This series, The Untold Stories of the Civil Rights Movement, is where I look at some of the most important civil rights cases. I quickly unpack the stories and discuss why I believe they are significant. This series is an adaption of an ad hoc seminar I created while a student at Duke University School of Law.
This week I look at the case of McCleksey v. Kemp (1987), a decision that’s been called the Dred Scott of our time. This case looks at racial disparities in the handing out of the death penalty. After defendant Warren McCleskey was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of white officer Frank Shlatt, his attorneys relied on a comprehensive study by Professor David Baldus, which analyzed potential racial disparities with respect to the death penalty in the state of Georgia. What the study found is that when a victim is white, a defendant is 4.3 times more likely to be sentenced to death than if the victim was another race. McCleskey argued that such disparities ran afoul of the 8th Amendment and 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause. The court’s ruling was a major setback for civil rights. Watch to find out why.
Resources:
Oral Argument
Baldus Report
McCleskey Family Interview
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–Palooke–
