There are a few topics that when people are asked their stance on them, their responses can be quite passionate and can stir up a debate amongst a group of individuals. The death penalty is often a touchy subject and has sparked conversations and debates in the past regarding the justness and constitutionality of this particular policy within the criminal justice system. I chose to research and write about this particular policy because it is one that, in my opinion, holds the largest impact and can inflict the greatest damage to society. Whether people are for it or against it, it is a discussion that needs to be continued because the public needs to know the consequences and the impact this policy carries when it comes to intersections such
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This is shown by responses on polls differing depending on how the particular question is framed. There are some public opinion polls on views regarding the death penalty that consist of leading questions that are meant to influence the public’s responses. Stated in a journal article by Peffley and Hurwitz, as a whole… “people feel strongly about the death penalty, know little about it, and feel no need to know more” … (Persuasion and Resistance: Race and the Death Penalty in America, 2007). This creates a huge problem when it comes down to discrimination and inequality regarding intersections, whether it be of race, class, or …show more content…
Taken from an article published in 2015,
“Black people have suffered not only disparate treatment as alleged perpetrators and victims of capital crimes under facially neutral capital studies, but also explicit racial discrimination under antebellum capital statutes that varied in their application based on the racial status of victims and perpetrators” (Steiker & Steiker, The American Death Penalty and the (In)Visibility of Race).
Not only have African Americans been demonized by the criminal justice system and been assigned deplorable stereotypes by the mass media, but they have also been discriminated against by the Supreme Court in the way of the issue being disregarded. Evidence of this comes from a campaign during the 1960s and 1970s directed by the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund opposing the death penalty which the Supreme Court reportedly ignored and the racism that has flooded the history of the death penalty was swept off to the side. (Steiker & Steiker, 2015).
Minorities, especially African Americans, have been overrepresented and victimized in the system and by the system for a good few
This is shown by responses on polls differing depending on how the particular question is framed. There are some public opinion polls on views regarding the death penalty that consist of leading questions that are meant to influence the public’s responses. Stated in a journal article by Peffley and Hurwitz, as a whole… “people feel strongly about the death penalty, know little about it, and feel no need to know more” … (Persuasion and Resistance: Race and the Death Penalty in America, 2007). This creates a huge problem when it comes down to discrimination and inequality regarding intersections, whether it be of race, class, or …show more content…
Taken from an article published in 2015,
“Black people have suffered not only disparate treatment as alleged perpetrators and victims of capital crimes under facially neutral capital studies, but also explicit racial discrimination under antebellum capital statutes that varied in their application based on the racial status of victims and perpetrators” (Steiker & Steiker, The American Death Penalty and the (In)Visibility of Race).
Not only have African Americans been demonized by the criminal justice system and been assigned deplorable stereotypes by the mass media, but they have also been discriminated against by the Supreme Court in the way of the issue being disregarded. Evidence of this comes from a campaign during the 1960s and 1970s directed by the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund opposing the death penalty which the Supreme Court reportedly ignored and the racism that has flooded the history of the death penalty was swept off to the side. (Steiker & Steiker, 2015).
Minorities, especially African Americans, have been overrepresented and victimized in the system and by the system for a good few