McCleskey v. Kemp
The debate on capital punishment in states like Georgia and its violation of constitutional amendments remains controversial, especially with increasing evidence of wrongful convictions by the court system. Opponents of the death penalty assert that it is a constitutional violation of the constitution, which outlaw cruel and unusual punishment based on the 8th amendment (ACLU, 2020). According to Grawert (2018), wrongful convictions are challenging to address yet have a profound impact. While studies have consistently shown racial disparities in the criminal justice process, many court decisions have been criticized for trampling on the rights of minorities, especially colored defendants or offenders, as demonstrated in the McCleskey v. Kemp decision.
In this case, the defendant presented evidence from a statistical study that pointed to increased racial disparity in capital penalty cases in Georgia’s justice system, especially rulings. The defendant was convicted of the capital penalty because of his role in an armed robbery incident that led to the death of a law enforcement officer. Imperatively, using the evidence from the study, he quashed his conviction on the basis that it was racially provoked and a violation of the 8th amendment as it constituted cruel and unusual punishment.
While wrongful convictions are a concern in the justice system, the arguments in the McCleskey v. Kemp decision do not warrant a finding of cruel and unusual punishment as advanced by the defendant. The defendant used results from a study on sentencing in Georgia’s courts to compel the judges to reverse a conviction about his sentencing for his involvement in the death of a police officer. The decision, in this case, protected criminal justice statutes and policies from challenges based on racially disparate effects. In his defense, the petitioner used statistical evidence to show how black offenders were disproportionately given death penalties in situations where the crime victims are white. However, the judges in their majority decision emphasized the need for the defendant to prove the presence of racial discrimination in this case as opposed to using statistical findings from previous studies. In any case, the discretion of jurors has always worked to the benefit of defendants. As such, his conviction by a jury that was predominantly white did not demonstrate cruel and abnormal punishment under the dictates of the 8th amendment.
Recent evidence shows that the number of wrongful convictions continues to rise as most of the exonerations are of black offenders or former convicts (ACLU, 2020). As such, based on the rationale in the decision of the court in McCleskey v. Kemp, no sufficient evidence exists to justify the need to overturn the death penalty in the present situation. According to Grawert (2018), wrongful convictions arise from a host of factors, among them unlawful identity and improper forensics. The disparities in the justice system, as well as increased exonerations of black Americans, demonstrate significant evidence of possible incidents of wrongful convictions. However, the fact that these statistics are accurate does not imply that defendants, especially from minority races, should not be accountable for their crimes. Exonerations demonstrate the need to enhance the methodologies and approaches to ensuring that innocent people are not convicted wrongly while the guilty let off the hook.
Based on these factors, no sufficient justification exists to justify the scrapping of the death penalty. Criminal defendants accused should demonstrate that their fundamental liberties and freedoms have been violated in every particular case as opposed to using study findings since circumstances and facts are unique. To change the death penalty requires practical approaches to protect victims who suffer from crimes committed by the offenders.
References
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) (2020). The Case Against the Death Penalty. Retrieved
from https://www.aclu.org/other/case-against-death-penalty
Grawert, A. (2018). Wrongful Convictions. Retrieved from
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/wrongful-convictions
McCleskey v. Kemp. (n.d.). Oyez. Retrieved May 4, 2020, from
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1986/84-6811.
