Poverty and the Death Penalty

Disparities of wealth are inevitable within capitalism. Nowhere are these disparities more disturbing than in the justice system and in the way in which the death penalty is meted out in the US. Capital punishment in the US is administered in an economically discriminatory way. The wealth disparity...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of economic issues 2001-06, Vol.35 (2), p.517-523
Main Authors: Johnson, Jeffery L., Johnson, Colleen F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Attorneys
Capital Punishment
Crime
Criminal justice
Criminal punishment
Criminal sentencing
Defendants
Discrimination
Income distribution
Interpretation and construction
Juries
Laws, regulations and rules
Legislation
Low Income Groups
Murder
Poverty
Prisons
Sentencing
Studies
United States
United States of America
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Summary:Disparities of wealth are inevitable within capitalism. Nowhere are these disparities more disturbing than in the justice system and in the way in which the death penalty is meted out in the US. Capital punishment in the US is administered in an economically discriminatory way. The wealth disparity between murderers who live and those who die constitutes a serious constitutional challenge to the permissibility of the death penalty. The failure as a society to ensure some semblance of economic equality in the harshest criminal punishment constitutes a kind of procedural cruelty that is inconsistent with the 8th Amendment. The Supreme Court has demonstrated an almost pathological reticence to consider issues of class and wealth.
ISSN:0021-3624
1946-326X
DOI:10.1080/00213624.2001.11506386