Twenty years ago this week, Warren McCleskey, an African-American man convicted of killing a white police officer in Atlanta, was executed in the state of Georgia. His case became famous for highlighting the gross racial discrimination in Georgia's death penalty system, and for revealing the remarkable indifference of the United States Supreme Court to the evidence of racism in death penalty cases.
Georgia chose a tragic way to remember the anniversary with last week's execution of Troy Davis, also an African-American man convicted of killing a white police officer despite serious concerns about his guilt. Davis's execution should cause us great concern, not only because he was likely innocent, but because the racial disparities observed in Georgia's death penalty system more than 20 years ago still resonate in Georgia — and the rest of the country — today.
In a case before the United States Supreme Court, McCleskey presented compelling evidence that Georgia's death penalty system was being administered in a racially discriminatory manner. The late , a law professor at the University of Iowa, studied nearly 2,500 murder cases in Georgia, and found that defendants convicted of murdering white victims were over four times more likely to be sentenced to death as defendants charged with murdering black victims. Georgia valued white lives more than black lives.
The Court assumed the findings of the Baldus study to be true, but in a 5-4 opinion written by Justice Lewis Powell the Court dismissed the racial disparities as an "inevitable part of our criminal justice system." The discriminatory effect was not enough, the Court said. McCleskey had to show how racial bias had played a role in his particular case. In essence, the Court set the bar so high that a capital defendant could not show that race played a role in his sentence short of a declaration from the prosecutor that "I am seeking the death penalty against you because you killed a white person." Many observers .
The decision, turning on a single vote, has remained a stain on our criminal justice system ever since, as race continues to play an outsized role in death sentences and executions across the country. Asked years later after he had retired if there was one case in which he would change his vote, Justice Powell said McCleskey.
In 2009, with the passage of the landmark Racial Justice Act, the North Carolina legislature rejected the Supreme Court's assumption that racism was "inevitable." The Racial Justice Act gives capital defendants the opportunity to show through statistics and other evidence that race played a role in a capital defendant's death sentence. The ACLU is representing several capital defendants in North Carolina on their RJA claims.
We must never accept racism in the criminal justice system as "inevitable", particularly not when a human life is at stake. One day, the McCleskey decision will join the ranks of other shameful legal decisions in our country's history of race discrimination, like and . Until then, we will continue to expose the racial disparities in the administration of the death penalty.
For a different way to remember the anniversary of McCleskey's execution, watch for about McCleskey's mentorship in his final years of a young white teenager from the same Georgia town.
Learn more about the death penalty: Sign up for breaking news alerts, , and .
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Press ReleaseDec 2024
Capital Punishment
ACLU Celebrates President Biden’s Historic Federal Death Row CommutationsACLU Celebrates President Biden’s Historic Federal Death Row Commutations
WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union celebrates President Biden’s historic action in commuting 37 federal death sentences. In making this decision, President Biden has taken an unequivocal stand against one of the most flawed and inhumane mechanisms of the U.S. criminal legal system. Biden’s groundbreaking action comes after hundreds of organizations across the political and faith spectrums, including more than 130 civil and human rights organizations, faith leaders, exonerees, family members of victims, and law enforcement officials called on the President to commute federal death row. Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU, released the following statement: “President Biden took a historic and courageous step in addressing the failed death penalty in the United States – bringing us much closer to outlawing the barbaric practice once again. By commuting the sentences of 37 individuals on death row, President Biden has taken the most consequential step of any president in our history to address the immoral and unconstitutional harms of capital punishment. With a stroke of his pen, the President locks in his legacy as a leader who stands for racial justice, humanity, and morality. This will undoubtedly be one of the seminal achievements of the Biden presidency. “President Biden has reaffirmed the power of redemption over retribution and reminds us that state-sanctioned killing does not make us safer. The ACLU has long advocated against the death penalty and shed light on its fundamental flaws: it is error prone, racially biased, and a drain on public resources. And although we had hoped President Biden would commute all federal death sentences for those reasons, today's milestone brings us much closer to our goal of outlawing the death penalty once and for all. “President Biden has shown our country – and the rest of the world – that the brutal and inhumane policies of our past do not belong in our future. By commuting 37 federal death row sentences, he has paved the way for other elected officials to build on his legacy of racial justice, humanity and morality by commuting state death rows and passing legislation to abolish capital punishment. “President Biden’s actions also remove 37 individuals out of harm’s way – as President-elect Trump has a proven penchant and track record of conducting rushed executions. In the last six months of his first term, President Trump executed 13 individuals – more than any administration in 120 years. “The ACLU is proud to join countless advocates and civil and human rights organizations in thanking President Biden for his leadership and commitment to the highest principles of justice and humanity.” In 2020, President Biden made history as the first president to openly oppose the death penalty. Under his leadership, the Department of Justice acknowledged the death penalty’s disparate impact on people of color as well as the 200 people who have been sentenced to death and subsequently exonerated over the past five decades. Martin Luther King III, Sister Simone Campbell, Rev. Ralph McCloud, and exoneree Herman Lindsey – all prominent advocates for ending capital punishment – shared a video thanking President Biden here. The ACLU is ready on day one of the incoming Trump administration to challenge any unconstitutional expansion of the death penalty and any attempts to return to regressive killing methods. At the state-level, the ACLU will build on work against the death penalty, including ongoing litigation in states like Kansas and North Carolina, to invalidate capital punishment based on its racist administration, including in the selection of jury members. The letter sent to President Biden from 134 civil and human rights organizations is here. More on ACLU’s work to end capital punishment is here. -
PodcastDec 2024
Capital Punishment
Can Commuting the Row Be Biden's Real Legacy? Herman Lindsey and Cassy Stubbs Discuss With W. Kamau BellCan Commuting the Row Be Biden's Real Legacy? Herman Lindsey and Cassy Stubbs Discuss With W. Kamau Bell
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Press ReleaseDec 2024
Capital Punishment
Over 130 Civil and Human Rights Organizations Call on President Biden to Commute Federal Death SentencesOver 130 Civil and Human Rights Organizations Call on President Biden to Commute Federal Death Sentences
WASHINGTON – More than 130 civil and human rights organizations, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International USA, Southern Poverty Law Center, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, issued a letter to President Biden today, urging him to commute the sentences of people on federal death row before he leaves office. The letter highlights the moral and legal failings of the death penalty in the United States and stresses the urgency of action to prevent the potential resurgence of federal executions under an incoming Trump administration. The groups call on Biden to fulfill his campaign promise to address the irrevocably broken federal death penalty and to “bring America into a new era of moral leadership.” President Biden was the first presidential candidate to openly oppose the death penalty, and his administration issued a moratorium on federal executions. With 40 men still on death row, however, the letter emphasizes that commuting federal death sentences is the only irreversible action President Biden can take to prevent the incoming administration from attempting another execution spree. "President Biden has an opportunity to make history by addressing the racist and unjust federal death penalty system and keep an early campaign promise he made to the American people,” said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU. “Commuting the sentences of those on death row would help end the death penalty once and for all and prevent a second execution spree by President Trump. Trump’s first act of political theater ended in the execution of 13 people. President Biden shouldn’t allow Trump to repeat that travesty." In Trump’s final months in office, his administration executed 13 people in rapid succession, more than any administration in over 120 years. The Trump administration also amended the federal execution protocol which opened the door to more brutal methods of execution, including death by firing squad, electrocution, and nitrogen hypoxia, an untested and torturous method. Below are additional comments from: Paul O’Brien, executive director, Amnesty International USA: “President-elect Trump has promised to restart and accelerate the federal death machine, just as he did in his last administration. In the span of only 6 months, the Trump administration executed more people than the 10 previous presidential administrations combined. The executions carried out in his first term demonstrated to the world how the federal death penalty is fundamentally broken and that this ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment should be abolished forever. We should take Trump at his word when he says he plans to repeat this horrific killing spree, and Biden must do what he can now to prevent it.” Janai Nelson, president and director-counsel, Legal Defense Fund: “Since our founding, LDF has been unwavering in its fight to abolish the death penalty and eliminate racial discrimination from our criminal legal system. The death penalty is rooted in slavery, lynchings, and white vigilantism and historically weaponized against people of color. From the Groveland Four in 1949 to many capital cases today, Black people are disproportionately impacted by the ultimate punishment. Commuting the sentences of the 40 individuals on federal death row is an unprecedented opportunity for President Biden to cement his commitment to remedying injustice by exercising executive clemency.” Margaret Huang, president and CEO, The Southern Poverty Law Center: “The death penalty is rooted in a deep history of racialized violence. To this day, race is still the biggest predictor of who gets sentenced to death, with Black people accounting for nearly 40% of those on federal death row, despite representing less than 12% of the adult population. And fully 70% of those on federal death row are from the South. Our nation, and particularly the communities that we serve in the Deep South, cannot achieve true racial justice while the death penalty remains in practice.” Joia Erin Thornton, executive director, FLOCC (Faith Leaders of Color Coalition): “President Biden should commute all federal death sentences because doing so would acknowledge and help redress the racial bias built into the federal death penalty system, allow government resources to be redirected to policies that actually make our communities safer, and allow the families of victims and incarcerated persons to focus on healing instead of living in legal limbo.” This letter is one of more than a dozen letters released today from hundreds of stakeholders from across the political and faith spectrums calling on President Biden to commute all federal death sentences, including Black pastors, former corrections officials, business leaders, current and former prosecutors, families who have lost loved ones to homicide, mental health advocates, and many more. All of the letters can be found here. -
News & CommentaryNov 2024
Capital Punishment
Biden Must Use Final Months in Office to Commute Federal Death SentencesBiden Must Use Final Months in Office to Commute Federal Death Sentences
In our series on how Biden can use the lame duck period to secure civil liberties and civil rights, we examine how Biden can combat President-elect Trump’s plans to greatly expand the death penalty and execute every person on the federal row.