Black Defendants and the Race of the Victims
Another measure of race's impact on the death penalty is the combined
effect of the race of the defendant and the race of the victim. In
the Philadelphia study, the racial combination which was most likely
to result in a death sentence was a black defendant with a non-black
victim, regardless of how severe the murder committed. Black-on-black
crimes were less likely to receive a death sentence, followed by
crimes by other defendants, regardless of the race of their victims.
As noted above, in cases deemed to be least severe and those found to
be most severe, the connection between race and the likelihood of a
death sentence tends to lessen. For example, few defendants of any
race are likely to get the death penalty in a case involving
defendants with no prior record and where the killing may have been
accidental. But for the bulk of crimes which are in the mid-level of
severity, blacks who kill non-blacks are more likely to receive the
death penalty than blacks who kill blacks, and they have a death
sentencing rate much larger than the rate for defendants of other
races who commit similarly severe murders of black victims.
It is important to note that these mid-range cases are precisely the
ones in which prosecutors and jurors have the most discretion on
seeking and imposing the death penalty. And when discretion is more
prevalent, race may more easily become the deciding factor in who
lives and who dies.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article ... =539#Black%
20Defendants%20a nd%20the%20Race%20of%20the%20Victim