McCleskey v. Kemp (1987) was a 5-4 US Supreme Court decision that upheld a death sentence for War... more McCleskey v. Kemp (1987) was a 5-4 US Supreme Court decision that upheld a death sentence for Warren McCleskey, rejecting the claim that statistical evidence of racial bias in sentencing could prove an individual’s death sentence unconstitutional. McCleskey was an African American man sentenced to death in Georgia for killing a white police officer, Frank Schlatt, during an armed robbery. McCleskey, represented by the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDF), challenged his death sentence arguing that Georgia’s death penalty was racially biased and thus, violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment and the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection of the law. The Court accepted the sophisticated statistical evidence of a racially biased administration of justice in Georgia, but found that McCleskey could not demonstrate conscious, deliberate bias in his individual case and that racial disparities in sentencing were “an inevitable part of our criminal justice system.” This latter finding has led legal scholars and advocates to condemn the decision, comparing it to Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) which denied persons of African descent the protections of the US Constitution. Below we discuss the decision and its racial consequences for American legal jurisprudence and equality.
The United States is one of the most diverse multiracial, multiethnic democracies in the world. D... more The United States is one of the most diverse multiracial, multiethnic democracies in the world. Despite this diversity, there are vast disparities in education, housing, employment, wealth, poverty, health, and mortality among Americans divided by race, ethnicity, class, and gender. As the United States incarcerates more of its population than any other nation in the world, these disparities have a profound impact on citizens of color as we will discuss below.
McCleskey v. Kemp (1987) was a 5-4 US Supreme Court decision that upheld a death sentence for War... more McCleskey v. Kemp (1987) was a 5-4 US Supreme Court decision that upheld a death sentence for Warren McCleskey, rejecting the claim that statistical evidence of racial bias in sentencing could prove an individual’s death sentence unconstitutional. McCleskey was an African American man sentenced to death in Georgia for killing a white police officer, Frank Schlatt, during an armed robbery. McCleskey, represented by the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDF), challenged his death sentence arguing that Georgia’s death penalty was racially biased and thus, violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment and the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection of the law. The Court accepted the sophisticated statistical evidence of a racially biased administration of justice in Georgia, but found that McCleskey could not demonstrate conscious, deliberate bias in his individual case and that racial disparities in sentencing were “an inevitable part of our criminal justice system.” This latter finding has led legal scholars and advocates to condemn the decision, comparing it to Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) which denied persons of African descent the protections of the US Constitution. Below we discuss the decision and its racial consequences for American legal jurisprudence and equality.
The United States is one of the most diverse multiracial, multiethnic democracies in the world. D... more The United States is one of the most diverse multiracial, multiethnic democracies in the world. Despite this diversity, there are vast disparities in education, housing, employment, wealth, poverty, health, and mortality among Americans divided by race, ethnicity, class, and gender. As the United States incarcerates more of its population than any other nation in the world, these disparities have a profound impact on citizens of color as we will discuss below.
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