At sentencing, some murder victims “matter” more than others

A de­fend­ant is much more likely to get a death sen­tence if he or she kills a “high-sta­tus” vic­tim than if not, a study claims. The find­ing is based on a sur­vey of 504 death pen­al­ty cases in Tex­as, the state with the high­est rate of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the Un­ited States.

“In the cap­i­tal of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, death is more apt to be sought and im­posed on be­half of high-sta­tus vic­tims. Some vic­tims mat­ter more than oth­ers,” said Uni­vers­ity of Den­ver so­ci­ol­o­gist and crim­i­nol­o­gist Scott Phil­lips, au­thor of the stu­dy.

The work ap­pears in the re­search jour­nal Law and So­ci­e­ty Re­view.

Phil­lips, who an­a­lyzed death pen­al­ty cases from 1992 to 1999, found that a death sen­tence is most likely if a de­fend­ant kills a mar­ried, white or His­pan­ic vic­tim with a clean crim­i­nal rec­ord and a col­lege de­gree, as op­posed to a sin­gle, black or Asian vic­tim with a crim­i­nal rec­ord and no col­lege de­gree.

The study is based on cases in Har­ris Coun­ty, which is the state’s most pop­u­lous coun­ty and al­so en­com­passes its larg­est city, Hous­ton.

While re­cent de­bates over the death pen­al­ty have tended to fo­cus on the prob­lem of con­vict­ing the in­no­cent and on costs, Phil­lips said ar­bi­trar­i­ness has long been a con­cern.

Draw­ing on the same da­ta, Phil­lips’ pre­vi­ous re­search found that black de­fend­ants were more likely to be sen­tenced to death than white de­fend­ants. The ra­cial dis­par­i­ties de­scribed in the pri­or pa­per be­come even sharp­er af­ter ac­count­ing for vic­tim so­cial sta­tus – black de­fend­ants were more apt to be sen­tenced to death de­spite be­ing less apt to kill high sta­tus vic­tims, Phil­lips said.

Source: WorldScience, March 8, 2010