A new study discovered that any convicted murderer in Missouri whose victim was white is seven times more likely to receive the death penalty than murderers with black victims, reported AllGov.com.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that the Missouri criminal justice system so randomly applies the death sentence that it could be unconstitutional. Murderers with white victims are 7 times more likely to be executed than if the victim was black. Murderers whose victims are white females are 14 times more likely to receive the death penalty.
The study also found that less than 40 percent of murder victims are white, but 81 percent of convicted murderers who received the death penalty killed a white person. A person’s locale also influences the likelihood of receiving the death penalty. Someone convicted of murder in St. Louis County, where Ferguson is located and has a large black population, is three times more likely to receive the death penalty than someone from another county. If convicted in the City of St. Louis, the person is 13 times more likely to be executed.
This racial disparity isn’t exclusive to the state of Missouri. It’s prevalent across the entire country. Black people are arrested at a higher rate than white people for the same crimes. There’s still an epidemic of racism in America.
