Capital Punishment & the ‘Not So Blind’ Eye of Justice
July 4, 2008
Currently 36 states have prisoners sitting on “death row”, awaiting their date with destiny, a.k.a. capital punishment. However not everyone on death row ends up meeting their fate at the hands of whatever state they are being held prisoner of. All of those condemned will not be executed, in fact, many death row inmates will either rot away behind bars, eventually dieing of old age, or even be exonerated and set free to once again walk the streets.
So who dies and who doesn’t? I mean seeing as though it is “death row” and all, one would have to imagine that the “winners” and “losers” had to be decided by pure luck more then anything else. Nope, not true at all – Luck has nothing to do with the decision, and now there’s scientific proof able to back this reality up.
Researchers say they have built a computer system that can predict with 92% accuracy which death row inmates are most likely to be executed, a development they hope will lead to a fairer appeals process.
“According to the system, the death row inmates most likely to be executed are those with the lowest levels of education. The researchers, from Texas A&M University Texarkana and Loyola University New Orleans, report in the International Journal of Law and Information Technology, that neither the severity of the crime nor race the latter of which is often cited as a key factor in convictions are reliable forecasters of a prisoner’s fate.”
“The system consists of 18 computer processors designed to analyze data the way that a human brain does by studying one set of data and comparing it with another data set to find similarities and differences. In this case, researchers fed the system information about 1,000 death row prisoners, including their sex, age, race, highest year of school completed, the state in which they were incarcerated, and whether they were ultimately executed or spared. Once the system had established patterns (of traits most prevalent among the executed) from this initial pool, the researchers fed it similar information about 300 more prisoners (leaving out whether they had lived or died). The system, using logic it had developed from the first set of data, correctly predicted the outcome for 276 (92%) of the prisoners.”
Does anyone find this surprising? I mean really – I think it is pretty well known that those sitting down in “old sparky” or being strapped down to a board, pumped with chemicals via a syringe, are predominantly uneducated, poor, and/or a minority.
That said, I have to admit that I don’t find myself opposed to the “rationale” behind the death penalty, a matter of fact I am actually favor the practice of capital punishment if it’s carried out the way in which it was intended – Without prejudice.
No related posts.
Bit if a problem with the computer analysis. The education of the jury members, the defense counsel, the prosecutors and judges who have a much higher factor in determining the outcome of the defendant/death row inmate, unless the murderer simply decided to commit their crimes in front of a video camera.
Regardless, the following should be noted.
About 10% of all murders within the US might qualify for a death penalty eligible trial.  That would be about 64,000 murders since 1973.  We have sentenced 8000 murderers to death since then, or 13% of those eligible.  I doubt that there is any other crime which receives a higher percentage of maximum sentences, when mandatory sentences are not available.  Based upon that, as well as pre trial, trial, appellate and clemency/commutation realities, the US death penalty is likely the least arbitrary and capricious criminal sanctions in the  US.
Dudley you seem to have missed the point of the article all together. You write:
The “computer analysis has nothing to do with the actual sentencing of the Death Penalty. It analyzes those who are convicted to die – regardless of any circumstance that led to his or her conviction.
So ya – I think you more or less mis read, or misunderstood the article and what the data was really comprised of. No worries though.
Elizabeth Gould is my aunt she put Miranda Anne Gould in the electric chair ones get kill on that
Miranda Anne Gould never did do any crime things in her life time
Elizabeth Gould think Miranda Anne Gould did any bad thing
Elizabeth Gould lying about Miranda Anne Gould