeled a criminal. This creates a vicious cycle of police viewing the minority suspiciously resulting in more minority arrests. Also when minorities are labeled criminal by society they will display the behavior society expects. This results in more minorities being involved in crime. This also allows the non minority to get way with crimes because police are too busy focusing on the minority citizen. The result is racial disparities in every aspects of the criminal justice process and a lack of opportunity for the minority to make positive changes in their lives.

Jennings, V. (2012). The Overrepresentation of Young Black Males within Correctional

Institutions. Retrieved June 26, 2013 from

http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/Content/getdoc/c5852b0d-04b7-4c22-9f90-a65412f12f14/cohen

5. The method by which someone is executed in the United States has changed over time. Identify at least 3 methods and place them in temporal order. Why does the method change? Why does the method matter? Does changing the method address any of the arguments that surround capital punishment?

In America the death penalty has a long history. From the beginning Americans have embraced the idea of executing citizens for crimes but over time the method used has changed. In colonial times the most common form of execution was hanging but criminals could also be burned to death. By the end of the 19th Century the firing squad began to become a common way to execute criminal offenders. Five shooters would line up and take aim at the offender. During this time and colonial times there were many different reasons a criminal offender could be executed. In current society a criminal can only be executed if they are found guilty of capital murder.

Next was the electric chair, developed by Thomas Edison. This method was popular until 1972 along with the gas chamber (Robillard, 2010). Lastly in the 1970’s lethal injection was developed as a more humane way to execute prisoners. The methods of execution changed as people in society deemed a method in humane. Hangings resulted in botched attempts to execute resulting in the development of a new method. This was the firing squad but because it appeared more likely murder to shoot inmates many states switched to the electric chair. The problem with the electric chair was the corpses were burnt up and the smell during the execution was terrible. The lethal injection is the most commonly applied execution method in modern America.

Robillard, K. (2010). A history of execution methods in the United States. Retrieved June 26,

2013 from http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/galleries/2010/06/16/methods-of-execute