DEATH PENALTY
WHEN LIFE GENERATES DEATH (LEGALLY)
SITUATION IN THE USA
DEATH PENALTY
WHEN LIFE GENERATES DEATH (LEGALLY)
SITUATION IN THE USA
Even if it's one of the most evolved States in the world, theorically with an efficent legal system, there are many discrimination for some people groups in USA.
PEOPLE WITH MENTAL DESEASES
Many people with delays or mental deseases are in the death row. Amnesty International documented the cases of more than 50 prisoners with big mental problems executed from 1982, opposing the resolution 1989/64 of the UN Economic and Social Council where is recomended the elimination of death penalty for those people who have mental deseases or very limited mental capability.
In some States the level of mental capability under which a person can't be executed is really low, and only nine States forbid death penalty for people with mental delays. The level for the mental delay is an IQ 70.
Johnny Frank Garrett: in February 1992 he was executed for the rape and the murder of an old nun in 1981, when he was only 17 years old. Chronic psychotic, he suffered brain damages and phisical and sexual violences when he was a child (the jury didn't know this last situation). Many nun orders and the Pope asked for mercy, but it wasn't conceded.
Nollie Martin: executed in Florida in May 1992, had an IQ 59. He soffered for the consequences of heavy head wound injured when he was a child, and he also suffered phisical and sexual violences. He got death sentence in 1978 for the murder of a white woman; Martin passed 13 years in the prison, wallowing on the floor. He contiuosly needed cares for his hallucinations; he often knocked his head and hands against the wall to mutilate himself, perhaps due to the remorse of his crime.
BLACK PEOPLE
More than 40% of the death condemned in USA are black, though they are only the 12% of the whole population. About the 80% of the death condemned are guilty of the murder of white people, though the number of murders of white and black people is approximately the same. Only in 1986 the Supreme Court of Justice estabilished that attorneys can't exclude a potential juryman only on race ground (case Batson vs. Kentucky).
| (a) extimation number of murderers |
(b) murderers death condemned |
(c)=(b)/(a) probability of death condemnation |
|
| Florida | |||
| Black kills white | 240 | 53 | 22,1% |
| White kills white | 1768 | 82 | 4,6% |
| Black kills black | 1922 | 12 | 0,6% |
| White kills black | 80 | 0 | 0,0% |
| Georgia | |||
| Black kills white | 258 | 42 | 16,3% |
| White kills white | 1006 | 43 | 4,3% |
| Black kills black | 2458 | 12 | 0,5% |
| White kills black | 71 | 2 | 2,8% |
| Texas | |||
| Black kills white | 344 | 30 | 8,7% |
| White kills white | 3616 | 56 | 1,5% |
| Black kills black | 2597 | 2 | 0,1% |
| White kills black | 143 | 1 | 0,7% |
| Ohio | |||
| Black kills white | 173 | 44 | 25,4% |
| White kills white | 803 | 37 | 4,6% |
| Black kills black | 1170 | 20 | 1,7% |
| White kills black | 47 | 0 | 0,0% |
Also, in USA and in a few other States one who was minor when he committed the crime (during the last years Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Rwanda, Bangladesh, Barbados, Saudi Arabia) can be sentenced to death. In some trials, the young age isn't discussed at all as an extenuating circumstance. Eight minors condemned out of nine are black or hispanic; the majority comes from very degraded ambiences, has suffered physical and sexual violences, and has mental deseases.
In Indiana e Vermont the limit of age for death penalty is 10 years.
Charles Rumbaugh: the first minor criminal executed from 1964 (11th September 1985). He was sentenced to death in 1980 for a murder committed during a robbery when he was 17 years old .
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