America is a product of its past, says David Jacobs a professor of Sociology at the Ohio State University. What he is speaking of is the link between lynching and the death penalty. It seems that when he and his group looked at the actual number of lynchings per state they found that it directly correlates to the amount of African American males actually being put to death.
As he starts explaining his findings from his study, “Death sentences linked to history of lynching in states”, Jacobs states that the results might be shocking, except that I have known this all along so was I surprised, not one bit. “Our results suggest that the death penalty has become a sort of legal replacement for the lynchings in the past,” Jacobs said. “This hasn’t been done overtly, and probably no one has consciously made such a decision. But the results show a clear connection.” The only problem I have is I think that people in the legal system have to know that this system we count on to bring justice to criminals the country over is inherently racist
So the study shows that the states with the highest lynchings in the past have the highest number of blacks being put to death now, so I can surmise that the modern day death penalty when dealing with blacks is just another means of lynching our brothers. Ten southern states were of course with the highest rates. They showed that the death sentence numbers increased after an increase in the black population and showed that as soon as the population threshold was down to 20 to 22 percent the sentences tapered off. Sounds like black population control.
Another of his studies “Blacks who kill whites are most likely to be executed” showed that those blacks getting death sentences also increased if the victim was white but decreased if the victim was a minority. Also, when whites killed minorities they were less likely to get death. So it would seem that the judicial system places a higher value on the lives of whites versus their minority counterparts. But, yet again this does not surprise me as the judicial system has been screwed up since blacks were first introduced to it. Since nothing has changed that would ensure blacks a fair racist free trial I don’t see any end to this fiasco.
I have had a conversation about the judicial system before and heard a proposal that made absolute sense to me. The proposal was that we take the people out of the trial; you don’t get to see defendants or victims. How that works is the trial is actually done without the jury and everything is on transcript. Once the transcript is ready a jury reads it without any mention of race sexual orientation, religion, etc. unless it is an extremely important part of the trial such as hate crimes etc. So the jury can’t make any preconceived notions about anyone and they can just render a judgment.
I thought that it made sense; you can’t say that race etc. was a factor if no one knows any of those incidentals. Then the true verdicts can be rendered free of bias. I know first hand that preconceived notions can harm verdicts. I was on a jury once and everyone found this person who happened to be black not guilty except one man who agreed that the crime probably had not been committed but he felt that this second year college student who had never been in any trouble before probably had committed crimes that no one new about and this was our chance to make him pay. What! I told him that it didn’t matter what he might or might not have done, we were there to decide a verdict on a particular crime which he did not commit so the case is closed, but he could not live with that, and yes it was a hung jury due to that fool. Yet, you hear time and time again that racism is dead. Nevertheless here it is again biting blacks on trial whether they committed crimes or not right in the ass.
19 Comments
August 10, 2007 at 2:49 pm
I am here to testify! The law enforcement system, the justice system, and our legislature system is so heavily skewed in white people’s favor and against black people it doesn’t make sense. I never thought to see the correlation between lynchings of the past to executions of today. But now I can see the connection as if it was a high energy laser beam aimed straight at my corneas. This is the type of stuff we will learn and see as long as we study and remember the history of black people’s relationship with white people. Those who are doomed to forget are destined to repeat.
Peace
August 12, 2007 at 8:26 am
[...] Black Sentinel just put up an article entitled Death Penalty Becomes the New Lynching. In this article the author points out a connection between the states with a history of lynching [...]
April 16, 2008 at 11:04 am
Racism is still a problem, but people will not admit it. we cannot possibly just hoarde evidance on either side, or all the work of many people would be wasted. if we continue to search for reasons to hate one another, we will surely find some. But when it comes down to it, we’re all human, an ought to treat one another as such.
I hope that this will happen someday.
May 19, 2008 at 11:33 pm
this is stupid i hate the death penelty
May 23, 2008 at 5:38 am
More white people have been executed via. the death penalty than black people.
May 23, 2008 at 11:45 am
Maybe despite all the propaganda that says black people are more violent, more white people actually deserve the death penalty than black people.
Peace
May 23, 2008 at 11:57 am
anonymous,
The point of the post is not or was not to point fingers as to who gets executed more often. This post was to let people see the correlation between lynching and the death penalty. You obviously only read into the post what you wanted.
I am showing people that the states with the highest rates of lynching now have the highest rates of death penalties for blacks. And I guess all you can worry about is that white people are being put to death at a slightly higher rate than blacks.
I guess it doesn’t matter to you that whites commit a higher number of crimes yet still don’t exceed the number of blacks in prison. Nope all you can hear is that someone is complaining about blacks being lynched by the penal system. I guess I should be writing posts about white men who were not being lynched at the rate of blacks and their woes with the legal system.
If that is what you want to hear about then I think you need to write that post yourself since I have written about what I would like to have people learn about.
Thanks for the reply.
August 31, 2008 at 3:44 am
So, the justice system is naturally racist then? It has nothing to do with the possibility that blacks just simply commit more death penalty-deserving crime, does it?
August 31, 2008 at 11:46 am
Snesgamer,
If you go and read the report done by the DOJ or department of justice. They explain how the DOJ is biased. The bias comes from the fact that the DOJ was founded during a time when the climate and conditions were to target minorities.
Not to mention that the department has NOT changed much and still overwhelmingly targets minorities. If you still have a majority of one race controlling who does and does not get prosecuted like the DOJ says, you will constantly have bias.
The DOJ showed in the study that black people are ten times more likely to be sentenced with prison time or death than a white person having committed the same exact crime. This bias is a large reason why prisons are so overpopulated with minorities. But I guess bias has never entered your mind when looking at the justice system, right?
They said they have not tried nor figured out a way to try and conquer the bias. So I guess your answer is YES and that comes from the DOJ themselves.
Thank you for the reply.
December 18, 2008 at 1:25 am
I’m sorry, but this is completely illogical. Lynching is not related to Modern Day Death Penalty. Have you read laws regarding it? Apparently not, because the laws require very specific things in those states and race is not one of the qualifications. It is just wrong to believe that people are getting executed due to race, but rather child rape and murder. Personally, it sounds like the felons that were executed that just so happened to be black committed TERRIBLE crimes and just needed to be punished. Don’t blame the penal code for a certain part of a demographic being executed more often than an other.
Also, just like to point this out: Blacks are not nearly as close to Whites when comparing statistics, but do you hear me writing stories about White lynching? No. You don’t.
December 18, 2008 at 1:53 am
MiniMoose147,
What is illogical is to think that lynching or racist views actually follow laws at all. The study did not say that they were taking prisoners out back and hanging them in trees. The first thing to do is to actually read the post in order to see the correlation that had been made. I guess I can summarize it for you. It was a University study which showed that the states with the highest amount of lynchings now have the highest amount of black men being put to death.
No one is blaming the penal system. Although even the Dept. of Justice admitted in a study that the justice system is flawed with racism and has no idea how to fix it. You might want to take a little gander over there and check that out before you start crying about how many blacks are committing those terrible crimes. Not to mention white people commit more crimes on the DOJ yet are less likely to do time. Yep, that sounds fair.
Anyhow, if you wanted to do a story about white people being lynched, be my guess. I would probably love to see what angle you write it from. But don’t read a post about lynching if you don’t want to hear about lynching. And again before you start spouting anything about statistics take yourself to the DOJ and get the actual numbers first. Because it is obvious that you have NO CLUE.
Thanks
March 26, 2009 at 2:05 pm
The problem with comparing lynching to the death penalty is obvious: people who were lynched were not guilty of crimes. People who are executed are. People who were lynched had not trial. People who are executed do. People who were lynched were done so by a mob, and mobs inherently lack rational thought. People who are executed are done so by a jury, after the incident at hand, and after emotions have cooled to allow rational thought into the judgement.
Certainly there is evidence that racism exists in the system, but with all respect for the passion of the blacksentinel to end those injustices, this is an area where your emotion appears to have gotten the better of your rational side (the same can be said of most of the posts your have responded against, but that is no reason for you to do the same).
Purporting that executions and lynchings are the same does several harmful things for African-American rights. First, it diminishes the image of what those lynchings really were. It allows other Americans to assume that, like the criminals who are executed, those who were lynched might have had it coming to. This is OBVIOUSLY not the case, but your argument opens that door. Second, it suggests that African-Americans support other African-Americans who legitimately commit horrific crimes simply because they are black. Third, it brings people with good intentions down to the level of racists: your arguments are both based on faulty logic and emotion rather than reason.
There are many reasons to oppose the death penalty on race-based reasons, but to argue that the death penalty is a replacement for lynching is simply wrong. The states who you state, accurately, that execute the most black people are the same states that lynched the most people. True. But correlation does not explain causation. These are also the states that execute the most white people, and they never once lynched a white person. These are also the states that happen to be the most conservative, and conservatives everywhere, whether racist or not, tend to support the death penalty.
If you want the legitimate complaints that African-Americans have about the death penalty and its racist implications to be taken seriously, I suggest you stop bringing up less legitimate, irrational complaints that just don’t hold up logically. It gives the other side too much ammunition against you.
March 26, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Mattd,
I didn’t come up with this concept, I explained that I read a piece on the death penalty and lynching. I was just giving the information to the readers and let them look at it to see whether they agreed or not. And in fact a lot of people who are placed on death row might or might not have committed crimes. In case you didn’t know there are a LOT of people in prison who have committed NO crimes whatsoever. They slowly trickle out and get their five minutes on 20/20.
Also, I agree that the people who were lynched were killed by a mob who weren’t thinking straight. But the same can be said about the lynch mob mentality of the criminal justice system. I have sat on a jury with a guy actually said that he just couldn’t vote not guilty because he knew that the black guy who was accused PROBABLY had done some crime even though we all agreed he did NOT do this one. How is that any different than a crazy lynch mob mentality who says that this black guy may have done something, I mean he IS black isn’t he?
So in many respects things are the same. They are only sanctioned by law now. Also, is it a coincidence that the black death row rate mimics that of lynchings in states? I read the piece and could see the correlation. I understand if you see differently as that is part of life. We all have our own thoughts and see things in different ways. But, you can admit there is racism in the criminal justice system then turn around and say that the racists implications about the death penalty i.e. part of the criminal justice system can’t be taken seriously. And remember what is legitimate to you may NOT be legitimate to me or someone else. So next time make your business NOT to tell me what is or isn’t legitimate to blacks or myself.
Thanks.
April 14, 2009 at 2:49 am
You, obviously, have a biased opinion. That’s not a good thing to have in this attempt at an article or whatever this is suppose to be. You should have kept this with facts, strictly with facts and not your whole “pitty us, we get executed more often than whites(which is not true, whites beat you by like 3%)” or the whole calling into action your “brothers.” It just makes your arguement seem like it’s only for black people, which does definitely make you sound biased.
When you talk about percent of race on death row, you have to take into account the percent that said race takes up in america. As of 2007, whites are 80%, blacks are 12.8%, American Indian and Alaska Native’s are 1%, Asians are 4.4%, People of Hispanic or Latino origin are 15.1%.
Let’s look at the whites and black. The percent of whites in death row is 45, blacks are 42. That means about 36 whites are in death row compared to about 5-6 blacks. The new lynching method for getting rid of blacks? Obviously not. Get over this whole pathetic racist crap. Everybody, yes EVERYBODY, is prejudice, not a racist.
April 14, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Kiley, Kiley, Kiley,
You claim I have a biased view, AND YOU DON’T! Shame on you. Obviously you didn’t read the post or it was a bit over your head. I never said that blacks were put to death MORE than whites. The post in case you missed it, and it is obvious you did, is about the fact that the states with the highest lynching numbers ALSO have the highest death penalty rates for blacks.
Of course whites SHOULD account for more numbers in prison as well as with the death penalty since they have a higher crime rate. But, we see that doesn’t always hold true, now does it. And I don’t know what bullshit you are talking about with this “calling my ‘brothers’ to action. You need to stow that shit right there. Not to mention again but it bears repeating, LEARN TO READ. I was doing a post on an article NOT my original idea. You give me way to much credit. But those who can’t seem to read usually make up their own conclusions anyway.
And like I’ve said before about people like you, your opinion is free because it is worthless.
Thanks but no thanks.
April 14, 2009 at 9:17 pm
My opinion is NOT worthless. And you’re right, I didn’t finish the article because it was full of bull and BIASED OPINIONS. You only looked at one side.
“so I can surmise that the modern day death penalty when dealing with blacks is just another means of lynching our brothers. Ten southern states were of course with the highest rates. They showed that the death sentence numbers increased after an increase in the black population and showed that as soon as the population threshold was down to 20 to 22 percent the sentences tapered off. Sounds like black population control.”
Yeah, that whole section right there, is bull. I DON’T have a biased view because I really don’t care if someone is white, black, blue, or green, if they commit a heinous enough crime, they should be put away for life, yes life in prison with no chance of parole because the death penalty is a violation of your rights as an American citizen.
Now, back to the topic at hand:
“But, yet again this does not surprise me as the judicial system has been screwed up since blacks were first introduced to it. Since nothing has changed that would ensure blacks a fair racist free trial I don’t see any end to this fiasco.”
Do you really think we have a FAIR judicial system. NO. It’s not just unfair to black people, it’s unfair to almost everybody except for rich people because they can afford proper and competent lawyers. And women have less of a chance of being convicted of a crime then men would if they had committed the same crime! It’s unfair to everybody, you can’t try and pin it on one specific race.
“I was on a jury once and everyone found this person who happened to be black not guilty except one man who agreed that the crime probably had not been committed but he felt that this second year college student who had never been in any trouble before probably had committed crimes that no one new about and this was our chance to make him pay. What! I told him that it didn’t matter what he might or might not have done, we were there to decide a verdict on a particular crime which he did not commit so the case is closed, but he could not live with that, and yes it was a hung jury due to that fool. Yet, you hear time and time again that racism is dead. Nevertheless here it is again biting blacks on trial whether they committed crimes or not right in the ass.”
Yes, there ARE idiots out there that think like that, you can blame this man for possibly destroying the life of the young man in this trial but you can’t blame him for this type of mindset. The media does NOT portray blacks in a good way. They have TV shows, movies, and even rap songs sung by black people that talk about gang violence, rape, and other various things. This gives people a pre-conceived image of a group of people, and it’s very hard to change the way someone thinks. I know that not all black people and minorities are in gangs and that they do not support that type of life style, and I know that there are just as many white people, way more than the minorities, committing crimes. I know. Rock and metal bands and their fans are looked down upon as being satanic and violent because half the rock/metal bands sing about violent things or just sound violent, even worse than any rap song I’ve ever heard. They are thought to be satan worshiping soon-to-be murderers. It’s just a fact that there will always be someone that will judge other people based on what others do. I know this wasn’t your original idea but you don’t disagree with it.
Well, now I’ve finished the article and I still think it’s biased. I don’t think badly of you, if that’s what you think, quite frankly I just like to see what others think and then I enjoy arguing with them to see if they can back it up and still be a good sport about it. You have to take critisism in stride, you didn’t do too well that post. Let’s be better next time. Can’t wait to see if you reply.
April 14, 2009 at 9:42 pm
**YAWN**
Your right I did only look at one side of the story and guess what, THAT IS MY RIGHT AS A BLOGGER. If you have another side you want to have sported then by all means write your own damn blog with that information. Like I said before, because it is obvious you didn’t read the reply either, I wrote a post regarding a study I read. DO YOU UNDERSTAND? A study that was written by SOMEONE ELSE. I just put it out there for others to see and come to THEIR OWN CONCLUSIONS.
I am NOT here to be your brains nor to read for YOU! If you are going to complain about the biased positions then by all means go where you feel that your side is being told, you don’t have to stay. Enough said. Oh, and I still think your opinion, views and comments are worthless. But, isn’t that biased and my opinion? Just like you telling me that my post is bull and whatever else is YOUR BIASED OPINION? See you don’t have to make a big leap to be considered biased. So please don’t keep on with it, as it is getting you nowhere and will get you trashed if you see fit to continue sending me the same crap as before.
Thanks but no thanks.
April 22, 2009 at 5:22 pm
I highly disagree that the death penalty is racist; the fact is that inner city blacks commit up to seven times the amount of murders than whites, and other minorities combined. In fact if you exclude the “black murders” from the statistics America would have a lower murder rate than some European countries such as Germany. Naturally if Black people commit more murders than the conviction and the capital punishment rate would be higher. This researched is skewed as it does not take into count that more crimes are committed by intercity blacks. While the rate for the capital punishment may be higher for them, I highly doubt that it is seven times higher to make up for the increased murder rate.
April 22, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Jacob,
I don’t rightly care first of all. But, why don’t you enlighten us all on where you got those (out of your ass) statistics that say that blacks commit seven times the amount of murders than whites? Or all other minorities combined. Because the last time I checked whites committed the most crime in America. But I guess you mean per capita as if that overrides all other numbers.
OH, in case you were wondering MORE whites are put to death in America. The post wasn’t about who did more crime or who is put to death more. You should TRY READING the post before you comment, as this would be helpful for a dialog about the post. So, put your phony numbers back into your ass, and go get your facts straight and then maybe we can communicate.
Thanks but no thanks to stupidity and phony numbers.