The Impact of Race on Death Penalty Support Controlling for the Level of Education.
Capital punishment is a controversial issue in the United States today. With the recent execution of Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, and the current presidency of George Bush, former governor of the state with the highest number of executions in the country, the debate over the death penalty has heated up over the past few years. .
There are many different sides to the death penalty debate. However there are two main conflicting points of view. One side argues that the death penalty is a reasonable punishment and should be used in appropriate cases. The other side says that it goes against the "cruel and unusual punishment" clause of the constitution. However, opposition is not always necessarily based on a constitutional theory. It is also based on the notion that capital punishment is inhumane. In addition, many of those who are opposed to the death penalty find that it is not administered fairly. This was based on the revelation that convicted murderers have been proven innocent by later DNA testing. Other studies have shown that race and income play a significant role in some cases by determining who will and who will not receive the death penalty. .
It is important to know the public's opinion on controversial issues such as this one and it is interesting to find out how different sub-groups feel about the same controversial subjects. Support for the death penalty varies with income, age, gender, race, education, and regional differences. This paper will examine the relationship of race and support for or opposition to the death penalty while controlling for the level of education.
Before starting my research, I hypothesized that a higher percentage of African Americans would oppose the death penalty than Whites. I also hypothesized that the lower the level of education, the more in favor of the death penalty one would be regardless of race.