Trotter Institute Review

24 Pages·1991·1.5 MB·English

by  William Monroe Trotter Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston

Trotter review.
v. 5, no. 3 (1991 Autumn)
Periodicals
E185.86 .T77
OF MASS/BOSTON
UNIV.
Joseph P. Healey Library
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Volume Number 3
5,
Fall 1991
INSIDE
• 3 Crime, Drugs, and Race
Review
Wornie Reed Trotter Institute
L.
• 6 African-Americans and the Editor
Administration of Justice Wornie L Reed
Yvonne Moss
E.
Production Editor
• 11 Trends in Homicide Among Linda Kluz
F.
African-Americans
Wornie L. Reed Copy Editor
Suzanne M. Baker
• 18 Blacks in Bridge
Wornie Reed
L.
• 21 Sports Notes
Wornie L Reed
The Trotter Institute Review Is published quarterly by the William Monroe Trotter Institute, Uni-
versity of Massachusetts at Boston, Boston, MA 02125-3393. Subscriptions are $6.00 per year
for individuals and $12 per year for institutions. Opinions expressed herein are those of the
authors, orpersons interviewed, andare notnecessarilysharedby the University orthe editors.
©
Copyright 1991 The William Monroe Trotter Institute. ISSN 1040-6573
Crime, Drugs,
and Race
by
Wornie Reed
L.
The crime and criminal record statistics of black
Americans are frightening; and they keep getting
worse. Blacks represent 12% of the population of
the United States, yet:
• 40% of death row inmates are black;
• 50, or 43% of persons executed in the 1980s
were black;
• Blacks are 42% ofthe jail population and 45%
of the state and federal prison population;
• Blacks are 31% of arrestees;
• Blacks are 49% ofall murder and nonnegligent
homicide victims;
• Black males in the United States are incarcer-
ated at a rate four times higher than black males
-
in South Africa 3,109 per 100,000 in the popu-
lation compared to 729; and
eighths white would add 0.875 to the white and
• In 1986, the total number of black men of all
0.125 to the Negro categories; each person
ages in college was 426,000, whilethe number of
three-quarters white would add 0.75 to the
black men between the ages of 20 and 29 under
white and 0.25 to the Negro categories; the
the control ofthe criminaljustice system (incar-
equally mixed, 0.5 to each category, etc.2
cerated, on parole, or on probation) was
609,690/ Melville Herskovits estimated that of all persons
classified as Negro, almost 15% were more white
These figures, ofcourse, give us pause. Yet, it must than black, approximately 25% were equally white
be kept in mind that none of these figures demon- and black, approximately 32% were more black
strates that blacks as a race are more prone to crime. 6%
than white, and approximately were black mixed
Rather, the figures show that the average black per-
with Indian, leaving about 22% unmixed.3 Hersko-
son in the United States is more likely than the aver- vits thus concluded that about 40% of persons
age white person to be so situated in the social struc-
classified as blacks are more white than black or at
ture that he or she is more likely to be involved in least half white, which led Korn and McCorkle to
crime, with an even higher likelihood of being ar- 40%
suggest that almost of offenders contributing
rested, convicted, and imprisoned.
to the total of "Negro" crime are either half or more
For persons who tend to assume that the relatively
than half white, and that corrections of the totals of
high rate of black participation in the criminal jus-
Negro offenders would have the effect of redistri-
tice system is because of nature, or genetics, instead buting a very considerable number of criminals
of the social environment or social conditions, an
from the black to the white side of the ledger.4
arithmetic exercise may be instructive. Korn and
Of course, it is evident that we cannot determine
McCorkle reminded us that such racial determinism
the accuracy of such estimations of racial mixture.
must take into consideration racial mixture:
The point is, however, that even such a simplistic
[A]ny valid racial study of criminality should exercise should force us away from considerations of
apportion the criminality of these [racially racial determinism as an explanation for the differ-
mixed] groups under both white and Negro entials in crime statistics and toward examinations
—
categories. Thus, in figuring the totals ofwhite of social factors community dynamics as well as
and Negro offenders, unmixed whites and un- social structure. It should be clear that cultural, ex-
mixed Negroes would count as one (1.0) for periential, and other environmental factors are rele-
each racial category; every person seven- vant. Such factors, of course, include antiblack bias
by the community, police, prosecutors, judges, and are some seven times more whites than blacks in the
juries (see related article by Moss in this issue). country, an equitable distribution ofimages of drug
Illegal Drug Use
Table 2
Blacks are also seen as being disproportionately Lifetime, Annual, and Thirty-Day Prevalence of Drug
involved in drugs. A common image of black urban Use by Race, High School Senior Class of 1988
communities is that they are places of high crime
Race
and illegal drug activity. Daily media reports propo-
White Black
— —
gate if not create this image because most ofthe Approximate Weighted N: 11,900 2,000
individuals covered in these activities in the news
Marijuana/Hashish
media are black. Data shown in tables 1 and 2 indi- Lifetime 49.9% 36.6%
cate quite clearlythat thereis asignificant differenc—e Annual 36.2 19.7
between the actual criminal activity of blacks 30-Day 19.9 9.8
especially drug use—and public perception.
Table 1, for instance, shows that black males do Inhalants
not differ very much from white males in overall illi- Lifetime 18.5 8.4
cit drug use; nor do black females differ much from Annual 7.5 2.9
white females. Whites, in fact, have a higher rate of 30-Day 2.9 1.8
illegal drug use than blacks until the age of35. After
Cocaine
the age of 35 black rates exceed white rates. The
Lifetime 12.8 6.4
same comparisons obtain in the use of cocaine spe-
Annual 8.4 3.7
cifically. And, as table 2 exhibits, white high school
30-Day 3.7 1.4
students also use drugs at higher rates than do black
students. Only with heroin use does black student
"Crack"
use exceed the reported use by white students. Lifetime 4.8 3.4
Annual 3.1 2.6
Table 1 30-Day 1.5 1.3
Percentage of Illicit Drug Use by Age, Sex, and Race
Other Cocaine
Any Illicit Drug Use, Ever Cocaine Use, Ever Lifetime 12.8 5.2
Age/Sex White Black White Black
Annual 7.8 2.1
Total 37.8 37.2 12.4 9.9 30-Day 3.2 1.5
Male 42.4 44.5 16.0 14.8
Female 33.6 31.0 9.0 5.7 Heroin
Lifetime 1.1 1.4
12-17 years 30.7 24.4 5.1 2.9 Annual 0.4 0.8
Male 31.2 28.7 6.2 4.5 30-Day 0.2 0.5
Female 30.3 20.1 4.0 1.2
Alcohol
18-25 years 69.1 55.1 28.3 13.4 Lifetime 94.2 84.4
Male 68.6 62.1 31.8 16.3 Annual 89.0 69.9
Female 69.5 49.0 24.8 11.0 30-Day 69.5 40.9
26-34 years 65.9 56.3 27.0 17.2 Cigarettes
Male 73.8 61.4 33.3 23.5 Lifetime 68.9 54.3
Female 58.2 52.0 20.9 11.7 30-Day 32.3 12.8
Source: National InstituteofDrugAbuse. (1989). DrugAbuseAmong
35+ years 20.3 25.2 4.0 7.6 Racial/EthnicMinorities. Washington, DC: Author.
Male 24.9 34.5 6.8 14.1
Female 16.4 17.9 1.6 2.4
Source: National Institute of Drug Abuse. (1986). 1985 National
Household Survey on Drug Abuse: Population Estimates. users in the media would dictate up to seven times
Washington, DC: Author.
more whites than blacks.
These illegal drug use data contrast sharply with Drugs and crime are two major scourges in U.S.
both the image consistently put forth by media re- society in general and in black communities in par-
ports and with the apparent activity of law enforce- ticular. As we attempt to solvetheseproblems it is vi-
ment officials, each of which appears to focus on tally important to have accurate data. Perhaps the
blacks and the black community. Since whites use il- information presented in this article can help in that
legal drugs at least as much as blacks and since there endeavor.
References 3. Herskovits, M. J. (1930). The Anthropometry of the American
Negro. New York: Columbia University Press.
1. These statistics are taken from the following sources: Garwood, A. 4. Korn & McCorkle. (1959). CriminologyandPenology.
N. (1991). Black Americans: A Statistical Sourcebook. Boulder, CO:
NumbersandConcepts; Horton, C. P., & Smith, J. C. (1990). Statistical
RecordofBlackAmerica. NewYork: GaleResearch;and Hoskins, L. A.
(1991, April). InstituteforAfricanAmericanAffairsNewsletter, 15 (3).
Kent, OH: Kent State University. Wornie L. Reed, Ph.D., is director of the William Monroe Trotter
2. Korn, R. R.,&McCorkle, L. W. (1959). CriminologyandPenology. Institute and chair of the Black Studies Department at the Uni-
New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. P. 231. versity of Massachusetts at Boston.
Announcement
Wornie L. Reed will be leaving the William Monroe Trotter Institute September 1, 1991,
to become director of the new Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Education and the
Urban Child at Cleveland State University. Under his leadership the Trotter Institute has be-
come a nationally known resource on black political, social, cultural, and economic issues. He
will be missed, and we wish him much success in his new position.
We are pleased to announce that James Jennings, professor of political science and di-
rector of the Trotter Institute's Community Research and Technical Assistance Program, has
agreed to serve as interim director of the Trotter Institute.
Americans and
African
the Administration
of Justice
by
Yvonne Moss
E.
with
Roy Austin, Nolan Jones,
Barry A. Krisberg, Hubert G. Locke,
Michael L Radelet, and Susan Welch
This article is reprintedfrom Summary, Volume 1
Americans inits police, courts, and correctionalpol-
of the Assessment of the Status of African-Ameri-
cans series, publishedin 1990by the William Monroe icies, it must move to eliminate all vestiges of racial
bias from the administration of justice. To aid in
TrotterInstitute, University ofMassachusettsatBos-
that process, scholars composing the studygroup on
ton, and edited by Wornie L. Reed. Materials in-
the administration of justice have closely examined
cluded in the article were adaptedfrom papers sub-
mittedbymembersoftheAssessmentoftheStatusof the existing literature, made assessments of con-
temporary practices, and produced an evaluation of
African-AmericansStudy Group on PoliticalPartici-
pation and the Administration ofJustice. criminaljustice that identifies those areas where dis-
crimination abounds.
The status of African Americans in relationship
Capital Punishment
to the administration of justice has improved since
the 1940s. Significantly, however, researchers con- One of the areas of concern is the unequal appli-
tinue to find racial discrimination and racial disad- cation ofthe death penalty. Between 1930 and 1967,
vantage operating in various aspects of the criminal 3,586 people were executed. Over half of those ex-
justiceprocess in numerousjurisdictions. Such find- ecuted for murder and 92% of those executed for
ings are unacceptable in a society that claims to rape were black Americans. Some scholars attribute
honor equal justice under law. the 1972 Furman decision in part to this overwhel-
Historically, the law, the police, the courts, and mingly disproportionate use of capital punishment.
the prisons have been used as instruments ofoppres- The informal moratorium on executions that began
sion and subordination based on race. When the Su- in 1967 continued for another five years after the
preme Court in its Brown decision1 articulated for Furman decision abolished the death penalty as it
the first time in constitutional history that black was being imposed, because of its arbitrary and dis-
Americans had aright to equal protection ofthe law, criminatory application. That moratorium ended in
it began the process ofrepudiating those historically 1977 after the Supreme Court ruled in Gregg* and
oppressive instruments and began the process of four companion cases that capital punishment was
reconciling black Americans to the institutions of constitutional under certain circumstances.
criminal justice. The Furman decision,2 which out- In the decade between 1977 and 1987, black
lawed the arbitrary and discriminatory use of the Americans continued to represent a higher propor-
death penalty, and the Coker decision,3 which out- tion of those executed than the proportion of black
lawed the use ofthe death penalty in rape cases (over citizens in the population. Of the 70 persons put to
90% of those executed for this crime were black death during those years, 24 were black Americans
men), were moves in the right direction, but dis- (34.3%), 42 were white Americans (60%), and 4
crimination and disadvantage based on race con- were Hispanic (5.7%). Ofthe 1,901 persons on death
tinued to be found in this and other important as- row in 1987, 50.4% were white Americans, 41.4%
pects of criminal justice processing. were African Americans, 5.8% were Hispanics, and
If the nation is to complete the process of recon- 1.4% were native Americans. In spite of all the ef-
ciliation in this area, if it is to win the trust of black forts to make the death penalty statutes more fair
during the last fifteen years, the minority popula- Sentencing
tion on death row has been reduced by less than 1%.
Research on sentencing in categories other than
In capital punishment cases the variable exerting
capital punishment indicates that racial discrimina-
the strongest predictive power in correlation with
tion varies widely across the United States. Despite
sentencing is the race ofthe victim. After controlling
disagreements over the reasons and the significance
for 230 variables, a massive statistical study done in
ofthe findings, researchers agree that black criminal
the McCleskey Kemp case5 demonstrated that de-
v. defendants receive more severe sentences than do
fendants charged with killing whites are 4.3 times as
white defendants. While there should be concern
likely to receive the death penalty as defendants
that studies ofdisparity in sentencing have arrived at
charged with killing blacks. Black defendants
different conclusions on the issue ofracial bias, such
charged with killing whites are sentenced to death
seven times more often than whites who kill blacks. an outcome is expected given the highly decentral-
ized and localized structure of the American judi-
Studies on the use of the death penalty since Gregg
ciary with regard to criminal matters. It should come
indicate that racial disparities in capital sentencing
as no surprise that blacks are discriminated against
remain. Black defendants convicted ofkilling whites
in some jurisdictions but not in others. Most dis-
are more likely to receive the death penalty than any
crimination is found in the South, but not exclu-
others convicted of capital crimes.
sively so. Aggregate studies do not separate men and
women in evaluating outcomes, and this distorts the
In spite ofall the efforts to make the death findings because female defendants are treated less
severely by the courts than are males. Still, reputable
penalty statutes morefair during the lastfifteen studies like the Michigan Felony Sentencing Project8
years, the minority population on death row has and the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commis-
been reduced by less than 1%. sion Study9 provide evidence that race continues to
be a consistent factor in criminal sentencing. These
studies have been used to fashion newjudicial policy
In McCleskey v. Kemp (1987) the Supreme Court natAionnualmlbyearsowfelclonacsluinsiootnhserarsetaetveisd.ent. Black males
considered a petition to overturn a death penalty
are more likely than white males to be sentenced to
conviction in Georgia. The petition was supported
prison. Whites receive the probation option more
by a massive statistical study using sophisticated
often than blacks in similar circumstances. The race
statistical analysis. The study demonstrated that in
ofthe victim is important to understanding how dis-
Georgiathe race ofthe defendant and the race ofthe
crimination gets involved in sentencing. And there
victim were critical variables in the decision to exe-
tends to be more discrimination in the less formal
cute. The court in its ruling acknowledged that that
aspects of the adjudication procedures, including
disparity was proven in the imposition of the death
plea-bargaining, than in the more formal and open
penalty. The justices further acknowleged that this
trial process. This last observation is especially note-
disparity reflected racial bias against black defen-
worthy because over 90% of all cases in most juris-
dants. Nevertheless the court in a five-to-four deci-
dictions do not go to trial. Plea-bargaining is the
sion ruled:
process by which most criminal cases are disposed
[S]uch discrepancies do not violate the Equal of. That most discrimination is found in these less
Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amend- formal aspects ofcriminaljustice processing should
ment. In order to prevail under that Clause, a be the cause of considerable concern. Most ot the
criminal defendant (unlike an employment dis- work in the administration of justice is done in the
crimination plaintiff, for example) must prove less formal, invisible adjudication processes, away
that decisionmakers in this case acted with dis- from public scrutiny.
criminatory purpose.6
Criminal Processing
Reminiscent ofPlessy's 1896 legal justification of
segregation,7 the McCleskey ruling provides a legal Research on discrimination has focused primarily
justification for the discriminatory application of on sentencing, but it now seems clear that race is a
the death penalty. Execution is the most extreme significant factor in previous stages of the process.
form of punishment our nation imposes on its citi- These stages include police treatment of suspects
zens. Giving legal sanction to discrimination in the and arrests, prosecutors' decisions to file or dismiss
application of the death sentence makes a mockery cases, and pretrial treatment of defendants, includ-
of the ideal of equal justice under law, and it moves ing bail procedures. One study of a Houston court
the country backwards to the pre-1967 era when found that prosecutors consistently failed to charge
capital punishment was systematic manifestation of whites with capital crimes against blacks even with
racial oppression. strong evidence. The reason given was that juries
simply would not convict a white person of a capital nority involvement in serious youth crime because
offense against a black person. Rather than lose the black youth are more likely to be arrested and
conviction entirely, prosecutors would charge white charged with more serious crimes than whites en-
defendants who had committed capital crimes gaged in the same activities. The discrepancies be-
against black persons with a lesser offense. Thus ra- tween arrest statistics and incarceration rates have
cialbias as a factor in the final disposition ofa crim- led to concerns about discrimination within the ad-
inal case may be incorporated into a decision calcu- judication phase of criminal processing for
lus atvarious stages ofthe process. The consequence juveniles.
is the same. Contraryto legaltheory, ideals aboutju- Our evaluation of juvenile courts indicates that
dicial process, and common standards of decency minority and poor juveniles have been subjected to
and fairness, race oftentimes is a primary factor in widespread, systematic discrimination. Earlier re-
criminal processing. search efforts that focused on the final disposition
Researchers such as Kleck10 and Wilbanks11 reject of the case, or on one decision point, ignored im-
the hypothesis that widespread and pervasive dis- portant discriminatory factors. The influence of
crimination exists against black people in sentenc- class, race, or gender may be most evident in initial
ing. Their claims are questionable at best. Wilbanks stages of the juvenile court process (detention deci-
uses implication and speculation rather than empiri- sion or screening decision); but as a juvenile be-
cal data to question the findings of racial effects. comes increasingly enmeshed in the judicial system,
Kleck uses an arbitrary classification scheme to ex- the impact of social characteristics is incorporated
clude from his analysis studies that found racial bias into the newly defined process variables, decision
in less than half of the offenses studied. Such intel- outcomes that inform subsequent decisions. Bias is
lectual slights of hand should not be used as an ex- incorporated into initial legal decisions, and final
cuse by policy makers to ignore this vital issue. Ra- disposition, the most commonly examined decision,
cial discrimination will not be found in every state or is the last juncture and the point at which this trans-
every locality in the United States. Yet scholarly formation is most likely to be complete.
studies continueto support the finding ofracial bias
and disadvantage in various jurisdictions through-
out the country. When evidence of racial disadvan- Contrary to legal theory, ideals aboutjudicial
tage and discrimination is uncovered, policy makers process, and common standards ofdecency and
in criminal justice have a responsibility to eradicate fairness, race oftentimes is a primaryfactor in
such bias. One of those areas is juvenile justice.
criminal processing.
Juvenile Justice
Whenjuvenile court decision making is studied as
Minority youth are incarcerated at rates three to
a multiphased process, the following conclusions
four times higher than white youth. The data on the
are evident. Black youths receive more severe dispo-
heavy involvement of minority youth in violent
sitions than white youths. Black youths are much
crime cannot, by itself, explain such high rates ofin-
more likely to be detained prior to a hearing and
carceration. Minority incarcerations in public cor-
rectional facilities increased 26% to 5,035 between somewhat more likely to be handled formally. As
with adults, this is significant since those detained as
1977 and 1982. Black youngsters accounted for al-
well as those handled formally receive more severe
most two-thirds ofthis increase. Concomitantly, the
dispositions. Consequently, early juvenile court de-
number of white youth in public facilities decreased
cisions predispose black youths to more severe final
by 7%. Earlier policies to remove minor offenders
dispositions. One way racial bias operates injuvenile
from confinement mostly benefitted white youth. In
courts is when social characteristics like race get
1982 incarceration rates per 100,000 by race and gen-
transformed into legal variables, and both sets of
der were: 810 (black males); 183 (white males); 481
factors act independently and together to affect the
(Hispanic males); 98 (black females); 38 (white fe-
treatment of black youths in the juvenile justice
males); and 40 (Hispanic females).
system.
The rates of minority incarceration continue to
grow at a faster rate than the confinement of white
Recommendations
youth. The data on minority youth crime are ambig-
uous and contradictory, and thus do not explain the When the situation ofblack Americans in correc-
higher incarceration rates for minority youth. The tional institutions is reviewed, what is immediately
overrepresentation ofminorities in arrest statistics is evident is that the numbers of black Americans in-
not as large as the disproportionate number of mi- carcerated in the country's prisons are immensely
nority youth who are incarcerated. Additionally, the disproportionate to their percentage in the general
arrest statistics may overestimate the extent of mi- U.S. population. Black Americans, together with
smaller percentages of Hispanics, Puerto Ricans, whether racial (or gender or status) discrimination is
and members of other racial minorities, currently acceptable in any jurisdiction, in any aspect of the
constitute the majority of American prisoners.12 In judicial process.
1982, black Americans accounted for approxi- Amid national concern over drugs and violent
mately 12% of the U.S. population and 48% of the crime, the issue of racial bias in criminal proceed-
prison population.13 Black prisoners under the sen- ings may not be considered a priority. However, the
tence of death for capital offenses represent almost respect for law necessary to reduce our crime prob-
one-half of all persons awaiting execution.14 Per- lems is not possible if punishment is perceived to be
haps most alarming ofall, black offenders represent skewed by race. The system loses legitimacy if citi-
the highest percentages in prison populations in zens are punished or not punished because of their
those states where the percentage ofblack citizens in color or the color of their victims, or because of
the general population is low.15 their education and income. Racial disadvantage
and discrimination are unacceptable in any system
of justice that strives both symbolically and sub-
Sensible policy making requires an stantively for fair and impartial treatment of those
acknowledgement ofboth the propensity ofsome accused and fair and effect punishment of those
individuate to commit crime and the capacity of foAund guilty.
wide range ofpolicy options are available to ad-
society to encourage and abet criminality. dress problems of bias when uncovered. These pol-
icy options include:
Although there are arguments over why such
• Increased employment of black persons at all
gross disparities occur, the facts of disproportional-
levels of the criminal justice system;
ity are indisputable. The capacity of our analytic • Bail reform when bail systems are used as pre-
tools may not be sufficient to discern the reasons,
ventive detention for the poor rather than to en-
yet we know what we need to knowto citethe admin-
sure appearance at trial;
istration ofjustice and corrections as a high priority
• Upgrading the quality of defense counsel avail-
for effective policy formulation. Sensible policy
able to indigents with measures such as greater
making requires an acknowledgement of both the
privatization of indigent defense, higher pay,
propensity ofsome individuals to commit crime and and better working conditions of public defen-
the capacity of society to encourage and abet crimi-
der roles, which might include restructuring the
nality. Sober policies and programs are needed that
job;
address both the individual and the societal dimen-
• Establishment of prosecution standards along
sions of the problem with equity and fairness.
with guidelines by which prosecutors are held
The development of policy options needed to
accountable where there is indication of the
eradicate racial bias in corrections, like those needed
abuse of prosecutorial discretion;
in other criminal justice institutions, requires not
• Cultural sensitivity training for criminaljustice
only a concern for eliminating discrimination, but
personnel, including judges;
also a desireto improve the substantive performance
• Guidelines on judicial conduct with respect to
of these institutions in accomplishing the lofty
discriminatory treatment added to those devel-
ideals of their mission. In corrections the policy
oped and monitored by judicial conduct com-
choices for most communities are simple: to con-
missions;
tinue to spend large sums of money to build prisons
• Judicial recruitment that stimulated diversity
and maintain corrections as a growth industry or to on the bench;
spend roughly equal amounts of money to keep 40 • Better training for judges and other criminal
60%
to ofthe incarcerated population out ofprison
justice personnel;
and engaged in socially productive lives. Criticisms • Changes in legal education and professional
ofracial bias made against the criminaljustice proc- practices that encourage the development of
ess are taken by some as evidence that black Ameri- discriminatory attitudes and values; and
cans are "soft on crime." On the contrary, studies of
• Legal scholarship that challenges aspects ofthe
black attitudes on crime and the police reveal that
legal tradition that encourage racism.
black citizens want fair, effective, "tough" law en-
forcement. What they do not want is to be presumed
to be criminal simply because they are black. When
References
considering the status of black Americans and the
administration of justice, the primary question is 1. Brown v. BoardofEducation, Topeka, Kansas, 347 U.S. 483; 98 L.
not whether a uniform indictment or a clean bill of Ed. 873; 74 S. Ct. 686 (1954).
health can be given to American justice with regard 2. Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972).
3. Coker V. Georgia, 433 U.S. 485 (1977).
to racial discrimination. The important question is 4. Gregg v. Georgia, 96 S. Ct. 2950 (1976).
5. McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279 (1987); also see 107 S. Ct. 1756 12. Jacobs,B. (1979). RaceRelationsandthePrisonerSubculture. InN.
(1987). Morris&M. Tonry(eds.), CrimeandJustice:AnAnnualReviewofRe-
6. McCleskey v. Kemp. search. Chicago: University ofChicago Press.
1. Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896). 13. Bureau of Justice Statistics. (1982). Statistics. Washington, DC:
8. Zalman, M., Ostrom, C. W., Jr., Guilliams, P., &Peaslee, G. (1979). U.S. Government Printing Office.
Sentencing in Michigan: Report of the Michigan Felony Sentencing 14. Bureau of Justice Statistics. (1981). Death-Row Prisoners, 1981.
Project. Lansing, MI: State Court Administrative Office. Bulletin. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
9. Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines. (1982). Preliminary Report on 15. InstituteforPublicPolicyandManagement. (1986).RacialandEth-
the Development and Impact ofthe Minnesota Guidelines. St. Paul: nicDisparities in Imprisonment. Seattle: University ofWashington.
Minnesota Guidelines Commission.
A
10. Kleck, G. (1981). Racial Discrimination in Sentencing: Critical
Evaluation of the Evidence with Additional Evidence on the Death
Penalty. American SociologicalReview, 6, 783-805. E. Yvonne Moss, Ph.D., is a research scientist for the William
11. Wilbanks,W. (1987). TheMythofaRacistCriminalJusticeSystem. Monroe Trotter Institute at the University of Massachusetts at
Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole. Boston.
10