USA - Missouri. Study finds racial disparity in Missouri executions.

Study finds racial disparity in Missouri executions. Homicides involving white victims are 7 times more likely to result in an execution than those involving black victims, according to a recent study on the racial disparities of executions in Missouri. And homicides involving white female victims are nearly 14 times more likely to result in an execution than those involving black male victims. "These disparities are so great that they call in to question the equity of the application of the harshest penalty, adding to growing concerns that the death penalty is applied in an unfair, capricious, and arbitrary manner," stated Frank R. Baumgartner, a political science professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Baumgartner's study is titled "The impact of race, gender and geography on Missouri executions." Between 1976 and 2014, the study found that the state of Missouri executed 80 men. 81 % of these men were executed for the murder of white victims, even though White victims are less than 40% of all murder victims in the state. "This is striking given that 60 % of all homicide victims in Missouri are black," he wrote. White women represent just 12 % of all homicide victims, but constitute 37 % of the victims in execution cases, according to the study. Black men, by contrast, represent 52 % of all homicide victims, but just 12 % of the individuals who were executed were convicted of killing black men. "The importance of the victims' race in the application of the death penalty has created a system where whites are likely to face the death penalty only for within-race crimes, and blacks for cross-race crimes," he wrote. "In other words, the race and gender of the victim is a key determining factor in deciding who faces execution in Missouri."