Because I found today's guest lecturer so interesting, I am sorry we did not have hours and hours to continue discussing what our guest said and how everyone reacted to what she said (and how I (over?)reacted to how others reacted). Fortunately, we can and should continue these dialogues via this blog (and here people can (and should?) even feel free to post comments anonymously).
To the extent that persons are interesting in some data on the intersection of gender issues and the death penalty, this link at the Death Penalty Information Center provides lots of details about notably few women offenders have been set to death row and executed in the United States in the modern era.
As for the significance of the victim's gender, this recent study states that its "examination of prosecutorial and jury decision making reveals that although victim gender has little impact on prosecutorial decisions, it has a meaningful impact on jury decisions." However, this slightly older article, which is focused particularly on Ohio cases, reports findings indicating "that homicides with white female victims were more likely to result in death sentences than other victim race-gender dyads."
So, comment away…
Sentencing Class @ OSU Moritz College of Law 
5 responses to “A place for more (gendered?) reactions and comments on the death penalty”
The only thing i wanted to talk about, but didnt get a chance to, is when she something – but I dont recall the context in which she said it. Anyway – she said something to the effect of “these people (referring to those on death row) are really deeply troubled people.” It was something like that – basically it seemed to be a generalization that all people on death row were crazy.
At the end of class, we were kinda talking about how the coroner-sex-with-dead-girl story proved that there are innocent (or at least partially innocent) people on death row.
Anyway – my point is – i think it was a hard generalization to say that all people on death row are crazy because (1) they may not be guilty and (2) they may have killed for a reason other than being crazy. I dont know – while I have traditionally been okay with the death penalty – that generalization just struck me as strong.
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In my somewhat limited experience with criminal justice and sentencing issues during my internship at the Ohio Criminal Sentencing Commission, one topic that has frequently come up is the amount of criminals with mental health issues. My understanding is that a lot of criminals, particularly those who commit more outrageous crimes, tend to have mental health problems. I tried to find some research on this online and the best links wanted me to pay for their journal articles. Maybe someone else knows of a good link? I would like to know what percentage of criminals have these issues.
Anyway, I have heard anecdotal evidence that a substantial percentage of criminals have mental health issues. No doubt some of them are completely sane. But even they might be “deeply troubled” by the fact that they killed people.
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Before former AG/Dean Rogers spoke, Prof. Berman said something in the vein of people should be doubtful of others when they say they did not have a choice of whether to do something (implying that people always have some choice). I found it interesting, with this notion in mind, that one of the first things Prof. Rogers said in her speech dealt with how the people making decisions in government are all operating under an oath they take to the government and not necessarily following there personal beliefs. Theoretically, oen could be skepitcal of this comment, oath or not oath the choices that government officials make are theirs to make, and if they choose to follow an oath in favor of personal beliefs this is an implied value judgement (favoring teh govt. system in general over their beliefs in a certain situation). This being said, I know that if I was in her situation I would likely be making the same exact type of statement.
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The evidence for bias supports death penalty sentencing guidelines. Notwithstanding Scalia’s wrongful, and unlawful attacks on them in a series of five cases. All death penalty decisions should be automated. Judges are enforcers for the criminal cult enterprise that is the lawyer profession. They are totally biased criminal coddlers, who cannot pronounce the word, victim. Biased, criminal lover judges are the biggest threat to victims.
Black and male murder victims (the V word, the word no lawyer can say out loud) should get the same protection as others. The police does not show up. They don’t try hard to investigate. Prosecutors and defense lawyers do that assembly line thing they do when the murderer is caught. These murderers should be executed as often as they are with other victims. Lawyer gets murdered, or a worthless, damaging judge, the media explodes. Top investigators swarm all over. A couple of days pass, and the beaten suspect is paraded to the media. Unless, they kill a privileged victim, black criminals are lawyer privileged and protected because they generate massive lawyer employment. They cannot even be verbally abused in prison without lawyers suing people.
One automatic death penalty decision should follow conviction for insurrection against the Constitution. That would take out the lawyer hierarchy, all 15,000 of them. That would end the social and economic problems of this country. It’s OK, no one here is on that list.
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Shawn: Try these links to get you started. The predominant diagnosis is antisocial personality disorder. That means the person is selfish, lacks compassion, has little or no fear of physical danger, and is not deterred by the 50% murder rate before age 30 of the criminal lifestyle. The psychoses in this group are mostly drug induced and disappear with a period of abstention.
Paranoid schizophrenics murder 2000 people a year, as at V Tech U.
A nice overall review with references:
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/294626-overview
A specific Finnish study, a country without our social problems.
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/reprint/154/6/840
Black folks do not have any higher rate of any psychiatric diagnosis, nor of antisocial personality, nor, you will be surprised, of substance abuse (a bit lower than that of whites due to less money). Their very high rates of crime victimization has to be explained. They have less police protection, and have crime herded into their neighborhoods. The criminals attacking them get less punishment.
The black folks in my neighborhood, a lawyer neighborhood, have no victimization at all. When someone did not get the message and tries to pull something, three police cars show up in 2 minutes. College educated police emerge with guns drawn, blasting. The death penalty is on site. No civil rights or excessive force litigation where the lawyer lives.
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