Study Finds a Racial Link to Death Sentences in North Carolina

By FOX BUTTERFIELD Study of death penalty cases in North Carolina in the 1990's hasfound that the odds of getting a death sentence increased three anda half times if the victim was white rather than black."Sadly, this study shows that skin color still plays a major rolein deciding who lives and who dies in our criminal justice system," said Jack Boger, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law and the main author of the study, which was released on Monday.The study examined all 3,990 homicide cases in North Carolina from1993 to 1997.Of the cases in which a death sentence was possible, 11.6 percentof nonwhite defendants charged with murdering white victims weresentenced to death. In contrast, 6.1 percent of whites charged withmurdering whites and 4.7 percent of nonwhites charged withmurdering nonwhites received the death penalty. In North Carolina,the nonwhite category generally refers to blacks and someHispanics.A spokesman for Gov. Michael F. Easley of North Carolina said theissue had nothing to do with his office.A spokesman for Roy Cooper, the North Carolina attorney general,did not return repeated phone calls to his office seeking comment.David Baldus, a professor of law at the University of Iowa, saidthe significance of the new study was that racial disparities foundin the South by studies more than two decades ago still existed.Professor Baldus studied racial disparities in death penalty casesin Georgia from 1973 to 1979. He found that the odds of beingsentenced to death increased 4.3 times when the victim was white, astatistic that he said was very close to the new study's findings.Professor Boger said the new study found the discrimination indeath penalty cases was by prosecutors rather than juries. In fact,he said, what seems to have occurred is not that prosecutors soughtthe death penalty more often for black defendants but that theywere more willing to let defendants plead guilty in exchange for alesser sentence if the victim was black.