David C. Baldus
David Christopher Baldus | |
---|---|
Born | June 23, 1935 Legal studies, Sociology |
Institutions | University of Iowa |
David Christopher Baldus (June 23, 1935 โ June 13, 2011)
Biography
Baldus received his Bachelor of Arts (Government Major) from Dartmouth College in 1957, his Master of Arts (Political Science) from the University of Pittsburgh in 1962. He went on to attend Yale Law School, earning a LL.B. in 1964 and a LL.M. in 1969. He practiced law in Pittsburgh from 1964โ68.
He served as a
Research
Equal justice and the death penalty
In 1983 David C. Baldus, along with Charles A. Pulaski and George Woodworth, published a study examining the presence of
Procedural reform study
The purpose of the procedural reform study was to compare the procedure with which Georgia sentenced convicted murder defendants before and after Furman v. Georgia. The study then looked for reforms in the sentencing procedure after Furman v. Georgia and assessed how reforms affected discrimination found in sentencing decisions.[6] Baldus and his colleagues looked specifically at two aspects of the trial for the procedural reform study: whether or not the prosecutor chose to seek the death sentence after a capital murder conviction was obtained, and whether or not the jury imposed a death sentence after the trial. The procedural reform study was conducted for purely academic reasons and the researchers had no intentions of using the results in actual murder trials.[7]
Results
The procedural reform study looked at murder trials which occurred both before and after Furman v. Georgia. Baldus's study found that in murder trials before Furman v. Georgia, the death penalty was given to black defendants 19% of the time and to white defendants 8% of the time. The death penalty was given to defendants with black victims 10% of the time and to defendants with white victims 18% of the time. From this data, the researchers concluded that the race of the victim was more influential than the race of the defendant in death penalty sentencing. It was also concluded that black defendants and defendants with white victims were given harsher punishments than other defendants convicted of the same crimes.[8]
In murder trials occurring after Furman v. Georgia, Baldus and his fellow researchers found that the death penalty was given to 22% of white defendants and to 16% of black defendants. In trials where the victim was white the death penalty was given out 27% of the time and in trials where the victim was black the death penalty was given out 7% of the time.[9]
Charging and sentencing study
The charging and sentencing study placed its emphasis on the amount of influence that racial and other illegitimate case characteristics had on the progress of cases from the point of indictment up to the death penalty sentencing decision.[10] The charging and sentencing study was conducted by request from the NAACP which funded the study and which hoped to use the results from the study to challenge the death-penalty system in Georgia.[11]
Results
The results of the charging and sentencing study were the basis of Warren McCleskey's appeal (McCleskey v. Kemp) that the death penalty sentencing in his trial was influenced by racial discrimination.[12] Baldus and his colleagues found in the charging and sentencing study that of the 2,484 cases studied, 128 defendants were given a sentence of the death penalty, meaning that 5% of all studied defendants were sentenced to death. The researchers also found that in cases where the victim was white, the death sentences was handed out at a rate 8.3 times higher than in cases where the victim was black. Finally, the study concluded that in cases with white victims and black defendant the death penalty was given out 21% of the time while in cases where both the victim and defendant were white the death penalty was given 8% of the time.[13]
References
- ^ Adam Liptak (June 14, 2011). "David C. Baldus, 75, Dies; Studied Race and the Law". The New York Times.
- ^ Law Faculty. 2005. The University of Iowa College of Law, Iowa City, Iowa. 9 April 2009 "David C. Baldus - the University of Iowa College of Law". Archived from the original on 2009-08-04. Retrieved 2009-04-10..
- JSTOR 1143133.
- ISBN 978-1-55553-056-3.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-510438-7.
- ^ a b Baldus et al. (1990, p. 2.
- ^ Baldus et al. (1990), p. 42.
- ^ Baldus et al. (1990), p. 141.
- ^ Baldus et al. (1990), p. 150.
- ^ Baldus et al. (1990), p. 45.
- ^ Baldus et al. (1990), p. 44.
- ^ Baldus et al. (1990), p. 45.
- ^ Baldus et al. (1990), p. 314.