The Death Sentence in Georgia,1974-1987

Abstract

Statistics regarding the death penalty in the state of Georgia have been interpreted as evidence of racial bias in sentencing procedures. Men who killed white victims were more likely to receive the death penalty than if the victims were black, and this was especially the case if the murderer was black. This study considered two interpretations of these statistics. One proposed that the men receiving the death penalty generally were more dangerous, so that the sentences tended to be merited without regard to race of victim or murderer. The other proposed that racial discrimination had been instrumental in determining who received the death penalty and who received a life sentence. The results, covering a period between 1974 and 1987, were consistent with the dangerousness proposal and suggested that the Georgia system was responding to legitimate criminal justice variables.