U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Death Penalty Case with Racial Overtones

It has long been said that the criminal justice system is disproportionately skewed against people of color such as blacks and Latinos.  Despite the claim, and the ample statistics to back it up, it is rare that a particular case exemplifies just how biased and the system can be.  In a case which the U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear, a death row inmate will argue that his race played a decisive role in the jury’s decision to sentence him to death.

In 1995 Duane Buck was convicted of murder for taking the life of his ex-girlfriend and another man.  In the particularly grisly scene the woman’s children bore witness to their mothers’ death.  But, the murder convictions were not sufficient to sentence Buck to death in the State of Texas.  In order to impose the death penalty, the jury needed to conclude that Buck posed a significant future threat to society.  

One of the experts who gave testimony as to Buck’s the propensity for future violence, or “future dangerousness” as the expert called it, said that a person’s race, among other factors such as previous criminal history and substance abuse, plays a significant role in that individual’s likelihood of committing future criminal acts.  

He went on to highlight the fact that blacks and Hispanics are “overrepresented in the criminal justice system,” and the answered “yes” when asked by the prosecution if Buck’s being black meant that he had a higher degree of future dangerousness. After listening to all of the testimony the jury sentenced Buck to death.

The expert witness’s testimony likely played a pivotal role in the Justices deciding to take up the case.  Buck was previously scheduled to have been executed in 2011 when Justice Sonia Sotomayor, among other Justices, granted him a reprieve in light of the revelation that his race may have played a key role in his sentencing.

After pleading his case in front of the Supreme Court Buck will await sentencing from the nation’s highest court, which could decide that the death penalty was warranted or to give him a lesser sentence.