The study, entitled “The Impact of Legally Inappropriate Factors on Death Sentencing for California Homicides, 1990-99” (forthcoming, Santa Clara Law Review Vol 46), concludes that the race and ethnicity of the victim and the location of the crime play a critical role in determining who will be sentenced to death. Study authors, Glenn Pierce, of the College of Criminal Justice at Northeastern University, and Michael Radelet, Sociology Professor at the University of Colorado, examined all California homicides committed between January 1, 1990, and December 31, 1999, using data from the FBI and the California Office of Vital Statistics, as well as other sources.

“This study forces the people in California to confront the unfairness of how the death penalty is applied in this state,” said Ellen Kreitzberg, Professor of Law at Santa Clara University and Director of the Death Penalty College. “The decision of who will live and who will die in California turns on arbitrary and unlawful factors such as the race and ethnicity of the murder victim or the location where the murder was committed.”

Key findings of the study include:

• 80% of executions in California were for those convicted of killing whites, while only 27.6% of murder victims are white.
• Those who murder whites are over four times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who kill Latinos and over three times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who kill African-Americans.
• A person convicted of 1st degree murder in a predominantly white, rural county (like Napa, King, Colusa, or Shasta counties) is more than three times as likely to be sentenced to death than a person convicted of a similar crime in a diverse, urban county like Los Angeles, which has the highest number of homicides in the state.
• The death rate by homicide in California varies substantially by race. African- Americans are six times more likely to be murdered than whites.

The Dean of the Santa Clara University Law School, Donald J. Polden, is submitting the report today to the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice as the Commission prepares to hold its second meeting, on September 27th and 28th, in Sacramento.

Dean Polden’s letter to the Justice Commission states, “[t]he study raises significant questions about whether the death penalty is being administered fairly in this state. I urge the Commission to read this study and to further investigate this extremely important topic.”

The ACLU of Northern California, Death Penalty Focus, and Amnesty International USA are also urging the Justice Commission to take action.

“This study demonstrates for the first time that race and place determine who is sentenced to die in the state of California,” said Erin Callahan, Director, Western Regional Office of Amnesty International USA. “We know that the death penalty system in California is not fair and as long as the system is not fair, it will not be accurate.”

Natasha Minsker, Death Penalty Policy Director of the ACLU-NC said, “We now know that the death penalty system in California is biased. The next step is for the Justice Commission to determine where the bias enters the system. Is it when the prosecutor decides to seek the death penalty or when a jury chooses to sentence a person to death?”

Stefanie Faucher, Program Director of Death Penalty Focus added, “It is now more important than ever that executions are temporarily suspended in this state while the Justice Commission reviews the findings of this study and makes recommendations to address this very serious problem.”

The fourteen-member Justice Commission was created by the California Senate in August 2004. The Justice Commission is mandated to study the causes and prevalence of wrongful convictions and wrongful executions in California; examine the safeguards needed to improve the criminal justice system in California; and make recommendations and proposals designed to ensure that the application and administration of criminal justice in California is just, fair, and accurate.

The Justice Commission has a deadline of December 31, 2007 to report its findings and to make recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature.

California has the largest death row in the U.S. with 645 people. There are 229 (35.5%) African-Americans on death row, 121 (18.76%) Latinos, and 256 (39.69%) whites. Since 1976, California has executed 11 men.