Group sees racial disparity in criminal sentencing

FAYETTEVILLE -- A study of Arkansas' death row and data from several counties indicates African Americans are twice as likely to be charged with capital murder and receive the death penalty than white defendants and about as likely to get a longer prison term for other crimes and a group seeking change says it's not a matter of chance.

The Racial Disparities in the Arkansas Criminal Justice System Research Project is a project of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's William H. Bowen School of Law. The project analyzed records of 538 Arkansans convicted of murder and sentenced to life, life without parole, or death.

Recommendations

Here are some of the recommendations from the Racial Disparities in the Arkansas Criminal Justice System report:

• Sentencing people to death, life and life without parole younger than 28 punishes them forever in part for impulsive actions while the current science indicates that the area of the brain that controls impulsivity isn’t fully developed until at least 28. Of course, there should be some punishment attendant to the taking of a life; however, the punishments of life, life without parole and death don’t take into consideration the important developmental factor the impulse control portion of the brain isn’t fully developed until early to mid twenties.

• Sentencing people to life, life without parole or death contradicts the belief in redemption most religious and spiritual practices embrace. It’s a determination these persons will never be able to rise above their worse act – that of murder – and are murderers, “identities that they cannot change regardless of the circumstances of their crimes or any improvements they might make in their lives.”

• The sentences of life and life without parole in actuality are virtually the same for those incarcerated. Prisoners who were sentenced to life and those sentenced to life without parole have very little chance of getting out of prison. Legislators should consider making life a term of years.

• The sentence of life with parole should have more specific guidelines for the parole board in their review and for the governor to guide the decision to release the prisoner. There’s so much discretion it appeared as if the discretion was erring on the side, all too often, of just keeping the person incarcerated. Improving parole procedures after release, which has been suggested on numerous occasions by others, would decrease the likelihood the person convicted of homicide and given a life with parole sentence, would offend again. Also, research suggests people convicted of homicide are less likely to offend again since for many the crime was a crime of impulse and passion.

Source: The Racial Disparities in the Arkansas Criminal Justice System Research Project

Another section of the study assessed the effects of prosecutor discretion in four Arkansas counties between 2010 and 2013.

"The findings show when it came to being convicted of the same charge, capital murder and death, blacks received more,' said Malik Saafir, president of the Janus Institute for Justice. "This is not something that is an anomaly, but a reality from a systemic standpoint."

The project was developed in 2011 to examine the longstanding racial disparities in the Arkansas system and to use the findings to develop policy, practice and community programming recommendations to minimize, if not eliminate, the disparities that exist, several speakers from a steering committee told a group of 50 to 75 at Unitarian Universalist Church on Tuesday night.

"One thing that we're not saying, we're not saying the individuals in this study were all innocent," said Furonda Brasfield, executive director of Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "What we are saying is if we're going to have a criminal justice system, it needs to treat everyone the same. It shouldn't treat someone more harshly because of the color of their skin or because of where they live in the state or because of their socio-economic status."

Former Circuit Judge Olly Neal, a noted civil rights activist and also a former prosecutor in Lee County in east Arkansas, said the state's total black population is around 15 percent while most police, prosecutors, judges and jurors are white.

"We end up with a situation where the black male population is about eight percent. The black prison population is 46 percent," Neal said. "Are you suggesting to me these kids are doing that much more crime than the white kids?"

Neal said you have to insist those in charge of the criminal justice system be fair but you don't do that by calling them racists.

"My point is you've got to go to these people who haven't been so receptive and you've got to start off with we're just alike. I grew up in the same community you did. I grew up in the same circumstances you did," Neal said. "I ain't saying to you, 'You're racist and low-down,' I'm saying to you simply to try your best to see if you'd treat somebody who looked just like you that same way before you treat that little black boy that way. Eight percent producing 46 percent of the (prison) population, it don't make no sense and it ain't because we're all mean people. It's because of what we grew up to be and that's what you have to tell your friends and elected officials."

Carol Baker, who's from Ohio, said she attended because it gives her hope the system can be changed.

"I've come to realize it's the whole system that's racially biased," Baker said.

A first step is re-introduction of a bill in the state legislature requiring racial impact statements for any bills introduced concerning criminal punishment. State Senator Joyce Elliott ran the bill during the last session and it was defeated by one vote.

"You can see how requiring a racial impact statement can really prevent a lot of problems and it can also save the state of Arkansas a lot of money," said John Gibson, an attorney on the steering committee who used a proposed state law banning baggy pants as an example. That bill failed.

Sixty-five people including judges, defense and prosecuting attorneys, victims' advocates, academics, prison reform activists, and community leaders from throughout the state serve on the project's Steering Committee.

NW News on 02/08/2017

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