Michael Radelet’s study in 1981 is an example of ecological fallacy but, more importantly, exposed the racial disparity that existed in the process of ensuring criminal justice in the US.
Radelet collected data from 20 counties of Florida indictments of murders that occurred in 1976 and 1977. His research team have identified 788 homicide cases, and after cleanup of incomplete information, 637 remained for further investigation.
Ecology
Let us start with the overall results: the race composition of the death penalty is 5.1% (17 death penalties out of a total of 335 defendants) for blacks and 7.3% (22 out of 302). There is nothing much in it, or if you are right-leaning with a bit of vested interest, you might even say the judges are more likely to hand death penalties to the whites!
The details
Now, what happens to justice if the victims were white? If the person died in the case was white, there is a 16.7% chance for the black defendants to get a death sentence vs 7.7% for a white. On the other hand, if the person murdered was back, the percentages are 2.2 for blacks and 0 for whites. Black lives were priced lower, and whites seemed to have some birth rights to take out some of it!
The complete dataset is below; you may do the math yourself.
| # Cases | First degree indictments | Sentenced to Death | |
| Non-Primary White victim | |||
| Black defendant | 63 | 58 | 11 |
| White defendant | 151 | 124 | 19 |
| Non-Primary Black victim | |||
| Black defendant | 103 | 56 | 6 |
| White defendant | 9 | 4 | 0 |
| Primary White victim | |||
| Black defendant | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| White defendant | 134 | 73 | 3 |
| Primary Black victim | |||
| Black defendant | 166 | 51 | 0 |
| White defendant | 8 | 4 | 0 |
| Total | 637 | 371 | 39 |
Radelet, M.L.; Racial Characteristics and the Imposition of the Death Penalty, American Sociological Review, 1981, 46 (6), 918-927
