Blacks are much more likely to be executed for killing whites than whites who have killed blacks

摘要

Last year saw the increased popularization of the “#BlackLivesMatter” movement in the wake of the killing of unarmed Black men by police in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York. In new research, Frank Baumgartner, Amanda Grigg, and Alisa Mastro find that in the area of capital punishment, Black lives seem to matter far less than whites’. They find that, since 1976, twice as many blacks have been executed for killing whites than whites have been for killing blacks, and that while Blacks make up 47 percent of all homicide victims, they are only 17 percent of the victims of those executed. They write that despite the arguments of those who feel that #BlackLivesMatter is a redundant movement, the racial disparities apparent in the justice system make it anything but.