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Prosecutor Wants More Death in Mississippi

By TChris, Section Death Penalty
Posted on Thu Jun 05, 2008 at 01:23:02 PM EST
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Robert Smith, the district attorney of Hinds County, Mississippi, dismisses concerns that the death penalty is disproportionately imposed on nonwhite offenders. His evidence?

"I've visited Parchman [a maximum security prison]. It was when I was with the public defenders office and we toured death row, and I saw a lot of white guys," he said.

Well, if he saw "a lot of white guys," the system must be fair, right? Apparently he didn't notice the black guys.

Of the 64 inmates on death row now, 32 are black, 31 are white and one is Asian, according to the Mississippi Department of Corrections' Web site.

The actual evidence that the death penalty disproportionately burdens nonwhite offenders contradicts the conclusions drawn by the DA after his stroll through death row. Smith's insistence that the death penalty is an effective crime deterrent is similarly based on perception rather than facts. (more ...)

Robert Shuler Smith said Wednesday he believes the death penalty is a crime deterrent. There have been 29 homicides in Jackson this year; there had been 18 at this time last year.

"If someone thinks that you can commit murder in Hinds County and either walk away from the crime or not face the death penalty, I believe that weakens the strength of our laws," he said. "The death penalty should be imposed more frequently or more often."

The death penalty has rarely been sought in Hinds County. The lower homicide rate in years past should be enough to persuade Smith that there's no correlation between crime rates and the use of the death penalty. If he wants to have an informed opinion rather than spouting knee-jerk rhetoric, he should start here.

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    Prosecutor Wants More Death in Mississippi | 5 comments (5 topical)

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    Of the 64 DP inmates (5.00 / 1) (#1)
    by JSN on Thu Jun 05, 2008 at 02:51:08 PM EST
    one would expect 23 White females and 23 White males, 4 Black females and 4 Black males and 1 Asian female and 1 Asian male for the Mississippi population demographics.

    Is this the result of a Mississippi criminal justice system (CJS) malfunction or is it that criminal behavior is not uniformly distributed by age, gender and race/ethnicity?

    My guess is that there is institutional racism in the Mississippi CJS and that Black and White males are more likely to engage in criminal behavior than all females and Asian males.

    To test for institutional racism you have to look at arrest rates by gender and race/ethnicity for first degree murder and compare those rates to DP sentencing rates.  

    It is common to find that the Black arrest rates for violent crimes  are much larger than White arrest rates for the same crimes and that has to be taken into account in making the comparison.

    One of the  signs of institutional racism is a high  geographical concentration of DP sentences.

    typical (none / 0) (#2)
    by coigue on Thu Jun 05, 2008 at 05:10:33 PM EST
    the death penalty is popular but it is so shameful.

    well, in fairness to mr. smith, (none / 0) (#3)
    by cpinva on Fri Jun 06, 2008 at 04:08:25 AM EST
    execution will deter at least one person from committing any more crimes. as to anyone else, i've yet to see any empirical data linking lower crime rates with increased application of the death penalty. i'm not sure there's even a statistically valid way of measuring that.

    however, it will help decrease the surplus population.

    Mississippi demographics (none / 0) (#4)
    by Plexix on Fri Jun 06, 2008 at 09:57:51 AM EST
    JSN -

    Please check your figures again.  Mississippi's black population is around 37%, which means of 64 inmates, you would expect about 23 of them to be
    black, not the 8 that you suggest.  

    You are correct I took the number for the US colum (none / 0) (#5)
    by JSN on Fri Jun 06, 2008 at 11:05:51 AM EST
    The correct expected distribution is 39 White, 24 Black and less
    than 1 Asian.

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    Prosecutor Wants More Death in Mississippi | 5 comments (5 topical)

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