In 1987 the Supreme Court received the most careful study of race and the death penalty ever made: in Georgia, a defendant charged with killing a white victim was more than four times as likely to be sentenced to death as one charged with killing a Black victim. The Court assumed the study valid and ruled by one vote that the numbers did not decide the case. The episode traces the road to that vote.
Who's who
- Warren McCleskeyBlack man sentenced to death in Georgia; petitioner in McCleskey v. Kemp
- David C. BaldusUniversity of Iowa law professor whose study was the evidence
- Lewis F. Powell Jr.+2 more episodesJustice who wrote the 5 to 4 majority, later regretting the vote
- William J. Brennan Jr.+1 more episodeJustice who wrote the principal dissent
- John C. Jeffries Jr.Law professor and Powell's biographer
- George Stinney Jr.Fourteen-year-old executed in 1944; conviction vacated in 2014
- Ralph NorthamVirginia governor who pardoned the Martinsville Seven in 2021
Where it happens
- Atlanta, Georgia+10 more episodesWhere Officer Schlatt was killed in 1978
- Scottsboro, AlabamaSite of the 1931 trials of nine Black youths
- Alcolu, South CarolinaTown of the 1944 case against George Stinney
- Martinsville, VirginiaSite of the case of the Martinsville Seven
Timeline
- 1931Nine Black youths arrested in the Scottsboro case
- June 16, 1944George Stinney executed at age fourteen
- February 1951The Martinsville Seven executed
- April 22, 1987McCleskey v. Kemp decided, 5 to 4
- September 25, 1991Warren McCleskey executed
- December 2014Judge vacates George Stinney's conviction
Still debated
Whether race still shapes the modern death penalty is argued: race of victim shows in most studies, race of defendant less consistently, and a Rand study of federal cases found disparities vanished with controls. Stinney's 2014 ruling did not decide guilt, and Powell's regret comes from a biographer's account.
Connected episodes in other series
The Warren Court: Judicial Activism From the Other DirectionThe Least Dangerous Branch? · Episode 9Also features William J. Brennan Jr.
The Great Reversal: PATCO and the Productivity-Pay SplitThe Long Argument: Capital vs. Labor · Episode 9Also features Lewis F. Powell Jr.
Society Picks Him Up Off the HighwayThe Payor of Last Resort · Episode 3Also features Lewis F. Powell Jr.