Race and the Death Penalty
Where We Are
We've covered perspectives on the death penalty pro and con. We now turn to consider whether the death penalty - along, perhaps, with many other forms of criminal punishment - falls disproportionately on different racial groups in ways that have nothing to do with desert or deterrence.
Michael Cholbi
Michael Cholbi is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, though he has taught for most of his career at Cal Poly Pomona. His research has focused prominently on death. For example, in addition to writing about the death penalty, he has written a book about suicide and is now working on a book about grief and bereavement, and is a founding member of the International Association for the Philosophy of Death and Dying. You can watch him as a contestant on Jeopardy here.
Race and Capital Punishment
For this class we're reading Cholbi's article, 'Race, Capital Punishment, and the Cost of Murder.' You'll find it clear and engaging, and appreciate that when he gets to the main arguments that he is offering, he sets them out deliberately in premise-conclusion form, so that it is easy to think about where, if at all, you disagree with his premises.
Cholbi takes for granted that his readers will have background knowledge of the large number of studies that have documented disparities in the application of the death penalty between white and black defendants. I encourage you to follow up and read more about this if you are skeptical, and his endnotes include references to several places where you can read more. All of the articles that Chobi cites should be accessible online through the the USC libraries.