OCADP - Initial/Home page

Inequities: Racial & Economic

The death penalty is not applied in any regular manner.
There appears to be no way to discern those death-eligible case in which the death penalty is sought from those in which it is not sought.
1-2% of all death eligible defendants are executed. i]
Nationally, approximately 5.000 homicides each year are death eligible.
1087 murder 1 convictions were obtained in Oklahoma from 1985 through 1999. Only 197 death sentences were given (18.1% of murder 1) [ii]
Evaluation of 28 post-Furman studies indicates that in over half, the race of the defendant affected the decision to charge with a capital crime. [iii]
Same study indicates that race of the victim predicts decision to charge defendant with capital crime. [iv]
Two major problems that low income defendants face in trial:

Jailhouse snitches [v]

Eyewitness testimony - studies prove eyewitness identification is usually not valid and is a poor source of evidence. [vi]
Prior to the 1970s, the government "routinely commuted up to a third of the death sentences that they reviewed." [vii]

Copyright 2001, Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. All rights reserved.

[i] Robert M. Bohm, op cit.

[ii] Calculated from data received from Oklahoma Department of Corrections.

[iii] U. S. General Accounting Office. 1990. Death Penalty Sentencing: Research Indicates Pattern of Racial Disparities. Washington, D. C.: GAO, p. 6

[iv] U. S. General Accounting Office, op cit., p. 5.

[v] Hugh Bedau and Michael Radelet, (1987), "Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases." Stanford Law Review 40:21-79.

[vi] C. Ronald Huff, Arye Rattner, and Edward Sagarin (1986), "Guilty Until Proven Innocent: Wrongful Conviction and Public Policy." Crime & Delinquency 32:518-544.

[vii] David C. Baldus and George Woodworth (1998), "Racial Discrimination and the Death Penalty: An Empirical And Legal Overview." Pp. 384-415 in J. R. Acker, R. M. Bohm, and C. S. Lanier (eds.), America's Experiment with Capital Punishment. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press; Richard C. Dieter (1996), Killing for Votes. Washington, D. C.: DPIC.